Suffering & God's Glory

God has been impressing upon me the importance of His glory these last months.  I'll never get to the end of His glory this side of Heaven and I'll never truly understand His glory as long as I'm stuck in this earthly tent.   However,  I've decided to share what I've learned so far, which isn't much, but it has the potential to be huge.
God first arrested my attention on the subject of His glory at the beginning of March of this year.  I had been praying that God would draw me closer to Himself and that I would glorify Him in my suffering.  It was a good prayer, prayed in sincerity, but prayed without any idea of what it really meant.
That week's BSF lesson was on the first chapter of Ephesians.  Three times in chapter one, Paul says, "to the praise of His glory."  One of the questions on the lesson that week was, "How can you be the praise of His glory?"  I simply wrote, "I don't know."  Of course the discussion group leader called on me to answer that question, so I got to share my very profound answer with my whole discussion group.
The next day, Thursday, I went to my 5 Aspects of Woman Bible study.  The theme of that night's lesson was, "Reflect the glory of God."
Then on Friday, we hosted our small group Bible study.  We listened to a lecture given by R. C. Sproul.  The point of the lecture was that we are here to glorify God.  Plain and simple.  If you're a believer, your purpose is to bring glory to God.
Well, sometimes I'm a slow learner.  It wasn't until that third whack over the head that I got it.  I had been entirely too concerned about my own suffering and not much at all concerned about God's glory.  My focus was completely wrong.  God was beginning to answer my prayer.
So I continued to pray over the coming weeks, "Lord, show me how to be the praise of your glory."  Which lead to the question, "Lord, what is your glory?"   God answered my prayer in a completely unexpected way.  Others would call it a "chance encounter," but what it was really the Divine Hand of God reaching out to me personally in answer to my prayer.  I believe God got me to Texas for that very reason.
All of the ladies were sitting in the sanctuary of that little church listening to Barbara Mouser as she expounded on the Scriptures.  The weekend conference was on the Bible theme of clothing.  Then Barbara stopped teaching and asked, "Does anyone have any questions?"
One woman asked, "What are some other Bible themes?"
"Oh! I'm so glad you asked!" Barbara replied.  "The greatest theme of scripture is the glory of God."  At this point, I went into high alert mode, my ears perked and ready to hear what Barbara would say next.
"The great pillars of God's glory are what He is praised for in Revelation.  He is Creator, Savior, Judge, King and All in All."
I nearly fell out of the pew.  God had answered my prayer by way of a random question asked by a total stranger.  Later at lunch, I was able to tell Barbara about God's answer to my prayer.  I told her I didn't think I'd ever truly grasp God's glory, even with her explanation of it.  She said, "God is like a flood.  You study Him [through His Word], you get to know Him and then you're just overtaken by Him."
In essence, God is just too big for us to understand fully.  Yet He desires for us to know Him and to have a relationship with Him.  This knowledge humbles me, as does the fact that He would so specifically and wondrously answer my prayer.
I met a friend for lunch recently and told her of my learning more about God's glory.  "But I'm not sure where to go from here," I said.  She wisely responded, "Why don't you just pray that God would show you how He is Creator, Savior, Judge, etc.  Pray through one attribute until you feel He's shown you what He wants you to see."
I've just recently begun this project.  I'm praying through Creator right now.  I was in a particularly sour mood the other night as I was driving home.  I looked up and saw the most beautiful sunset I've seen in a long time.  "Yes, Lord," I said.  "You are Sovereign Creator.  You are worthy of praise."

(As an added note--I heard something I'd never heard before last Sunday.  We had a guest pastor at our church and he talked about how times of suffering in our lives are to be stewarded, just the way we steward the money God gives us.  We can either choose to steward our suffering well and bring God glory, as in the case of the servant with the ten talents, or choose to call God a cruel master, thereby not bringing God the glory due Him.)