Reading

"For the sake of My name I delay My wrath, and for My praise I restrain it for you, In order not to cut you off. Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction. For My own sake, for My own sake I will act." Isaiah 48:9-11b
One of my very good friends showed me this verse and I have been thinking about it constantly for the last 48 hours. At this point you may be asking why? God sounds so selfish and arrogant if you will in this very short passage. Lest He could sound this way if the person does not know or understand the full love of God. So the reason that this passage was so profound to me is because I viewed it from the perspective of our culture. We live in a postmodern albeit pessimistic society. One of the main questions young adults ask themselves is, "why am I here." Over many years there has been attempts by culture to fill the void that is the meaning and purpose for man. Yet here it is simply and powerfully written in the verse. Because God still sees some hope in man to bring Him praises he restrains His wrath against all of the evil we do towards Him. That is simply God's grace and forgiveness. The point, my dear ones, is that we were created to bring Him praise and Glory. True, sometimes it is hard to understand how best to do that. But the nugget of gold here is that this is the answer to life. This is the reason  you and I are on this earth. We are here to bring praise to God almighty.
Now I had to ask myself why I didn't understand this to such a degree that I did yesterday. I believe that because of our culture, many of us view our calling as being our purpose. In fact they are two very different things. Our calling is the gift God has blessed us with in order to fulfill our purpose of glorifying him. Keeping in mind that the Bible tells us to glorify HIm in all that we do, even eating and drinking, this single verse has brought so much hope to my life. Yes, the universe is a huge place and I am only one person. But God sees that as so valuable that me holds back His wrath so that I may continue to have an chance to praise Him.
Little epiphany of my own, thanks for reading!