Thoughts for another day

July 18, 2006

Today's verse: John 12:43. For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God. (KJV).

For many of us who are devoted to the worship of our God, it is pertinent to once in a while reflect upon the objective of our worship and our reaching out. The key question is? Am I doing it to bring glory to Him or to myself.

My friend, our God is a jealous God (Ex. 20:5) and all glory and praise that emanates from the mouth of man has to be to Him and Him alone. If our earthly mortal rulers require their subjects to genuflect only before them, wouldn’t God too expect only Himself to be worshipped? Now because He alone is God, He expects us to only glorify Him. When we work in order to bring glory to His Name, then we have to expect to be exalted only by Him.

But, do we see that happening in the world. Many a preacher has forfeited the Grace of God for their preaching was such that it sought praise and affection from men thereby overshadowing the correct teaching from God. Day in and day out, we see all kinds of so called God’s people doing all kinds of things to gain the attention of the world and be appeased by them.
The Spirit of God advises us on what to do even as we preach or teach, but the inherent desire to seem big before people pulls our minds towards our own thing rather than Gods plan. Today I ask you, in what you do, what is your expectation, to get praise from your Father who sees you in secret, or to be praised by your neighbor who is taken aback by your actions? To be known of men or to be known by God?