Nurture an exotic faith towards the perspective of heaven | God's Glory, our delight (episode 171)

Stephanie enjoins us to embrace exotic faith with the goal of developing the perspective of heaven in our hearts - namely, in order to start perceiving our life and circumstances and relationships the way God does.

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God sees us as He created us to be—not as we are today, right now, with all our imperfections. He sees the finished product. One of Stephanie's favorite descriptions of ourselves?  "We are half-baked masterpieces."

Masterpieces? That’s how God calls us:

Ephesians 2:10 - For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

Psalm139:14 -  I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

Genesis1:27 - So God created mankind in his own image,
    in the image of God he created them;
    male and female he created them.

But half-baked, because we are a work under construction.

Philippians 2:12-13 - continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.

Ephesians 4:24 - put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Half baked masterpieces. That’s you and me today. Stephanie shares, "The more I see myself as God sees me, the easier I will find it to delight in His glory."

So in this context, how do we approach suffering, and how does humility give us the proper perspective when trials and pain hit home? Humility is both the soil that allows faith to grow, and the fruit that grows from that tree of faith. And it all points to delight in the glory of God as our ultimate goal and purpose.

Paul tells us of his amazing revelations. He says he was caught up in the third heaven (2Cor 12:2). He literally got the perspective of Heaven. And it was so glorious, that he was actually at risk of developing pride. At risk of thinking he was better than others for having been granted such a perspective. So God, in His wise goodness, afflicted Paul with a thorn. Paul asks for the affliction to be taken away.

That’s the context for a few famous verses from the pen of Paul, when God tells Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2Corinthians 12:9) and Paul’s conclusion, verse 10: For when I am weak, then I am strong.

This is a lesson we all must learn if we truly seek to delight in the glory of God. Pride has no place in this quest. So Paul went from pride of place to delight in God. He didn’t regret it for a minute: the moment he understood why this affliction was not taken away, but that it was given as a grace, then he stopped asking for it to be removed.

He actually started thanking God for it. Not because he was masochistic or loved being in pain, or wanted to be pitied, or wanted to tell us how amazing he is for handling such pain. But Because he wanted to live in God’s strength, not his own.

Listen to the full episode now! We warmly encourage you to find the listening guide and personal questions at gospelspice.com/delight - they are completely free and will assist you in embracing the full experience of this lesson.