What Does God Want To Do In You Or Through You?

What Does God Want To Do In You Or Through You?

If we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering. Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will give us later. –Romans 8:17-18

One afternoon Anne Graham Lotz and I were having lunch in a hotel, and she was telling me the story of how she came home one day to find all of the doors of her house flung open and everything valuable in the house gone. Anne’s mother and grandmother had marked special occasions in her life with pieces of jewelry, and it was all gone. Her children’s silver baby cups and spoons—gone. That night, as she replaced the pillowcase that had been taken by the thieves to haul away so many things that were precious to her, and as she wiped away tears, she asked God, “What is it you want to do in me or through me that would have to cost me this much?”

And then she looked at me and said, “I look at what you have lost, and I wonder, What is it that God wants to do in you or through you that would possibly have to cost you this much?”

In the months to come, her words echoed in my mind and framed my loss with meaning—a meaning I wanted to embrace and fulfill. Early on I had told God that I did not want the pain of loving and losing Hope to be wasted in my life, and that desire had not diminished but grown. I realized that the only thing that could balance out such significant suffering is substantial glory. The only thing that could make my loss and your loss bearable is for it to result in greater glory to God. Because God’s glory is the only thing that really matters; it is the only thing that really lasts.

Have you come to the place where you believe the glory of God is worth what it has cost you or may cost you in the future? Have you embraced the foundational truth that your life is not about you and your pain, but that you exist to display and enjoy the glory of God? All of history and every aspect of your life have been designed by God to display his greatness and his beauty. And so I pass along this question for you to ponder, this endeavor for you to embrace: What is it that God wants to do in you or through you that would have to cost you this much? Whatever it is, I assure you it will be glorious.

Glorious God, how I want to reflect your glory and make it shine brighter to the world around me even now in the midst of my loss. I offer myself to you, asking you to do something glorious in me.

DIGGING DEEPER