AUG 12

John 7:18
Memorise 1 Corinthians 1:31
“…He that glorieth let him glory in the Lord”

John 7:18 explains that those who serve God with pure intentions would not be motivated by the prospect of personal gains in any way. Here, Jesus teaches us to tell the difference between religious leaders who promote Christ versus religious leaders who promote themselves. Those who are motivated by selfish reasons will ultimately glorify themselves even though they may appear to be trying to promote Christ. Such people will find ways and means to enrich themselves either materially or to boost their own image or reputation. Genuine servants of God seek only to glorify Jesus and point others to Him and not themselves. Indeed, Jesus’ forerunner, John the Baptist said it well in John 3:30 when he spoke of Christ in the following manner: “He must increase, but I must decrease”.

I once attended a worship service in a Charismatic church during which the pastor started off by talking about how God singles out certain “specially appointed” people to do His work here on earth. He referred to Jesus as one of them but later on also referred to himself as one such person whom God has called to service. He then proceeded to ask the congregation to encourage and show support for him by giving him a standing ovation. Who do you think received the glory in this service? Was he right to say such things?

Perhaps many of us have similar tendencies to seek for self-glorification. One such example is the way we portray our salvation story with others. We tell them how we sought out Jesus and decided to accept Christ after having carefully considered God’s Word. This may seem pious and God-glorifying on the surface but in actual fact it is self-glorifying because it fails to mention how it was God through the Holy Spirit who drew us towards Jesus and that it was He who first gave us the faith to believe in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. No one has done more for us than Jesus and if that does not come through in our sharing with others we have not sought His glory.

Thought: In our present sinful state we tend to glorify self rather than God, sometimes unknowingly so.
Prayer: O Lord, guard my heart against vanity and self-glory. Help me to remember that all glory must go to only You.