GLORIFY G_D, ENJOY HIS PRESENCE FOREVER…
A long 36-year path for me has led to a single conclusion: The only reasonable way for me to live my life is to utterly surrender all that I have and am to Him for His purpose.
The old catechisms had it right: “The chief end of man is to glorify God, and enjoy His presence forever.” I must minimize. He must maximize. From these tenets flow all purpose, meaning, relationship, power, satisfaction, and progress.
It is a humbling event to remove ourselves from “the center of the Universe,” but the practical results in life are simply astounding
- Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up. James 4:7-10
In surrender to G_d (this Wonderful, Loving and Gracious Being), we are complete. His ways are free from fear, anxiety, and worry. We have the availability of complete freedom from the bondage to addiction, sin, and death. We have only to trade in OUR own sense of what makes us happy, or completes us in our own way. But, in submitting ourselves totally to Him, we find absolute confidence for the short, mid, long-term and infinite future.
And ONLY in submitting to Him as G_d (glorifying Him) do we have the power to do what He really wants us to do. His glory is like an over-pressuring wave that pervades our being – it enables us to live as intended.
We almost “get” the idea of submitting to G_d for His glory, but the second part is less intuitive. In fully submitting to G_d, we allow Him total access to our being. I say this most respectfully; our submission is to be like a bride giving herself fully to her groom. And when we open up this way, something wonderful happens: We find that He is a rapturously miraculous lover to us. Bluntly, it is breathtakingly enjoyable to experience the presence of G_d within our inner man. He presents Himself to us as a dear Friend, in Whose company is simply the fullness of joy!
Luke 10:25-28 says that the entire Torah (G_d’s law for living) is summed up in two statements:
- And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him (Jesus), saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He (Jesus) said to him (the lawyer), “What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?” So he answered and said, “‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND,’ and ‘YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.'” And He said to him, “You have answered rightly; do this and you will live.”
