02/15/2019
On the day when victory has first been won, and we are just now saved and kneeling at the altar before Jesus, it is easy to sing of Him and give Him the glory He deserves. With our salvation just now secured, and the emotion of the moment fresh in our hearts we nearly burst with joy and long to carry Him on our shoulders, and in our hearts. But eternity is a long time and our emotion is known to fade, so how well will we glorify Him as we walk into the foreverness? Will the newness wear off, and the glory surrounding Him grow dim?
“But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.”
2 Peter 3:18 ESV
One of the greatest fears in my faith is that I will not be able to love Jesus enough, and that as I praise Him and sing of his virtues, that my ability to express and give Him glory will not be sufficient. Do you ever worry about that? Do you wake up from a nightmare sweating after Satan has dealt you a blow in your sleep... having shown you your frailty, or your shortcomings and casting doubt on your worthiness and ability to serve the Lord well enough... to praise Him and give Him the glory He deserves throughout eternity?
C.S. Lewis expresses our need to praise in this way...
“I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed.” - C.S. Lewis
I am older now and have been married for nearly 43 years. I remember the first moment I saw my wife and how I was nearly overcome by her. Certainly I though that she was physically beautiful, but it was more than that; I loved what radiated from within her and cast what she was outwardly in a more complete light. I knew then that I loved her inside and out.NBut, had you asked me then if I could ever love someone my grandmother’s age like I loved this woman before me, I would have emphatically told you “NO!” All I could see was this young woman and the essence of her youth as it radiated from her... she was my heart’s desire, and the most beautiful thing in the world to me.
Now, after 43 years, I see her, and despite the years, and the faded youth, I love her more today than I ever thought possible back then. The young man I once was could never have understood this. Yet, here I am looking at her as she sits in the chair next to me with the soft lamplight on her face and I see the spirit that is inside her as it softens her face, and reveals to me the woman I only thought I saw so long ago. Then I say in poetry, prose, and thought, how beautiful she is, and how much I love her... and the delight is complete... at least for today. I can only wonder at what I will see in her tomorrow.
This is how we are in Christ; our faith is in the present, and we praise Him and glorify him in the way we experience Him right now. There is no way for us to know how we will love and praise Him tomorrow... we have no way of knowing who we will be tomorrow, nor how the lamplight will change our perspective as we look at Him in the glory of that new light.
“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. "The Lord is my portion," says my soul, "therefore I will hope in him."”
Lamentations 3:22-24 ESV
So Satan be gone! Leave me be in the night, and get thee behind me, because I praise and glorify my Lord right now in this moment, and I know that I will see Him in a newness of light and glory with every glance I have of Him throughout all eternity. Now I am but a young man in Christ, and I can only see and understand Jesus as a young man does, but tomorrow I will see Him in the newness of morning, and love him, know Him, praise Him, and glorify Him, in the morning light of a fresh new day. I will see Him with ancient eyes that have learned how to see love in its increased completeness... and greater glory.
If you wake up in tonight sweating because Satan has tempted you by challenging your perceived ability to love, praise, and glorify God and Jesus Christ for an eternity... do not fall into that trap! You will love them more tomorrow than you ever imagined, and the completeness of your praise, and the glory you lavish upon them, will know no end.
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for every new day in faith, and I thank you for the completeness that comes as we age in our perception of you, and Jesus Christ. My joy is new in you each day Father, and it comes to me in ways I never dreamed possible. Yesterday could not have known what today has brought me in you, and likewise I can only dream of what tomorrow will hold for me as I experience you in its freshness... with the new perspective it brings. Help me Father to experience my faith in increased joy, and to praise and glorify you more deeply with each coming dawn. Give me the wisdom to understand that there is no end to you, and that as you continue to reveal yourself, I will find myself completed all the more, and praising and glorifying you in my new understanding. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you my God, and greater yet are you with each passing day, and moment of eternity. All glory belongs to you, and my love for you is without end as I lift you up in my expression of love for you... and by this you complete my delight.
“saying, "Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen."”
Revelation 7:12 ESV
Rich Forbes