…whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. —1 Corinthians 10:31
In the Scriptures, the great miracle of the incarnation slips into the ordinary life of a child; the great miracle of the transfiguration fades into the demon-possessed valley below; the glory of the resurrection descends into a breakfast on the seashore. This is not an anticlimax, but a great revelation of God.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.
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November 16, 2015
Journal Entry for Today-JDV
Good morning Lord and thank You for one more day of Co2mannatoday. I thought I was going to be in one of those “iron sharpening iron” discussions with Oswald Chambers today, then I re-read this final sentence in paragraph 2 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. In the context of Your teaching lately, this sounds to me like you are telling us that if we are surrendered and connected to You, we are unconcerned about others noticing our spirituality, we are simply focused on our surrender and connection. The fact that they see Jesus in us is simply a bi-product of our surrender and connection, and the result of that to and for others is of no concern to us.
And God says…”That is correct. When you are truly surrendered and connected, you are no longer concerned about others good (or bad) opinions of you. When you seek first the kingdom of God, you can let go of your concern about the resulting outcomes. The outcomes belong to Me. When you acknowledge Me in all your ways and forget about your own ideas, understandings, perceptions and spirituality or not, you set Me free to guide you into my truth. And the outcomes I arrange transcend any that you could think or imagine. Delight yourself in the Lord and I will give you the desires of your heart.”