God is committed to your splendor
Thursday, March 25, 2010 at 12:00PM What if God couldn't keep quiet about you? Eager to show you off -- to expose not your sin; but your splendor and goodness?
Your glory is God's mission. Listen to what he says:
1 For Zion's sake I will not keep silent,
for Jerusalem's sake I will not remain quiet,
till her righteousness shines out like the dawn,
her salvation like a blazing torch.
2 The nations will see your righteousness,
and all kings your glory;
you will be called by a new name
that the mouth of the LORD will bestow.
3 You will be a crown of splendor in the LORD's hand,
a royal diadem in the hand of your God.
4 No longer will they call you Deserted,
or name your land Desolate.
But you will be called Hephzibah, [my delight is in her]
and your land Beulah [married] ;
for the LORD will take delight in you,
and your land will be married.
5 As a young man marries a maiden,
so will your sons marry you;
as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride,
so will your God rejoice over you.
Isaiah 62:1-5
Let him do this. It's quite possibly backwards from what you've been taught your whole life. Give him permission to show you off.
Reader Comments (4)
Hey Jim!
Okay, again, I love this! I find myself agreeing with your entries so much...that must be scary (for you) ha ha ha...just kidding! :0)
I love this scripture. it's one of my favorites and I hardly know where to begin. As you know, this entry is going to be very hard for many people to incorporate not only because it is in opposition to what we are all told to do in the world and in churches. But, as you know, it is when we most shine that we most come under attack from others. They mistakenly believe if we shine and are just living in who we genuinely are that it's a threat of some kind and that we are exhalting ourselves above others because of their particular insecurities. Asking God to show us off is such a dangerous thing to do! And I'm totally into it!
I'm gonna try this, Jim. But if something bad happens, I'm sooooo blaming you! ha ha Just kidding!
Thanks,
Meredith :0)
Hey Meredith -- I really think that not only does God want us to be glorious, but that he needs us to be glorious -- because through our unique splendor, we're actually bringing restoration to the world.
We are little incarnations -- why wouldn't we shimmer?
Jim, I absolutely loved this post! I can just see our proud Daddy showing off his sons and his daughters. I can really relate to that.
Religion has told us that God will expose our sins if we don't straighten up and the result is fear. How can we love a God who we can't trust? Understanding that he won't expose our sins because in Christ, they're already dealt with is very freeing but to understand that his deepest desire is to display our splendor is mind boggling.
Hi Aida! You're so right. And the only way for him to display our splendor was to get the sin issue out of the way, so that we could share (literally) his heart and splendor.