In case this is a message God wants someone else out there to re-hear, here's a repeat of that post:
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"...So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I raised you up, to demonstrate My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth."
Romans 9:16-17
A central point Paul makes in this chapter of Romans is that God's purposes are sovereign. The example of Pharaoh stands in contrast to the example used several verses later: God hardened Pharaoh's heart to accomplish His purposes, yet the hearts of God's own people are likened to potter's clay, to be molded as He sees fit.
The verses I've cited above struck me recently, not as they relate to Pharaoh, but as they relate to those of us who are surrendered to the Lord Jesus. Let this thought sink in, and let it become personal:
For this very purpose God raised you up, to demonstrate His power in you, and that His name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth.
It's not about us, it's about God. He didn't raise us up to make a flashy statement. He doesn't demonstrate His power in us so that we will have remarkable or even necessarily happy lives. He raised us up to glorify and proclaim His own name. He does this by demonstrating His power in us, as we surrender to Christ's lordship.
What does this mean to us in our daily walk? It means everything.
It means that our prayers are not about us, they are about God's glory. It means that we can rest in Him, not focused on whether things are being restructured in our favor, but focused on giving Him full creative control over everything in our world.
As we do this, we release Him to demonstrate His power in us, so that His name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth. And as a side benefit, He begins to shape us in a way that will eventually reveal that He has had His way in us. Not that our lives are likely to become free of problems -- on the contrary. But we will bear the marks of His healing grace, evidence that He has been at work deep, deep inside us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
The freeing thing is that we cannot produce this fruit, any more than a lump of clay can make itself into a beautiful or useful object. Our weakness before Him becomes the very thing the Lord uses to shape the strength of His own nature into us, serving His purposes and at the same time marking us as His own treasured vessels.