by Ephesians 3:13 “Wherefore I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory.”
Recently, I read the verse above as part of my morning devotion and I have not been able to get it off my mind. The thought has been this, “We know God sees things differently but this verse I believe actually shows how he sees. We see the outside of people, but this shows he sees the outside and inside.”
Isaiah 66:18 “For I know their works and their thoughts…”
How? “Let’s think about it this way.”
Ephesians 3:13 has a few thoughts that go together to help us understand how to “see” this verse and to “see” how God sees.
First – Our Glory and Tribulations
A bride getting ready on her wedding day, gets herself to look the most beautiful she will ever look in her entire life. She spends months and weeks picking the special dress and accessories. She allocates hours and hours on every little inch of her body making sure all is perfect for her groom. She may even go on a diet or exercise program to look as perfect as she can for her special day. She wants to be as glorious as possible for her groom and to show her “glory” for all to see at the wedding.
How the bride looks on her wedding day is her glory to all those around her at the celebration. This is an outside glory to be seen by others.
However, Ephesians 3:13 says our glory before the Lord is not fainting during tribulations. This is an outside and inside glory to be seen by others and our Lord. “Yes, others see our glory in tribulations when we persevere through tribulations and do not quit on God.”
Second – Fainting
Here is another story.
Our eldest daughter, whom many know, is a tough cookie. She is extremely outgoing and a strong person. However, she and I were amazed years ago when she went for a CT scan and fainted in the hospital room. “Yes, fainted straight onto the floor.” I have never fainted, nor have I been around anyone who has fainted.
We went into the hospital room, the nurse put the IV line in her arm and then the nurse left. While sitting in her chair, my daughter said, “Mom, I do not feel too well.” I just replied, “Oh you will be okay, this is all new to you, you will be fine.” Well, I did not even get the words out of my mouth and down into the floor my daughter slid. She had a full-out fainting spell. I was trying to help her up when the nurse came back in and said, “Oh it is okay, we have many people faint when the IV is put in their arm. Even big muscular men faint and fall onto the floor.”
Even as I write this today, my daughter cannot give blood as she faints when needles are put into her body.
Where am I going with all this? Our verse mentions if we do not faint during tribulations then that is our glory before our Lord and Saviour.
Our tribulations that we persevere through in our life are our spiritual clothing that our Lord sees. The more tribulations we go through – and not faint – the more glorious we appear in our Lord’s eyes. Like the bride who spends months preparing her wedding day attire. We Christians spend our life putting on our spiritual clothing of perseverance through tribulations to be the most glorious we can be before our Saviour when we meet him face to face someday.
A bride likes to do as much as she can to be the most glorious before her groom. We Christians are doing as much as we can when we persevere through the tribulations and not faint. Each tribulation we go through is like putting on another adornment for our bridal clothing.
I know some Christians who probably think, “Why me? Why am I going through so much in my life? Why God?” We all ask this at times.
I believe this is kind of an answer, “The more tribulations we go through, and faint not, the more glorious our Christian attire is before our Lord.”
This also makes me think, “Some people will be the most glorious before our Lord because they have been through so much and fainted not. Others will be more simply dressed because they had it all on earth but not many tribulations to adorn themselves for their Lord.”
As difficult as this answer may be, it makes it easier to maybe go through tribulations because now we can see this adds to our glorious attire to been seen by our Lord and Saviour.
We cannot finish yet until we talk about fainting. Like my daughter who physically faints when a needle is inserted into her body. Spiritually, we can faint during tribulations.
Fainting does not mean we cannot cry, get discouraged, or be depressed. God gave us emotions. He knows we are going to feel sadness and discouragement at times. When we are sick, we feel bad physically, but most of us do not faint dead into the floor unless some deadly illness has struck our bodies. I believe spiritual fainting means to just give up on God.
Throughout my life, I have known a lot of Christians who have and are going through many tribulations; but they keep striving to attend church, read their Bibles, and pray. But I have also known too many people over the years who had tribulations and just quit church, quit reading their Bibles, quit praying, and overall, just quit on God. They fainted and had a total spiritual collapse and ended in an unconscious state of mind spiritually. Basically, spiritually dead.
So back to our verse.
Ephesians 3:13 “Wherefore I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory.”
I think it makes more sense now how God sees us.
Our glory, in the eyes of our Lord, are the tribulations we go through and do not faint in the midst of.
So, as we live our lives and persevere through the tribulations, maybe, in some strange way, this can encourage us to realize there is definitely some good in all our tribulations. The more tribulations we go through – and faint not during – the more glorious we will be in the eyes of our Lord and Saviour. Amen. (I just felt like saying “Amen” here.)
In conclusion, here are two photos I worked on to help us visualize how the world sees compared to how God sees.
