It’s all about Glory - David Mitts

"For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal."  2Co 4:17-18

Click here to listen to "It's all about Glory"

Often it is difficult to live a godly life because we aren’t totally sure of what that means.  As we align our inner conversation of our heart, the voice of freedom isn’t just leading us out of the bondage of iniquity and sin, but into a destiny that is chosen for us from before the foundation of the world.  Many people struggle with the idea that we have a destiny and a purpose.  I believe that it is impossible to truly live a life of faith without some idea of our destiny.  

Vision, destiny gives us a framework to make decisions and set goals for our lives.  We can’t just live for the breakout; we need also to live for the breakthrough!  I like to think of our relationship with God, and His voice, through the metaphor of the GPS system we use to navigate in our cars. In order for the GPS to assist us, it needs an accurate destination.  We can make all kinds of mistakes, wrong turns and even head away from the destination, but as long as the destination is correct, the GPS will recalculate the best route based on where we are going and adjust to where we are.  It also knows where the road congestion is and will adjust accordingly.  

In our relationship with God, He also gives us the free will to choose what steps we take and even the freedom to go away from His path entirely.  Yet, He does have a destination for us and the main difference between us and the GPS system is that we can also choose not to follow our destiny.  This is called being a child of disobedience:

"And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest."  Eph 2:1-3

Trespasses are territorial.  When we trespass, we cross a covenant boundary.  This brings death to us.  In order for there to be the possibility of trespassing, there has to have been already the presence of Godly boundaries, or in terms of what we are now speaking about, a destiny for our lives.  The point is, that we can become children of disobedience which is marked by the lust of the flesh and lust in our mind.  This brings us into what is called being a child of wrath.

Now, I know many people think this is God’s wrath.  But I disagree.  I think it is our own wrath or perhaps even a generational wrath. Look at the next verse to see why I think this:

"But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus."  Eph 2:4-7

You see the wrath isn’t God’s wrath. He is merciful. No! It is our own wrath as we are angry with what we perceive as God’s failure in our story and our own inner thought life that sets itself up as god, thinking we have to save ourselves.  In this way, we are truly our own judges.

We can even make the course setting out of wrath and lust and still, God’s love is greater!  This is the power of being His child. He has a destiny for us that exceeds our own stubbornness and rebellion.

Our destiny is what He calls choosing.  

14“For many are called, but few are chosen.” (Mt 22:14 (NASB))

When we choose the choosing, He has for us, we come into the glory of the choosing. In sports glory goes to the victor. In the Kingdom, the Glory goes to the children of God. 

Look with me at Romans 2 and see how this plays out:

1Therefore you have no excuse, every one of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things. 2And we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things. 3But do you suppose this, O man, when you pass judgment on those who practice such things and do the same yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God? (Ro 2:1-3 (NASB))

What limits our destiny, our glory is our judgments and the reality they define for us, the boundaries of our hearts.  Our judgments of others are really our own self-judgments.  This places us in the position of God, who alone can judge. This in turns causes us to reap the very judgments that we place on others. Let’s read on:

4Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? (Ro 2:4 (NASB))

God doesn’t draw us to Himself with the fear of with wrath or even the fear of judgment! No! He draws us with His goodness and kindness.  He is good and repentance is an alignment with His goodness.  We don’t just repent by turning to God and asking forgiveness. That is certainly a good step. True complete repentance however is really an alignment or a heart agreement with goodness of God which then becomes our goodness in our heart and mind.

Let’s continue:

5But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, 6who WILL RENDER TO EACH PERSON ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS: 7to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life; (Ro 2:5-7 (NASB))

It is our stubbornness and unwillingness to trust in God’s love and goodness that places us in jeopardy of wrath.   God’s destiny for us though is for glory, honor, immortality and eternal life. 

What is glory and what does it mean to produce an eternal weight of glory?

The Hebrew word for glory is “kavod”.  Kavod means weight.  The more glory something or someone has the more weight they carry in terms of power and impact.  When you think of an argument or a discussion, there are expert testimonies that have more weight or more glory.  

When we hear something that is serious, that requires us to take action, we call that information, “heavy”. Or, if we are taking on much responsibility, we call that a heavy burden. Heaviness is a way of saying something is important.

So, when we say that someone or something has glory, we are saying it carries importance or requires a lot of us.

In this sense, being married has much glory. It is a weighty endeavor. 

Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body. But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself;(Eph 5:22-28 NASB)

The challenge with terms such as “be subject to” is that it sounds like obedience like a slave.  Yet that is only our interpretation of what Paul meant and our aversion to slavery which is natural.  Some have used this to objectify women as property of their husbands. Yet if that is the case then the church is really just a slave of Christ.  Now some people might even think that is true but slaves have no will of their own and are actually only valuable for the works they do. Slaves are beasts of burden in human form.  

God values choice above all else. If He wanted us to be slaves, He would have required us to be obedient by design. This would then be called lust.  God would be called lust instead of love.  Lust is all about control.  When we say God is in control, we accuse Him of lust.

God is love. Love requires choice. That is the beauty of love. Jesus chose to die for His love of us. We choose to receive that invitation to also die to our self-centered life and enter by choice, into covenant. 

When wives submit to their husbands, it is an act of love, not lust and control. This is the place where the glory of love materializes.

In the same way, when we surrender to our destiny, we make possible the glory of God being made manifest in and through our lives.  The goal of a covenant is not the covenant.  The goal of a marriage is not the marriage.  The goal, purpose or destiny is what God has brought us together for. Every marriage has a story, a destiny a unique inheritance as does every individual.  Yet individuals cannot and will not posses their destiny alone.  Other people will always be involved in the story. Let’s return to our source scripture.

"For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal."  2Co 4:17-18

Glory is the word for weight or authority. As we work through our struggles, the light afflictions, we learn to rely more and more on the voice of God.  Our inner conversation of the heart becomes increasingly congruent or one with God. This process builds in us more of eternity’s glory.  In this place the unseen is opened to us as possibilities.

Activation:  Ask the Lord, where is my glory, my authority in You needing more development?