Merciful Monday: I NEED Your Glory

Have you ever just felt down, to the point where no encouraging word raised your spirits, no funny joke made you crack a smile, no prayer lifted your heart? You were having a rough day/week/month and you just didn’t know how to get out of that rut?

In Psalms 102, which is titled “a prayer of one overwhelmed with trouble, pouring out problems before the Lord,” David seemed to be having one of those days. David felt so fatigued, tearful and saddened by the threat of his enemies that he was physically getting sick. He had no appetite and no desire for food. He seemed to be in a depression that he couldn’t get out of.

But as we continued to read, his whole attitude changed. David shifted his focus on God, saying:

“But you, O Lord, will sit on your throne forever.

    Your fame will endure to every generation.

¹³ You will arise and have mercy on Jerusalem^[a]—

    and now is the time to pity her,

    now is the time you promised to help.

¹⁴ For your people love every stone in her walls

    and cherish even the dust in her streets.

¹⁵ Then the nations will tremble before the Lord.

    The kings of the earth will tremble before his glory.

¹⁶ For the Lord will rebuild Jerusalem.

    He will appear in his glory. (Psalms 102:12-16)

This reading is just another reminder that no matter what we go through, there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and that light is God’s glory. When we focus on glorifying God rather than glorifying our problems, we can overcome. When we magnify the problem solver ABOVE the problem, only then can we be healed!

You may be thinking, what am I referring to when I say “God’s glory”? I’m talking about the splendor and beatific happiness of heaven which comes from worshipful praise, exaltation, honor, and thanksgiving to our creator.

God’s glory isn’t so easy to come by, it takes work and effort. It takes making a conscious effort to not be negative; ignoring what humanity calls “reality” and depending on the supernatural. It takes persistence and focus. Prayer takes focus! (Sometimes I zone out and I don’t realize until minutes later!) It takes patience. You can’t reach the highest point of a mountain in minutes. It can take up to 7 days to climb Mount Everest, depending on the weather, so similarly, we have to be patient, seeking after God with frequency and with vigor in order to reach His glory at its immense height.

Sometimes we can taste a little bit of God’s glory here on earth. Maybe you’ve felt a wave of his presence while praising him or a mighty rush of his holy spirit. But Revelation accurately describes God’s glory (Heaven!) as a place where God guides us as a Shepherd and gives us shelter, where we are never again hungry or thirsty, where we can never be scorched by the heat of the sun, where we cry no more and where we drink from the springs of everlasting life (Revelation 7:15-17). 

Whenever you are going through a rough time, you have to remember that God’s glory can see you through. You can seek him and ask that he endow you with a foretaste of his glory here on earth; but ultimately, if we live right, will see all of God’s Glory in Heaven, a place where we will never have to worry about the cares of this world again.

I love how verse 17 says, “And God will wipe every tear from their eyes.” Once you meet him in His glory, God will wipe (erase) every tear that has EVER dropped from your eyes and you will be made new. God’s glory is the ultimate calm, comfort and relief. “For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies” and when our bodies die, all of our worries, sorrows and fears will also die (1 Corinthians 15:2).

Merciful Mondays: Jael

^“For the Lord your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon you or destroy you or forget the solemn covenant he made with your ancestors.” Deuteronomy 4:31