ISAIAH 48:9-11 – “For my name’s sake I defer my anger; for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you, that I may not cut you off. Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another.”
THEME OF THE DAY. NOTHING IN LIFE IS ABOUT US. I must confess there are still way too many times that the theme of today’s nugget gets lost in my thinking. I fall into that mode of wanting to be served instead of serving and I think it is all about me. I know I am not alone. Selfishness and self-centeredness are sins still within us and ready to stand up at a moment’s notice and say, “It’s all about us.” No, fellow warrior of the Christ, it isn’t. Our Bibles don’t start out with Genesis 1:1 reading, “In the beginning man.” As we know, it starts out, “In the beginning God.” There is nothing in life that is to be man-centered or me-centered. All of life is to be viewed and lived God-centered. Selfishness and self-centeredness are sins and of the devil. And building from today’s scripture, we need to consider a couple of things about the Christian life reminding us nothing is about us.
First, count how many times the Lord mentions that what He is doing in the lives of His people, His painful refining work in them, is for His sake. Four times and the emphasis in the latter verse is repeated so we really get this . . . “for my sake, for my sake, I do it.” Friends, God is not our servant; our “genie in the bottle”, or our “spiritual vending machine” where we put our petition into the “divine slot” and wait for the result. Nor is He a God we ignore but when in a jam cry for help like we see in buildings, “Break glass in case of emergency”. I know this is a little “in our face” but it is also in my face. We must understand first and foremost life is about God. All of it. He doesn’t exist for us to be a part of our lives nor to even direct our lives according to our wills and desires. He is the sovereign God who is worthy for us to give all of our lives from our desires to our relationships to our material things to Him for His purposes and name’s sake. Life is really all about Him and not a speck about us.
Next, to ensure we really do get lesson one that life isn’t about us, but God, there is a place called “The Refiner’s Furnace” to which the Lord will take ALL OF HIS children. Yes, all. No child of God will miss the rod of correction, the purifying heat of suffering, and the self-killing pain of the cross in their lives. There will be no easy discipleship, no tear-less service, and no pain-free spiritual growth. These are His ways and they are good.
God is committed to us not because of us, but because of Himself. His investment in making us like Jesus is for His glory. And that is always beneficial for us. Sure the heat of the Divine Furnace is hot, but the work from it will be pure gold of our faith tried and ready to be presented unto the praise of His Glory someday soon.
PRAYER: “Father, forgive me when I am so consumed with me that I even treat You as my servant by the way I pray.”
QUOTE: “There is nothing in life to be me-centered. Selfishness and self-centeredness are of the devil, not God.”