Enjoying God
Pastor Dave Monreal, Lead Pastor
I sat in my English class at college ready for another day of 18th century English poetry. The professor, Dr. Kay Lugwigson, always began class with devotional thoughts and prayer. The quote for that day was taken from the Westminster Shorter Catechism. The Catechism was set up in a question and answer format. The first question asks: “What is the chief end of man?” “Answer: The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.”
The more I thought about what it was saying the more profound I realized this statement is. We were created to glorify God. We hear that so much we don’t think too much about what that means. God is perfect in His glory. Surely our good works don’t add to His glory. It isn’t like God’s glory is a substance that we can add to by our good deeds. What then does it mean to glorify God?
We glorify God not by adding to His glory but by making His glory known. The world was created to express God’s glory. In fact, we still can see glimpses of God’s glory in His creation. Psalm 19:1 says, “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork.” We were created to manifest God’s glory. In fact, the Bible tells us that “…all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). God created us to make His glory known by how we live, and we fall short of living up to this responsibility. Through our relationship with Christ, we now have the ability to glorify God.
The answer in the catechism goes further by saying that we were created to enjoy God forever! Think about it. God created us to enjoy Him. God didn’t create us just to be workers for Him, He created us in order to have a relationship with Him. One author refers to this as the “Sacred Romance.” God wants us to be so in love with Him that we desire God above all else. We worship God, read His Word, and pray so our hearts will be in deeper communion with the Living God. Our service comes from the overflow of this love relationship.
One author, John Piper, summed it up like this, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.” The service that we render to God should be the consequence of our love for Him. Often, we find ourselves serving out of a sense or duty and responsibility rather than out of love. God wants us to love Him above all else.
How can we do this? We must first cultivate our love relationship with God. Serving out of duty will cause us to become tired and weary. Nehemiah 8:10 reminds us that “the joy of the LORD is your strength.” When we find our satisfaction and joy in God, He enables us to serve him. It is our responsibility to wait upon the Lord and He will renew our strength. (Isaiah 40:31) Read His word as a love letter to you and allow your thoughts to be drawn up in worship.