From JAP…
Isaiah 25:1 “O Lord, You are my God; I will extol You and praise Your name, for in perfect faithfulness You have done marvelous things.”
Other words for marvelous are: fantastic, grand and wonderful—way beyond ordinary!
My God is fully good, fully loving, fully beautiful, and absolutely true and faithful. But God did not need us in His world. He is all He needs, yet He created a garden of perfection and then placed man in it so that we could share His love, grace, and goodness through a relationship with Him.
All seemed to be perfect, yet there was one who filled with pride and with a ruthless plan to rule the world, chose the only part of that creation he could manipulate – — man.
Satan had been chosen by God as His “morning star, son of the dawn,” but pride and self-worship overcame humility and Satan said in his heart “I WILL ascend into heaven, I WILL exalt my throne above the stars of God; I WILL also sit on the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north; I WILL ascend above the heights of the clouds, I WILL be like the Most High.” (Isaiah 14:12-13)
With those two ‘I WILL’ words he became God’s arch enemy with his lustful desire to rule God’s creation by controlling the minds of mankind. The devil had a powerful grip on man as he filled man’s mind with pride and self-perfection leading him into a quagmire of faithless hope in himself.
But a perfect God was still in control and while He allowed the evil one to deceive His creation, He formed a plan from the beginning and made a way for man’s salvation from eternal death to eternal life—set free from Satan’s bondage of sin.
“For God so loved the world that He gave His one only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the Name of God’s one and only Son” (John 3:16-18).
Such a simple remedy, but it activated a tug of war between God and the heart of man, who now must make the decision whether to cling to the world and its false god, or follow the One who created him into the promise of unknown everlasting glory. But with the Son having come into the world to offer His life and death for multitudes, who would accept it as their own to receive new life? Christ, having accomplished His purpose, left the world to return to His Father.
But God did not forsake His creation for He had promised never to leave mankind: “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5). S God sent His Holy Spirit to deal with man’s heart, to show mankind his failure and bring humanity to repentance, so that people could be made new and live in God’s kingdom.
As those who have accepted a promised new life from Jesus Christ, and have become His devoted children, the Holy Spirit placed in our regenerated hearts a desire that cannot be ignored because it rises from the innermost part of our new being (2 Corinthians 5:17), to extol and praise His Name because He HAS done marvelous things for us, who were lost, but have now been found in His loving arms of peace and joy beyond the power of the devil’s deceit and warfare!
“Be joyful always, pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18.)