Every Little Thing

The more you fall madly in love with the God of the universe, the more you grow closer to Jesus Christ, the more you want to please him and just do what's right in his eyes. And when you're all in for God, you're going to do what his Word says -- "Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves." The more we do that, and the more our gardener prunes us and cuts out the junk in our lives, the more these words stand out in our minds -- "all things are lawful, but not all things build up" and "whatever you do, do all to the glory of God."

That's right, everything. John Piper had a great blog post some time back (wow, 25 years!) about drinking orange juice to the glory of God:

http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/taste-see-articles/how-to-drink-orange-juice-to-the-glory-of-god

Alright, what's the quick cheat sheet for grading the test then to make sure we're doing things for the glory of God? God put one in my head today, and I think it's pretty good.

Boasting.

Yeah I thought that would sound weird, but hear me out. Let's just say we had license to boast about the things we think, say, and do. We don't, but let's just play pretend for a minute. Would you boast about something to your friends. Would you boast about it to the LORD? Or would you excuse it?

Let's throw some examples out there. Buying a meal for something who is hungry. Helping a lady at the store pick up some of the things she dropped. Returning a wallet you found. Cutting something out of your life to make more time for God or other people. Praying with someone from the heart.

And we'll flip it. Yelling at the TV because you got clobbered in a video game. Take a second longer look at the girl with the short shorts. Singing halfheartedly in church and texting your friends during the message. Shying away from an obvious opportunity to witness to someone. Watering down the truth and being wishy washy about salvation. Faking it for years so all your friends think you're going to heaven when you're not.

Yeah, you get it by now. We know when looking at something we've done whether or not we could tell somebody about it with joy or with shame.

I do things I could boast about, if there was this made up license for boasting. I also do plenty of things that I would either make excuses for. or rationalize away -- but in the back of my head, or heart, I'd know I was full of crap. Even writing this I've left things out to make myself look better than I really am -- not so much by the "good things" I chose to list, but by the "bad things" I chose to leave out.

Praise God for his grace and the fact that salvation is not based on performance!

If we carry this idea forward into everything we do, we should more and more clearly see our true nature. Really, would we boast about every purchase we make, every minute we spend our time on, every word out of our mouths, everything we look at, every place we go, and so on? Or would we excuse much of it? I certainly would have to excuse much of my thought and actions if I took a good long look at them and really thought about it. I'm sure we all would. I don't say this to make anyone feel beat down, but rather to get everyone, including, maybe especially, myself, to at least think about it, to spur us on to make better choices, and to realize just how gracious and wonderful God really is.

Praise God again for his grace and the fact that salvation is not based on performance!

Grace and peace friends!