Sunday 10 Oct 2010

Sunday Reading: John 7:14-18
 
Key Verse: John 7:18
18  He who speaks of himself seeks his own glory, but he who seeks the glory of Him who sent Him is true, and no unrighteousness is in Him.

Devotion:
There are many people who will go out of their way to make sure that you know exactly what they do, what they get up to and how good they perceive themselves to be. And then there are the people who will quietly get on with things and make sure that the work is done without and fuss and bother. Whatever kind of people you meet you should not be the one who passes judgement on them but rather accepts them for what they are. It is so easy to pass judgement when we are on the outside looking in but not so easy to accept that judgement from others.

God does not want us to puff ourselves up so that we begin to think that we may be better than others – that will very quickly encourage us to judge others without thinking about it. God, instead, wants us to make sure that we humble ourselves before Him and lift up His word and His ways rather than our own. Jesus Christ had every reason to lift Himself up and to judge others but He chose instead to lower Himself to the level of man and live amongst us. He then chose to promote God in all things that He did and said; He made sure that God was the focus of everything that He did rather than Himself.

We need to take a leaf out of that book and to make sure that we glorify God in everything that we do. Not just when we get up and speak about Him, nor when we sit down and pray to Him but rather in everything that we do. When we show others love or affection, we need to show the world that we do that to glorify God and not to lift up our own position. When we are ahead of everyone else we need to allow them to know that we thank God for our position and not that we placed ourselves there. Yes, we may well have won or be in the lead, but it is God who has allowed that in our life. God must surely get that glory before we accept any praise!

Points to Ponder:
Are you succeeding in anything?

Are you making sure that God is getting His praise first?