Created for glory

We are created for glory, but NOT for our own glory, but God's glory.

I have taught my teens for years that we are not the lies that others throw at us. That we are created in God's image. That we are 

Chosen

Adopted

Redeemed

Forgiven

Loved

Blessed

marked with a seal

have an eternal home

Have the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:3-14)

Yet, when I read the words in a book recently that I was created for God's glory, I balked. 

Why? Probably because when we look at ourselves we see our failures, our mistakes, and often feel unworthy But, when God looks at us, He sees that we are made in His image, He sees why He created us, and what He created us for. 

So, the author of the book said:

"Whisper this truth to yourself until some segment of your soul believes it: I was created for glory."

If you, like me, struggle to believe this we can study a few verses together:

You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor. Psalm 8:5

Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west. I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’ and to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth— everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made. Isaiah 43:5-7 

 encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory. 1 Thessalonians 2:12

If this is not enough to convince you I am going to share a few more things that Dr. Timothy Paul Jones shared in his book Hullabaloo: Discovery Glory in Everyday Life (a book I am still reading, it is so GOOD):

You long for glory because you were formed for glory.

You were created for glory.

What's more, you weren't created to only experience glory in the ephemeral glimmers that pierce your ordinary existence for a brief moment. You weren't even created to postpone your experiences of glory until some point in the future-perhaps on the far side of your funeral service or showtime after Jesus' return. You were created to live every moment in glory, here and now.

You, with all the haunting failures that bind to you to our past by casting dark shadows across our present...you were created to live in glory. You, with all of our doubts about yourself and-in those moments you would rather not admit-about your God...you were create to live in glory. You, who sleep with your harshest critic on the nights when you sleep alone...you were create to live every moment of your life in glory. "Christians," Eugene Peterson mused, "don't have to wait until after [their] funerals to get in on the glory. As St. Teresa, one of our most irreverent and audacious saints, used to say, 'The pay starts in this life.'"

And what is the "pay" that starts in this life? What happens when you embrace the full availability of God in every present moment? What is the result of learning to live in glory? The payoff is peace, harmony, contentment-satisfaction of all the soul cravings that seem so unattainable amid the hullabaloo of your daily life. 

I don't know about you but I long for peace, harmony, and contentment. I want to bring glory to God's name, not my own. I first need to accept that I was created for God's glory and then do my best to live in His glory, bringing glory to His name. 

I was created for glory and so were you.