TO GOD BE THE GLORY

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In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Not to us, Lord, not to us but to Your name be the glory, because of Your love and faithfulness.

Psalm 115:1

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Do you like to be recognized?

I don’t mean recognized in a way that means someone sees you and knows you. I’m talking about a feeling that desires to be recognized and acknowledged for something you’ve done.

You know the feeling I’m talking about don’t you?

Surely you have done something, maybe at work or maybe at home or maybe just a deed for another person, and you craved to be told “thank you” for what you did or told that you did a great job. And when you didn’t get that recognition, you were hurt or angry or felt unappreciated.

Have you been there?

Now, while it’s in our human nature to want to be appreciated for the things we do, there is a danger attached to it. For our pride and ego can end up taking over if we’re not careful and we begin to be the ones who want to be glorified instead of giving glory to the One who deserves all our glory and praise. Of course, I’m talking about the Lord.

Christian songwriter Chris Tomlin wrote a great song about this and derived the foundational lyric from the first verse of the 115th Psalm:

Not to us, Lord, not to us but to Your name be the glory, because of Your love and faithfulness.

The words of the song say this (and you can listen to it at the end of this devotion):

The cross before me the world behind
No turning back, raise the banner high
It's not for me, it's all for You

Let the heavens shake and split the sky
Let the people clap their hands and cry
It's not for us, it's all for You

[Chorus:]
Not to us, but to Your Name be the glory
Not to us, but to Your Name be the glory

Our hearts unfold before Your throne
The only place for those who know
It's not for us, It's all for You

Send Your holy fire on this offering
Let our worship burn for the world to see
It's not for us, It's all for You

Not to us, but to Your Name be the glory
Not to us, but to Your Name be the glory

The earth is shaking, the mountains shouting
It's all for You
The waves are crashing, the sun is raging
It's all for You
The universe spinning and singing
It's all for You
The children dancing, dancing, dancing
It's all for You, It's all for You

My all for You
Not to us, but to Your Name be the glory
My all for You
Not to us, but to Your Name be the glory
My all for You
Not to us, but to Your Name be the glory

We can’t help but be drawn to a place where we are self sacrificial vice being self consumed when we sing this song and allow the Holy Spirit to direct us. With the cross before us and the world behind, we are drawn to Jesus, our Savior, who lived a life that was never all about Him but rather all about saving us. In Him, we see the perfect example of humility.

Jesus takes us to a place where we care more about lifting Him up than ourselves, more about glorifying and magnifying His holy name than receiving credit for ourselves. When we are praised for something we do, we deflect the praise to the One who led us to do what we did, not receive it and claim it for ourselves.

This attitude places Christ first and ourselves second. It places everything in the right perspective spiritually and counters the worldly attitude of self gratification. And as we give the Lord all the glory when we talk to others, we point them to the One they should be praising and acknowledging as well. In other words, our “not to us, but to the Lord be the glory” attitude spreads to those we fellowship with each and every day. When this happens, when we get a group of people drawn together and committed to give the Lord all the honor, glory, and praise, then we have what we call worship.

Worship in its purest form is a full offering of our hearts, our souls, and our lives to the Lord. It’s a submission and surrender of all we are to Him so all He is can be in us. As a Christian we are to be like Christ and when you live for Him in obedience and trust, then when you look in the mirror, you no longer see yourself but Him living and abiding within you. In other words, you become an extension of the Lord Most High day-by-day, His hands and feet that continue to do kingdom work here on earth just as He did when He walked here.

Friends, there is no other life than a life completely and totally sold out for Jesus Christ. And as we become like Him then our actions are reflections of His actions and thus He is the One worthy of all praise not ourselves.

In closing, I have three prayers for you today.

The first is that you will sincerely search yourself and ask, “Do I have a ‘not to me but to the Lord be all the glory’ attitude?”

My second prayer is that you will be able to answer, “Yes.”

And my third prayer is that if you have been taking all the credit and not giving the Lord the glory, that you will start today. Rest assured, you’ll be far more satisfied and gratified if you do so, knowing that your attitude and actions are pleasing to the Lord who watches over you, guides you, loves you, and blesses you more than you’ll ever know.

Amen.

Listen to “Not To Us” here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8m0LowihOXY

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.

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