All Glory to God

I have been feeling like my devotion titled ‘Seek the Lord’ is incomplete. Like something about it is… not wrong… but missing… like I had not completely understood what God was trying to teach me at that time. God recently showed me what was missing though and I must give all glory to Him! I believe He needed to teach me some other things first - things that enabled me to better understand the bigger picture of what He was trying to teach me. God graciously chose to wait and teach me the full truth when I was ready. Praise the Lord for so patiently and beautifully teaching us about Himself and how to live and to relate to Him in a way that is pleasing to Him! I pray that you, too, will praise God for His work in your life as I share what the Lord has shared with me:

One recent Saturday, I was preparing for a Bible study that I lead and the topic was how God guides us through life/trials and how we need to let Him steer us. For some reason though, I was having trouble finding a way to extrapolate on this topic.

However, the Lord suddenly reminded me of some devotions from this blog that I had printed a long time ago and managed to hang on to (I’m a very messy person, so hanging on to things doesn’t come easy!). I hurried to get them. As I glanced over them, the Holy Spirit caused the phrase ‘whenever I sang about God and to God’ to catch my eye. About God and to God. It was from my post titled ‘Sunshine in My Soul’ (Jan. 25, 2021) which is about a time when a friend suggested I sing a praise song or hymn to help mitigate my tics (for those who don’t know, I have Tourette Syndrome).

However, as I thought about the excerpt from this post that God had brought to my attention, I realized that I had made things too much about me and not enough about God. My efforts to improve my relationship with God, live in a godly way, do the work God wants me to do, manage my Tourette’s, etc. quickly became focused on the tools God gives me to do these things or the success or failure of my efforts rather than the ONE behind it all. It became habitual instead of relational. He wants me to sing about HIM and to HIM. He wants my life to be about HIM and He wants me to look to HIM always. Even more than He wants ME to feel relaxed and peaceful in His presence, He wants me to enjoy HIS presence. It’s all about Him!

Even more recently, God took this truth a step further. I was listening to a local church’s choir singing a piece that I had written and I was really trying to focus on worshipping the Lord as I listened. After a while, the Lord caused these lyrics to stand out to me: for all nations will bow down to the Lamb on the Throne. In that moment, the Lord touched my heart with the truth that, one day(when Jesus returns), all my trials, all my fears, all the attacks from the enemy - all the things in my life caused by the enemy - will bow before God’s throne and will be no more! I almost cried.

Whether we are surrendering the past to God, trusting Him to grow us in the present, or trusting His justice that will be manifested at Jesus’ return, it’s all about HIM! In fact, at the beginning of my quiet time each morning, I have been praying: “Lord, I surrender everything to You. I pray that You will fill me with Your Holy Spirit and that You will quiet my spirit and allow me to be still and know that You are God.” This is an especially good reminder on days when my flesh doesn’t want to surrender. When we are surrendered, our spirits are quiet and our focus is where it should be - on HIM! All glory to God! “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.” Ephesians 3:1 NIV