‘We have a tendency to look for wonder in our experience, and we
mistake heroic actions for real heroes. It’s one thing to go through a crisis
grandly, yet quite another to go through every day glorifying God when there is
no witness, no limelight, and no one paying even the remotest attention to us.
If we are not looking for halos, we at least want something that will make
people say, “What a wonderful man of prayer he is!” or, “What a great woman of
devotion she is!” If you are properly devoted to the Lord Jesus, you have
reached the lofty height where no one would ever notice you personally. All
that is noticed is the power of God coming through you all the time.
We want to be able to
say, “Oh, I have had a wonderful call from God!” But to do even the most
humbling tasks to the glory of God takes the Almighty God Incarnate working in
us. To be utterly unnoticeable requires God’s Spirit in us making us absolutely
humanly His. The true test of a saint’s life is not successfulness but
faithfulness on the human level of life. We tend to set up success in Christian
work as our purpose, but our purpose should be to display the glory of God in
human life, to live a life “hidden with Christ in God” in our everyday human
conditions (Colossians 3:3).
Our human relationships are the very conditions in which the ideal life of God
should be exhibited.’ CHAMBERS
How do you feel when someone gives you praise for
what you are doing for the Lord? Do you
need that to continue to serve? To be
affirmed by others so you can believe you have personal value? It is very common for people to look at your
service and praise you for it. Is there
anything wrong in that? Well, yes and
no. When men encountered angels in the
Bible, the men wanted to worship the angels because of who they were. But the angels always told them not to do
that. There is only One who deserves our
worship. When Jesus healed the blind
man, the blind man worshipped Him and Jesus did not stop him .. why? Because all … yes all .. the glory and honor
and praise are His not ours. It is like
the coffee cup sitting on my desk taking credit for the coffee it holds. I brewed the coffee and poured it in the
cup. Someone else picked the coffee
beans, ground them and still someone else packaged them and sold them. You see how ridiculous it is for the cup to
claim anything but that it is being used by me?
It’s a nice looking cup … but unless I fill it, it cannot fulfill its
purpose.
So it is with us.
Everything we do, we do for God’s glory and by His provision. I would go so far to say that if we take
credit for the work .. or receive the praise for what God has done for
ourselves, we sin. Sound extreme? People want to praise me … what I tell them is
to thank God for my obedience. God has
placed us in situations where it is clear to me that He has intervened … what
we were asked to do was beyond us …. And people look at what we do and say kind
things .. but I know that everything I am .. all that I can do … everything
that I have done that is praiseworthy .. is because of God … I am just a coffee
cup, waiting to be filled ….
How about you?
Do you prefer black or cream and sugar!
Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)
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