Sometimes a Christian song comes along and as I listen, the lyrics touch my soul in a profound way.
Such was the case with Matthew West’s song, My Story, Your Glory. With most Christian songs and the great many hymns of the past that I love, it typically takes listening to them a couple times before I warm to their message. With this one, however, the words pierced the clutter in my mind and touched my heart the very first time I heard them.
Here are the words to the chorus:
My story, Your glory
My pain, Your purpose
My mess, Your message
In all things, I know You're workin'
One life, one mission
One reason why I'm livin'
All for You, not for me
My story, Your glory
The words to both the verses and chorus sum up much of my life. Lots of pain and messy circumstances in my past, yet the Lord has mercifully weaved all of it into my current service for Him. In fact, it’s nothing short of a miracle that I’m retired today with two books published and a third under contract.
Thirty years ago, such an outcome seemed utterly impossible; I lived paycheck to paycheck and more often than not, that wasn’t enough to pay the bills, not even close. When I look back, I’m still amazed that my life turned out the way that it did, and I lived it! It wasn’t because of me or wise investing decisions; that’s for sure!
Only the Lord could have so drastically changed my circumstances. He deserves all the credit for everything.
God has woven together all the experiences of my past, even the painful and bitter ones, to bring me to my current writing ministry. The positive ones include my seminary education, my year with the Lockman Foundation spending eight hours a day in the Hebrew text of the Old Testament (while I impatiently waited for a church to call me as its pastor), my six years as a pastor, and my thirty-seven years of writing adult Sunday school lessons for David C. Cook Publishing Company.
I frequently thank the Lord for the many storms of my past, but I most definitely wouldn’t want to relive any of them, not a one. Brokenness is never fun, but the Lord is able to use it in amazing ways: that’s my story and the reason why the Lord deserves all the glory.
I can’t conclude without mentioning that the best is yet to come for us who know Jesus as our Savior!
Colossians 3:4 says,
“When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”
This verse encapsulates our joyous hope, the time when Jesus takes us home to Heaven. Notice that when He “appears,” we “appear with him in glory.” That is most certainly not a place on earth! Glory is Heaven; our destination when Jesus appears.
What an amazing day that will be! I pray it happens very soon.
The Lord has an eternal purpose for all that He allows to come into our lives. We know that an eternal glory awaits all those that come to Jesus in saving faith.
It’s then we will fully understand the reasons for the paths He led us down in this life and know that our story was all about God’s glory both now and in eternity.
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