The Plan of Glory

Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” John 11:40

What does the plan of glory look like? I don’t know about you, but I have my own ideas of what God’s glory would and should look like in my life. These ideas never include a path of suffering. Instead, my ideas of God’s glory include life experiences that wow me in some spectacular way and fill me with inexpressible delight. My idea of God’s plan of glory would always comfort me, not cause me to wrestle with confusion or pain over not understanding what He was doing in my life.

What I am learning as I continue this journey with Jesus is that my ideas are not His. Suffering is one of the instruments He uses to transform me into someone like Himself. God’s plan of glory included a cross for His beloved, perfect Son. But I balk at the cross that He has asked me to take up daily as I follow Him.

John the Baptist did everything right. His birth was predicted in Scripture long before he ever arrived. He was born to godly parents. He lived a consecrated, sold-out life to proclaiming that Jesus Christ was Israel’s long-awaited Messiah. Yet, he found himself in prison for his faith. He was never released, but was beheaded at the request of the daughter of a wicked woman.

Sometimes, my darling friend, the plan of glory does not look anything like we thought it would. We can miss that God is even in our circumstances because our own ideas of what He should do for us collide with our reality and cloud our vision. My precious group of ladies discussed this confusing dilemma we sometimes find ourselves in as we encounter the plan of glory God has for us.

Standing on faith in our faithful God when we cannot readily see why He is allowing our life circumstances will ultimately allow us to see what may have been hidden from us before – His perfect plan of glory.