“According to scripture, we are to do every single thing for God’s glory but sadly, according to Ecclesiastes, we do everything we do for another reason.”
Look around. The world is full of secret things. How does dirt plus a seed produce a tree? How do clouds hold so much water and carry it to other places before it drops rain? How does a sperm and an egg come together to make something as complex as a human soul? How does the mystical mingling of two souls happen when a man and woman say “I do?”
Our brains cannot comprehend the mysteries that surround us on a daily basis. We are often too interested in social media and distraction to even give any thought to the Being we call God during our moments on earth. According to scripture, we are to do every single thing for God’s glory but sadly, according to Ecclesiastes, we do everything we do for another reason.
And I saw that all toil and all achievement spring from one person’s envy of another. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.
Ecclesiastes 4:4
Did you catch that? All toil, all achievement spring from our envy of each other. No wonder we are so glued to social media. We have to see what others are doing so we can “one up” them or despise and judge them because we are jealous of what they have and what they do.
“There is a cure for this horrible aching.”
I want to tell you a secret. There is a cure for this horrible aching. This terrible envy of other people. We see people who could care less about God taking vacations, looking beautiful, switching husbands (or wives) like a change of clothes when they get tired of them, laughing and having a great time and we envy them. God says:
Do not envy the violent
or choose any of their ways.
For the Lord detests the perverse
but takes the upright into his confidence.
Proverbs 3:31-32
The key to life is not all the stuff humans value. It is meaningless, or as Solomon puts it, “a chasing after the wind.” God would not have told us these truths if they weren’t how we operate. We are envious creatures, always looking around instead of looking up. Even people in ministry are often comparing instead of loving and helping each other. It is sickening.
God says something so profound I can hardly contain myself as I type out this awesome nugget nestled in Proverbs 3:32:
“The Lord takes the upright into His confidence.”
The New Living Translation says it even better,
“He offers His friendship to the godly.”
Friendship here means He takes us into His secret counsel. It means “a company of persons (in close deliberation).” It also means intimacy.
“He will tell us things that He doesn’t tell everyone else if we make it our life’s goal to know Him and live for Him and His glory alone.”
I have about three people in my life I could tell anything to. Two are friends I have had for many years (one for a lifetime…my sister). I tell them stuff I don’t tell anyone else. They are true friends and something special happens when we are around each other. All the walls are down and it is just joy, pain, laughter and tears because we can all tell our secrets to each other.
Now, let’s go deep with that thought. God offers us His friendship. He says we can be part of His secret counsel. He will tell us things that He doesn’t tell everyone else if we make it our life’s goal to know Him and live for Him and His glory alone.
…and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God.
James 2:23
“Knowing God is not about getting a ticket out of hell.”
God told Abraham that Messiah would come through his family, that He was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, that Ishmael would also be blessed, that he would live to be an old man and many other things. God opened His heart to a human and told him things about Himself and things about Abraham’s future. It’s an incredible story of true friendship.
Knowing God is not about getting a ticket out of hell. Walking with God is about a deep and unshakable friendship with our Creator. It’s so deep and satisfying that it takes care of everything in our lives. His friendship cures our mind, satisfies our souls and makes us “like Him.” We can love without strings attached, be happy for the good fortune of others and not do anything from that horrible place of envy.
We won’t envy a single person on the planet because our BFF is God Almighty. Jesus had close friends while on the planet but His closest friend was His Father. Paul had many friends and he was deserted at times because of the danger of his calling. Yet he said,
“But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength….”
2 Timothy 4:17
Paul ended up not caring a thing about his own life and loving people enough that he was willing to go to hell for them if he could. He also said that he coveted no one’s silver or gold after he became God’s friend.
Great friendships are both rare and take time, lots of time. The friendship I now enjoy with God started very differently. When I first started meeting with Him daily, I felt like I was going into the principal’s office. I was filled with dread, wondering what I had done or said wrong and what I was going to be in trouble for. However, I plowed through that process believing it wouldn’t always be that way. I read books of people (long dead but who lived the life of a friend of God) and envied their joy through what they wrote.
“Talking to God and sitting in His Presence is the most humbling and eye-opening place on the planet.”
You see, God is white, hot holiness and we are not. It takes time to adjust to who He is. To start spending time with Someone who can’t be manipulated, fooled, flattered and can read your mind is quite intimidating. It is easier to do work for God and talk to friends and strangers about God than it is to talk to God. Talking to God and sitting in His Presence is the most humbling and eye-opening place on the planet. It is a place of extreme truth and pain at the beginning. However, if we will stay there, hold on for dear life and let Him help us admit the truth (we are absolutely nothing and He is everything), something amazing happens in our souls. We get over ourselves for real. Not that fake humility of groveling and acting pitiful, but real humility that is bold and sure of one thing…God.
We won’t waste time talking about our unworthiness, the cross made that abundantly clear. When our hearts and eyes adjust (as much as they can) to the glory of our God, we will be most at home in His Presence. We will long for Him more than a single human being on the earth. Some people may go faster than I did to this goal. It took me several years to truly trust and love God. As I said, true friendship is rare and takes time…lots of time.
God called Abraham to leave everything to follow Him and he did. That was faith. Decades later, God asked him to offer his son as a sacrifice and he did. By that time, he knew God so well that he believed he was going to kill Isaac, burn him as a sacrifice and that God was going to raise him from the dead, and they would return back home together.
He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.”
Genesis 22:5
“Only God can keep us completely satisfied yet always hungry for more of Him.”
The first obedience was an act of faith, the second (years later) was an act of love, trust and worship.
In friendship with God, we have access to a never-ending adventure “from glory to glory.” Only God can keep us completely satisfied yet always hungry for more of Him. Praise God that any single person on the planet can become His best friend. He loves us all the same. Some people will find this out, while others spend their entire lives avoiding His Presence and envying each other.
Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.
Jeremiah 33:3
