You Were Designed for This

Four years and one month ago to the day, I kindly yet firmly encouraged Hannah with the words: You were designed for this. I remember the day most clearly, and you may wonder why I know the exact date. I know it, and will probably always remember because it was the evening Jàel was born. There by her side, as she brought our first child into the world, those words seemed quite fitting to my wife whose body had been designed by the Almighty and Wise Creator to bring forth life.

That for which we have been designed by God to do we should do with confidence. It is not a confidence in ourselves, but a confident trust that God will bless and enable such efforts. God has an order and systems in place and when we act in them so as to honor him we may know it is life well spent.

One of the things for which we were created was a life of honor and thankfulness toward the Lord. This has been heavy on my mind as I have studied through Romans. Paul gives us a key insight to the human condition in Romans 1:18-23. In short we read,

“For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.”

Romans 1:21

Please go read all six verses, yet for now it suffices to note:

• A knowledge of God has been and always will be granted to all of humanity by God through his creation.
• Mankind has acted without honor and thankfulness toward the Creator.
• This is due to our futile (vain; perverted) mind and the darkening of our foolish hearts.

We might say it this way: “The only right response to any level of knowing God is to thank and honor him, yet we have done otherwise.” Paul, by way of explaining the deep iniquity of mankind, shows us that we were designed to be creatures who honor and thank the Creator.

The need for thanksgiving in our lives is not a new topic to this blog (check out Paul’s Prayer for the Corinthians & The Atheistic Christian). As I reread The Atheistic Christian I realized that I stopped, but I did not finish. I mean that now looking back on the conclusion of that post it was lacking what I wish to put forward now.

“Rest”…satisfaction, delight, and contentment in the LORD

At the end of The Atheistic Christian I called the reader to be intentional in giving thanks to God, and to seeking accountability in that. I still believe this to be good, yet falling short. Remember that Paul notes the connection of knowing God with honor and thanking Him. In short, it is the knowledge of God that awakens thanksgiving in those who are born again. From the moment of conversion and on through our sanctification it is the relational knowing of God that fills our hearts with joy and thanksgiving, and desire for holy living.

Think for a moment, can you call to mind a time in your devotions and Bible reading or while singing hymns with the congregation or even the Sunday sermon; when a particular truth about your Savior overwhelmed your heart with joy maybe even unto laughter, or crying? That moment is a demonstration of your design to thank and honor God as a result of knowing Him. It does seem that on occasion the Spirit gives use sneak-peek of the glorious joy of heaven, and it is then that we express our gratitude.

However, you and I both know that it is not every morning with coffee in hand over our devotions that we experience such joy and thanksgiving to God. However, as Paul Washer has said, it is amid the quantity of time with God that quality time develops. It is in the moment by moment prayerful reading of the word that little by little a truer understanding of who he is arises in our minds and begins to fill our hearts with adoration. As my mentor Jeff tells me, “We cannot know God fully but we may know him truly.”

The Pursuit of “Rest”

It is the growing of our knowledge of God by which we grow to “rest” in him, to be delighted and content. Out of this comes the giving of thanks.

I don’t know about you but I often sit down with my Bible and expect to have a sight of God’s majesty in just 10 or 15 minutes of reading. Yet in no other area of life do I treat beauty or pleasure in this fashion. A couple of years ago Hannah and I had the opportunity to visit an island off the coast of Belize. We spent hours on the beach watching the sunrise and other hours snorkeling the reef. It was beautiful in so many ways. Never did I step onto the beach for 5 minutes and go back to the room. No! I gave it time to sink in, and to enjoy it, for it to burn itself in my memory.

So also we must be devoted not merely to daily reading but to continual seeking of The Perfection of Beauty, God himself. For it is in the ongoing relationship across the years that our understanding both widens and deepens, and so our joy in him matures. A truer knowledge of God will by design fill our hearts with gratitude to our Creator and Savior.

Feeling unthankful, discontent, and without the desire to honor God? Don’t simply seek to be a more grateful person but instead seek the The Face “for whom our hearts are restless for.” You were indeed designed to honor and thank God, but only so far as the thanksgiving flows from knowing God as Romans 1:21 implies. I would commend Steve Lawson’s “Attributes of God” from Ligonier. Our church is currently going through it and I have been greatly blessed in learning of specific qualities of our Lord. Also, in your Bible reading make your way through the Psalms with particular attention on the activity of God as set forward in that Psalm.

Pray with the prophets Moses and David. Moses prayed, “Lord show me your glory!” David wrote, “Open my eyes that I might see wondrous things from your law.” Open your Bible with the mind of pursuit, a pursuit of God’s majesty which will overwhelm you mind and heart, and so lead you naturally to gratitude toward your God.