Morning Joy

“Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.” (I Timothy 1:17)

Were you taught the Catechism as a child?

I was raised in a wonderful church and like millions of Protestants down through the centuries, we memorized the Catechism. It begins: “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.” “Chief end” is a phrase that puzzled me. It means our purpose for existing. God created us specifically to glorify and enjoy him….forever. [We might want to stop and ponder that for a moment—or perhaps a lifetime.]

Just as a key is designed for the “chief end” of opening a specific lock, you and I are created for a very particular purpose.

God designed us to enjoy him, to delight in his beauty and goodness. [1]

Glorifying and enjoying are actually one and the same. When we glorify God, we are enjoying him. When we enjoy him, we are glorifying him. When the Scripture calls us to glorify God, to give him praise, it is inviting us to enjoy him as we have been designed to do.

God created us to find our richest, most fulfilling satisfaction and deepest enjoyment in him today and tomorrow and every day on into eternity.

What if we thought of our time of morning devotion as an activity designed to help us achieve what we have been designed for? What if we used our devotional time to find joy in the faithfulness of God, to experience joyous pleasure in his beauty as reflected in creation, and to find perfect love in Jesus? How might this approach to our time with God change us?

Glorifying and enjoying God will be our experience in heaven for all eternity. Our heavenly Father invites us to begin today.

[1] See The Westminster Catechism: “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, [a] and to enjoy him forever. [b] Scripture References [a] Ps. 86:9; Isa. 60:21; Romans 11:36; 1 Cor. 6:20; 10:31; Rev. 4:11 [b]. Ps. 16:5-11; 144:15; Isa. 12:2; Luke 2:10; Phil. 4:4; Rev. 21:3-4”