Crowned with Glory

²⁸ And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. ²⁹ For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. ³⁰ And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified (Romans 8:28-30).

This is a new truth that God has been revealing to me over the last few months or so. Let me just say how beautiful it is that God reveals new truths to us throughout all sorts of areas of our lives. I started learning of His delight in me last October, and this theme has been recurring in my life over and over, like a musical motif He is singing over and over until I begin to fully recognize it and learn to sing it myself. This song above has been a favorite of mine for about two months for just how beautiful the music is, and just now I’m understanding the truth behind it that God was trying to get me to realize.

This new truth for me, which I have had such a hard time believing is that God wants to glorify me. I grapple with this because that statement sounds conceited for me to say without having to qualify it, but it’s the truth—Jesus, in His abundant love, wants to glorify me, and He wants to glorify you.

I lack faith in this because I believe I’m not worthy to be glorified. How could You, Lord, glorify me since I am so low? This mindset that I am not worthy to be glorified is rooted in a belief that God is not worthy enough to glorify me. Because if I am so self-deprecating as to believe that God should not glorify me, serve me, or be proud of me is to believe that I am too lowly for God to lift up. This mindset is a kind of false humility, and instead of taking the focus off of me as humility should, it actually puts the focus back on me by placing so much significance on my unworthiness rather than on His worthiness. Since He is the Most Glorified, of course He in His infinite power and love can lift up the most lowly.

So help me have faith in this Lord, and help us all have faith in this. Let the realization of this truth spur us to adoration, like in this Psalm. As an aside, even now as I write this, I think it’s funny that I happen to be listening to a different song called “Majestic” by Jon Thurlow, which I can tell is inspired by this Psalm. Even now God is singing that recurring motif to me, ministering to me, and giving me faith in His love and glory.

¹ Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have set your glory
in the heavens.
² Through the praise of children and infants
you have established a stronghold against your enemies,
to silence the foe and the avenger.
³ When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
⁴ what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
human beings that you care for them?
⁵ You have made them a little lower than the angels
and crowned them with glory and honor.

⁶ You made them rulers over the works of your hands;
you put everything under their feet:
⁷ all flocks and herds,
and the animals of the wild,
⁸ the birds in the sky,
and the fish in the sea,
all that swim the paths of the seas.

⁹ Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth (Psalm 8)!