He will not always strive with us, nor will He keep His anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. (Psalm 103:9-10)

Striving has the connotation of contention. Contention is almost like an agitated action – mostly verbal – which brings unpleasantness and lack of positive results to a situation.  So many people try to beat themselves up when the slightest thing goes wrong and then end up blaming God. If things are not immediately self-corrected. This is The opposite of how God operates.It is actually not surprising that the natural human reaction is antithetical to the magnificent attribute of God, Who is already bent towards love and forgiveness.  We kick and fuss and cuss and even worse -blame God, when God is saying “chill out! I am here, what are you going on about?”.  Psalm 46:10 says “Cease striving and know that I am God”.The striving God is talking about here is the same as “come on, man, relax. I am God and there is no other”.  There is no better example than the Book of Job chapter 38 through chapter 41.

For most of the Book of Job, Job rambled and rambled and said all sorts of incorrect things about God. If there is one big mistake any believer can make is to either appropriate God unto your own natural self-created paradigm and say: “God told me to do this” or to start putting your own words in God’s Mouth. God responded with rapid-fire, almost machine-gun like questioning of Job about his knowledge of the ways of God.  God did not contend with Job. He let Job and his friends go on and on and on for what had to be almost two years, in error, before finally put a stop to it.  God did not strive or contend with all this foolishness.

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Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy Name!(Psalm 103:1)
We know from the Westminster Confession of our Faith that the  “Chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever”. This definition of one of our primary charges as Christians comes out of these two following verses: 1 Corinthians 10:31.Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for God’s glory. Romans 11:36. For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen. 

The Puritans were some of the greatest Christian thinkers who ever lived and their writings and exhortations set a standard for understanding the Bible which few in the public arena attain to, in these final days. One of them was Thomas Watson who wrote about what “glorifying God” really means.

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