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God’s Glory, or your relief?

The little book Red Sea Rules offers great advice for anyone wrestling with hardship and hoping to be found in the will of God. Red Sea Rule #2 says, “Be more concerned with God’s glory than with your relief.” What do most of us do when we go through a hard time? Our first reaction is usually to say, “Oh, God —get me out of this!” We don’t like hardship, don’t want it and would not sign up for it if it were an elective. But it almost never is. Pastor Charles Stanley says:

None of us would raise our hands and volunteer to experience disappointment or sorrow. However, God does His greatest work in the hard times. This is when we need to remember that whatever drives us to God is always good for us. If life is running really well, we may not think seriously about how God views us. But if we are confronted with a deep disappointment or a resounding sorrow, we will respond by crying out to Him. When we do, a wondrous thing happens: He turns in our direction—opens His arms and draws us close. ¹

The key to getting through any struggle, opposition or difficulty is to surrender to the process and seek God’s glory above all. Don’t get me wrong: we can pray for deliverance. Jesus did. But if God chooses instead for us to remain in the tough place, it is actually possible for us to choose personal sacrifice for His glory. (Jesus did that too.)

Be more concerned with God’s glory than with your own relief. The world says to strugglers, “You don’t have to put up with that. Just quit. Make it easy on yourself.” But in God’s great story, much more is at stake than our personal ease and comfort: His glory is at stake. “Count it all joy,” says James, “when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness”. And then, “Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial; because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him”.

Note
1. Charles Stanley, Landmines in the Path of the Believer (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2007), p. 39.