Believers often wait for healing and deliverance before they will glorify God’s name. When peace and earthly blessings are absent from their families, they hesitate to spread His love. Yet many times, God reveals His glory through sickness, weakness, deepest failure, and the contempt of loved ones — in moments when sin is exposed, or even when we are falsely accused. Through such circumstances, He makes it known that He alone is the living God, sovereign over every situation life presents.
However, the outcome depends on how we respond during the darkest seasons of our lives. If we continue seeking acceptance and approval from fellow believers or from people around us, we only deepen our sorrow, because when we are broken, human acceptance often fails us. But God never rejects a broken heart; He receives it with grace. The Psalmist reminds us of this truth.
The LORD is close to the brokenhearted
and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
Psalm 34:18 (NIV)
God Weakens Us
We often blame the devil when we are trapped and unable to find a way out of our problems. Yet Scripture reveals that at times God allows us to become weak and humbled so that He may nourish us with His powerful Word, turning us away from feeding on the lies of this world. He dealt with His people in the same way in the wilderness.
He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you.
Deuteronomy 8:3-5 (NIV)
Paul prayed three times for the thorn that troubled him to be removed. Yet God answered, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” What does this teach us? It reveals that the thorn in Paul’s life was permitted so that God might further discipline and shape him through His grace and love. It is not necessary that God Himself caused the thorn, but Paul’s human weakness and limitations became an occasion for God’s grace to work more deeply in him.
Likewise, Jesus warned Peter not to stand against His Father’s redemptive plan, yet Peter remained firm in his own understanding. In his weakness, he denied Jesus three times. Jesus did not ask Peter to deny Him; rather, Peter’s misunderstanding of God’s purpose in sending His Son into the world led him to fall. Yet even through that failure, God restored and strengthened him.
Deny Yourself
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.
Matthew 16:24 (NIV)
To keep us from denying God, Jesus calls us to deny ourselves and follow Him. This is not a call to isolate ourselves from people or to abandon every earthly blessing, but an invitation to depend completely on Him rather than placing our trust in human strength or personal understanding.
When a person loses someone dearly loved, the pain can become unbearable until the heart learns to love God with all its strength. But when this love for God is absent, people often begin to question or even deny Him, without allowing Him to accomplish His purpose through their loss and suffering. Such reactions reveal how deeply we rely on the love of mortal human beings rather than resting in the unfailing love of our heavenly Father.
When such love for God fills our hearts, the promise given to the childless woman and the desperate widow becomes ours, and He Himself will be our all in all (Isaiah 54:1-5). Denying our own desires and seeking what God desires for our lives protects us from the attacks of the devil. The father of the demon-possessed boy described how the enemy tormented his son:
It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him…
Mark 9:22a (NIV)
This is often how the devil torments people—first allowing them to enjoy comfort and pleasure, and then suddenly driving them into distress through those very desires. He stirs up strong cravings within the human heart, and when those desires fully mature, he withdraws the means to satisfy them, throwing the mind from peace into confusion and frustration. When everything seems to be going according to human plans, the enemy suddenly uses circumstances or people to disrupt those plans, producing anger, disappointment, and unrest in those whose hopes are centered on earthly expectations.
When we do not truly rely on God, feelings of isolation and loneliness fill our thoughts, and we become consumed by our own misconceptions. A joyful married couple, for example, can suddenly be overtaken by pride and self-centeredness. Instead of finding joy in their relationship, they begin to nurture bitterness, anger, and resentment. In time, this leads to betrayal and revenge, ultimately bringing destruction to both lives. Yet if both husband and wife — or even one of them — depend more on God than on one another for their fulfillment, such situations can be overcome. When earthly expectations go unmet, turning toward God rather than toward frustration opens the door to deeper fellowship with Him and greater joy in His presence, instead of trying to patch up human passion.
When one spouse learns to rely on God, a chaotic marriage need not become a hindrance to testifying His love — for what we testify is the life of Jesus and the unconditional love of God, not our own lives and our conditional love. Those consumed by the misconception that they must testify to their own experiences are drawn toward fabricating stories of miracles and deliverance that have no basis in reality. In time, their staged attempts to showcase miracles are exposed, and rather than glorifying the name of God, they end up dishonoring His sovereign power through falsehood.
Likewise, when the enemy uses circumstances to delay or frustrate human plans, those who truly rely on God will not be shaken. Rather than being consumed by anxiety, they find peace — and even joy — in drawing closer to their heavenly Father. This becomes possible only when we deny ourselves and place our complete trust in Him. When that foundation is set, unmet desires no longer govern our emotions or hinder us from testifying to God’s love, for our greatest delight is found in God Himself.
Blasphemed But Made Known To All
And now what do I have here?” declares the LORD.
“For my people have been taken away for nothing,
and those who rule them mock,”declares the LORD.
“And all day long my name is constantly blasphemed.
Therefore my people will know my name;
therefore in that day they will know
that it is I who foretold it. Yes, it is I.”
Isaiah 52:5-6 (NIV)
These words of God are difficult to understand unless we learn to deny ourselves and grow deeper in our love for Him. At one time, we had nothing in us that could glorify the name of our Father because we were carried away by our sinful desires, giving the wicked an opportunity to rule over us and mock the Creator. God makes it clear that this was not something occasional or limited to the past. Rather, through the continual unfaithfulness of His own people, His name was constantly dishonored among the nations. Yet God also says that through these very situations, people came to know His name. How could this be possible? Does this mean that God becomes dishonored or infamous?
There is no evil in God that could make Him dishonorable. Rather, it is our sinful desires and actions that bring reproach upon His name. Yet God declares that even through such painful and complicated situations, He will make His name known to all people.
When Jesus was crucified, great crowds gathered to mock Him and challenge Him to do what the Father had not purposed to do. Even the devil seemed to celebrate, believing that evil had triumphed over truth. Jesus was portrayed as a hypocrite because He appeared unable to practice what He had preached. He had said that He came to save sinners, yet on the cross, He did not save Himself. Through the perfect obedience of Jesus, the name of the Father was blasphemed for a while before the world.
In the same way, those who walk closely with God may at times be falsely accused and treated as sinners. During such situations, even righteous acts may become occasions for people to speak against the name of God. But this is never the final outcome. On the third day, Jesus rose again, conquering death, and the Father made His resurrection known to the world. Through the righteousness of one man, many who were dead in sin have been made righteous.
We Are The Conquerors
The truth remains, even when defeat appears certain in a given moment: “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (Romans 8:37). If we continue to rely on our own deeds, success, and prosperity, we are certainly the greatest of losers; but if we rely on the righteousness of Jesus, we are more than conquerors. Therefore, when life does not unfold according to our plans, we should not lose heart. Our Father God remains with us even in the lowest moments of life, working to glorify His name through every circumstance. With this understanding of His purpose for our lives, it is right to give thanks to Him wholeheartedly.
But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
1 Corinthians 15:57-58 (NIV)
The Jordan Valley 
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