Why Do We Even Try To Out Give God?
Good Morning Friends,
Today we seek to understand from the inside out about the nature of the church and the bride of Christ…about love of God and love of our neighbors. Today we look in the mirror and realize that though we think we are something of worth, the reality is the God will humble us. Friends, our wisdom and generosity pales in comparison. Still we ask even though the answer should seem obvious. Why Do We Even Try To Out Give God?
Scripture: When the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon, (fame due to the name of the Lord), she came to test him with hard questions. She came to Jerusalem with a very great retinue, with camels bearing spices, and very much gold, and precious stones; and when she came to Solomon, she told him all that was on her mind. Solomon answered all her questions; there was nothing hidden from the king that he could not explain to her. When the queen of Sheba had observed all the wisdom of Solomon, the house that he had built, the food of his table, the seating of his officials, and the attendance of his servants, their clothing, his valets, and his burnt offerings that he offered at the house of the Lord, there was no more spirit in her. So she said to the king, “The report was true that I heard in my own land of your accomplishments and of your wisdom, but I did not believe the reports until I came and my own eyes had seen it. Not even half had been told me; your wisdom and prosperity far surpass the report that I had heard. Happy are your wives! Happy are these your servants, who continually attend you and hear your wisdom! Blessed be the Lord your God, who has delighted in you and set you on the throne of Israel! Because the Lord loved Israel forever, he has made you king to execute justice and righteousness.” Then she gave the king one hundred twenty talents of gold, a great quantity of spices, and precious stones; never again did spices come in such quantity as that which the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.
1 Kings 10:1-10 (NRSV)
Then he called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.” When he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about the parable. He said to them, “Then do you also fail to understand? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile, since it enters, not the heart but the stomach, and goes out into the sewer?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) And he said, “It is what comes out of a person that defiles. For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
Mark 7:14-23 (NRSV)
But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act—they will be blessed in their doing.
James 1:22-25 (NRSV)
Message: God is to have a certain Wow Factor in our worship that blesses us with a banquet of spiritual food. The image is to remind us of today’s scripture about King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. Our service is to reflect from inside out, like polished silver, how much we love God. The meat of the table is to be our communion with Christ and we are to be cupbearers of life and standard bearers of love. Friends, the heart of God is to be reflected in the structure, witness and consciousness of the body of believers as the Bride of Christ. But friends our collective doing is more than a relationship of modelling the example of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. We must also look long and hard in the mirror and remember who we are to reflect and to whom we are to give the glory. In a spiritual and religious sense, we must submit and receive love before we can reflect it. We really cannot become very good at loving others until we receive the love of God. The deception is us claiming credit when the glory must go to God. For God offers us the indwelling of the Holy Spirit so we might do and give in a way that allows the fruit of the Spirit’s lips to give a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. The message is that life is more about being someone that loves more so than of doing so we might be loved.
Pray the precious revelations in the Bible renew our mind and help us to realize that life in not about us but about God. Pray in living for and even in leading others to a relationship with Christ it is about surrendering all that we are and all that we have, and all that we want, so we might live in the consciousness of a marriage with God. Pray we realize that all our doing…all our churchiness…if it is to be of any value must start and end with a relationship of love in a dance with Jesus, the Spirit and the Father…in a dance with the Creator, the Redeemer and the Sustainer. Pray
therefor we manifest when we worship God a collective experience of the energy of life imparted one to another but emanating from a unity with God. Pray our worship be an inspiring state of prophecy that reflects the light of the Shekinah glory. Pray we realize that in our serenity, testimony and character in Christ we will always receive more than we can possibly ever give in return. Pray we realize that our faith is to become refined as pure gold and that God owns all the gold. Pray we realize that in our submission to love we are saved by faith through the grace of God so we might act in a way that glorifies God.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 