There are so many qualities of God and so many things to learn about Him, and there are few things I love more than when when God teaches me things about himself. The more I know about God, the more I love Him. Lately I’ve been fascinated by the aspect of God being a storyteller. As a writer myself, I have recently been blown away by the perfection of God’s story that he has orchestrated through history. It’s made me fall in love with the Old Testament and this amazing story of redemption that God has written from creation to the fall to the cross to the present age as he is making all the sad things come untrue.

I could write about so many things that I have loved about God’s storytelling, but there has been one thing that has stuck out to me that I honestly can’t really wrap my mind around but it has made me so in awe of God that I just want to attempt to write about it.

I often go back and forth between focusing on God’s love for us as his children and God wanting praise and glory for His name. When I focus solely on God’s love, I sometimes get too wrapped up in my own relationship with Him that I forget about the bigger picture of our mission and declaring God’s glory among the nations and spreading his name. It makes me selfish as I begin to think that God is here to make me happy or I start worrying about my own struggles and sins and eventually my failures as a Christian (see my last post for more on that).

But when I focus all my attention on God’s glory, I forget about his love for me. I forget the truth of the gospel, and it leads to me feeling a lack of love, completeness, and joy. I begin searching for love and satisfaction in other areas and I eventually stop desiring God’s glory to be declared among the nations because I once again become selfish in trying to satisfy my own desires.

This isn’t how God intended me or any of us to live. And this is what has been blowing my mind: God’s story has everything to do with Him, but because of that, it has everything to do with us. God’s glory and our joy are supposed to coexist. Because everything in this world is supposed to point to God and give Him all glory, we get to experience full joy. The meaning and purpose of our life to to bring God glory and praise his name, but this purpose is ultimately what brings us the most joy in our lives.

It seems like such a simple concept when you have heard that before like I had, but I have recently just been amazed at the way God has written such a beautiful story and come up with such a perfect design.

I could talk about this concept for days, but I just want to describe a couple ways that I see this idea play out in in hopes that this will cause worship in you as it has for me.

1. Our sanctification. Ezekiel 36:22-27. “…It is not for your sake, that I am about to act, but for My holy name, which you have profaned among the nations…the nations will know that I am the Lord when I prove myself holy among you in their sight. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from your filthiness…I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you…” We are transformed to be like Christ, to be the image of God and therefore glorify God by reflecting his image on earth. God sanctifies us and makes us holy so that others will see Him through us and bring Him more praise and glory. We get the benefit of being made holy and into the likeness of perfect Jesus which is what every believer desires. His glory, Our Joy

2. Our worship. Over and over again in the scriptures God calls us to worship His name and Praise Him. Every person was created by God to worship. When sin entered the world, we began turning to all sorts of things to worship and made idols of creation. But God, the Creator, is the highest being and the only being worthy of our worship. Our joy is made complete when we are worshipping and glorifying God. I’ve experienced it and know it to be true. Our praise is to bring Him glory, but we get full joy. So when God is demanding our worship, He is demanding our joy. His Glory, Our Joy.