It was the most important event ever, accompanied by the most important song ever, containing the most important announcement ever – “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom He is pleased.” (Luke 2:14).
For today’s devotional, I just want to focus on two words: GLORY and PEACE. “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom He is pleased.”
Let’s look at the first word – GLORY. Imagine what the world would be like if every person lived with the glory of God in view. Imagine what it would be like to participate in a society where every heart of every citizen was ruled by the glory of God. But we know that this is far from true.
Political corruption, social injustice, lust and adultery, violence and murder – all these things happen because human beings forget about the glory of God. Our planet is populated with people who live for their own glory. But it’s not just “the world” – you’re a glory amnesiac, too.
You were created to live with the glory of God in view. The principal motivation of your heart was supposed to be that God would be praised in every moment of your life. But some days, you simply don’t care about the glory of God, choosing to replace him with little self-glories that don’t satisfy.
Now the second word – PEACE. Imagine what the world would be like if every person lived at peace with God, with themselves, and with one another. Peace means no war; peace means no divorce or strained relationships with children; peace means no violence or murder. But we certainly know that’s not the case.
From the moment Adam and Eve sinned, peace with God was shattered, and when we don’t have peace with God, we struggle to find peace within. We don’t need to say much about peace with others – our lives are marked by relational conflict. I don’t think anyone reading this devotional has lived a conflict-free 2013. In fact, I think it would be safe to say that you experienced some type of conflict this week already.
That’s a discouraging conversation, isn’t it? All this talk of glory amnesia and conflicted relationships isn’t the most uplifting subject. But here’s what you need to understand – good news isn’t good news unless you first know the bad news. In other words, you can’t be excited about something being fixed until you know it’s broken.
The Good News of Christmas is that Jesus came to earth to restore all that is broken. By his death on the Cross, we can live at peace with God, and by his Spirit, we have the desire and ability to live for the glory of God. Because of the birth of Christ, we don’t have to be afraid to look honestly at a verse like Luke 2:14 and see that we’re glory amnesiacs and unpeaceful people. Christ was sent exactly for this purpose!
This Advent season, look honestly at the glory amnesia of your heart while celebrating the peace that God made with you, while you were still his enemy.