“Be still, and know that I am God……..I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” Psalm 46:10
How often have we detached the first phrase of this verse from the second? Surely, many of us have found encouragement in this verse; to find peace and joy in the fact that God is God. This is awesome, but the encouragement and joy which we are blessed with in God is also attached to the second phrase… “I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!”
Over the past few weeks, in a study called “God’s Heart For the Nations,” we have been dwelling on the fact that God’s blessing and His purpose are inextricably linked. The blessing of the Gospel – that we personally get to spend eternity with the love of our lives, God Himself – is and always has been intertwined with God’s purpose to be exalted among the nations. God is passionate about His own glory, and this is grace to us – He exalts Himself to show mercy to us.
One of the reasons we are able to delight in our relationship with God today in Gainesville, Georgia is that generations of believers before us knew that God’s desire to bless them with Himself was absolutely connected to His purpose to be exalted in all the earth. Hence, the Good News has traveled from Jerusalem to Gainesville. The joy we have in having God was never intended to be smothered by an ethnocentric or egocentric perspective of Christianity. The joy we have in having God was rather intended to be stoked by God’s passionate and unfailing purpose to be exalted among the nations. We, like Abraham, have been blessed to be a blessing….for God’s glory and our joy.
Benji Lavender
Lakewood Missions Associate
We would like to welcome Benji to the Lakewood Missions Staff. We look forward to his contribution in the area of local and global missions.