How Do You Make God Look Good?
Good Morning Friends.
God is ready to assume full responsibility for the life that is wholly yielded to seeking the God and submitting with praise and purpose to a plan that recognizes the dangers of taking shortcuts. Friends, if our life is out of order we will be frustrated. The problem is that we the world is fallen so we really should not expect it to be anything less than a challenge unless we turn it over to God. So today we look at what scripture says should be the focus of our actions. Today we look at what is required as we give a shot at an answer today’s question. How Do You Make God Look Good?
Scripture: Seek first [God’s] kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Matthew 6:33 (NIV)
“With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
Micah 6:6-8 (NRSV)
Let them give glory to the Lord, and declare his praise in the coastlands.
Isaiah 42:12 (NRSV)
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all his benefits— who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the Pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good as long as you live so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. The Lord works vindication and justice for all who are oppressed. He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always accuse, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far he removes our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion for his children, so the Lord has compassion for those who fear him. For he knows how we were made; he remembers that we are dust.
Psalm 103:1-14 (NRSV)
Message: A lot has been written about finding ones calling and purpose. Generally speaking it is to glorify God. But it is much more specific than that. Making God look good involves everything we do, think and feel. It is about mission merging with those things we have been specifically ordained to do that shows forth how much we value our relationship with Jesus and how our very lives are devoted to God. The beauty and result of living this kind of spiritual life is that God begins to use us in acts of forgiveness, redemption, healing, compassion and renewal. As He manifests these same blessings in our own lives we experience the fruits of the Spirit. Even though we are just mortal mud, He molds us and grows in us a seed of connection to the eternal. And this makes God look very good when it comes to harvest. But having said that I realize that it might sound a little odd for God must be glorified because He is good. I glorify God to make God appear good only in the sense of helping others see more clearly and as a whole connected. In this regard today’s devotional shifts our focus on the history of our life, from human activity to the divine guidance manifested in the merciful and gracious events in our life. It helps us to remember what God has done for us personally but also asks us to remember how this love, this mercy, is connected in a holy history moving forward God’s plan in the world in which we live. Friends, everything is moving in and toward a world where the Holy Spirit is showing up in tens of thousands of places and events and sometimes God uses our hands and feet in the process. So today the scripture asks if the divine power of God in history is active in our lives… Is the Holy Spirit shaping and molding our ends for His purposes. It asks if our very soul is a blessing to the Lord. It asks us to connect our faith history with His Story as a testimony… to witness that God makes everything all right and sometimes allows us to walk humbly with Him, as he uses us to do justice or to serve as a tool of the Spirit through an act of kindness. In this reality, our earthly days are numbered but our experience connected to God is eternal. Indeed we work our days in a wave after wave of struggle but we live our life in the enduring mercies shared. We develop a deep sense of gratitude as we remember all the events in our life that are aligned with a divine plan. And here we learn that whatever age we are, we can bless the Lord only because he has blessed us to glorify Him though our actions. Here our life can become a living book of a creative fellowship with the divine and that is very good indeed.
Pray that the power, might and glory that we experience are all expression of the authority of Jesus. Pray that the Lord of the harvest would have dominion, control and rule over all aspects of our heart and mind. Pray that we gain the perspective of the mind of Christ by meditating on scripture. Pray we resist, reject and renounce all rival kingdoms. Pray we put God’s interests above our own. Pray that we live with Christ-like virtues. Pray we not be deceived. Pray our fellowship grows. Pray that Jesus the King be kind for we are sinners.
Pray that we would walk worthy of the Lord who has called us into His Kingdom. Pray that we would walk humbly with God…regulated by His will, inspired by His Spirit and devoted to His purpose. Pray we make stuff that honors God. Pray we do stuff that honors our Creator through acts of kindness.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 