Isaiah 49:3 says, “….my servant IN whom I will be glorified.”
There’s a qualitative difference between IN and BY. Herein, is the distinction of being and doing unveiled. Both have their rightful place and balance, but doing without first being carries a diminished impact.
Verse 4’s beginning BUT shows the Servant didn’t think his life had glorified God and in fact had been spent in vain labour, for nothing and vanity. The Servant’s rock bottom faith is revealed in his grasp of ‘yet surely.’ This is a place we all come to when life seems to have not borne the fruit we longed for and trusting God knows our intention and effort, will righteously pay us for our efforts.
And He does. Not because we achieved all we set out to do. Nor because we achieved all he wanted us to do but rather because we allowed our responses to the troubles our righteous life incurred to align with his nature and character.
We were willing to be seen agreeing with him, even to our own loss and hurt.
It’s not what we do, per se, that brings God glory. It’s who we are, and are becoming, in the doing of it. In that significance, the testimony of our selfless-stability under pressure reflects beyond us to the author and the finisher of our faith.