Thursday, August 30, 2012

Soli Deo Gloria--"To God alone, the glory"

My Utmost For His Highest
 
“Jesus Christ is saying here, “Don’t rejoice in your successful service for Me, but rejoice because of your right relationship with Me.” The trap you may fall into in Christian work is to rejoice in successful service— rejoicing in the fact that God has used you. Yet you will never be able to measure fully what God will do through you if you have a right-standing relationship with Jesus Christ. If you keep your relationship right with Him, then regardless of your circumstances or whoever you encounter each day, He will continue to pour “rivers of living water” through you (John 7:38). And it is actually by His mercy that He does not let you know it. Once you have the right relationship with God through salvation and sanctification, remember that whatever your circumstances may be, you have been placed in them by God. And God uses the reaction of your life to your circumstances to fulfill His purpose, as long as you continue to “walk in the light as He is in the light” (1 John 1:7).
 
Our tendency today is to put the emphasis on service. Beware of the people who make their request for help on the basis of someone’s usefulness. If you make usefulness the test, then Jesus Christ was the greatest failure who ever lived. For the saint, direction and guidance come from God Himself, not some measure of that saint’s usefulness. It is the work that God does through us that counts, not what we do for Him.”  CHAMBERS
 
I have been blessed to see God at work around me in some very amazing ways.  He has used me in some of those instances which is even more amazing to me.  A friend of mine says “God can hit straight with a crooked stick.” I am not perfect, but the Son is .. and it is in Him and through Him that I am able to participate in what God is doing in the world around me.
 
The danger is that somehow I might begin to think that I have done something .. that is was my own wit or perseverance that has caused these things to be.  People see me … and give credit to me for what God has done.  In Haiti, I ask the pastors that I am working with to not promote me when they talk to people about the schools, or the medical help or whatever it might be, but rather  .. give God the glory.  All credit goes to Him.  The chief end of man is to give glory to God and enjoy him forever.  The composer, Bach, always signed his works with  S.D.G. (Soli Deo Gloria--"To God alone, the glory")
 
Can you put that at the end of every work that you do in the name of Jesus?  We must be careful that the praise of men does not tempt us to lay aside our humility and rob the glory from God.  Someone said that humility is not thinking less of yourself, but not thinking of yourself at all.
 
Micah 6:8 “What does the Lord require of you oh man, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.”
 
Let your light shine today so that all men may know that God is …….
 
Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)

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