Glory in Christ Jesus

Rom 15:17-19
“Therefore I glory in Christ Jesus in my service to God. I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done— by the power of signs and miracles, through the power of the Spirit.”

I was talking with some friends of mine and I was sharing how most of the time I would rather others receive praise and recognition than being publicly acknowledged myself. However, lately my insecurities have been creeping up and I have been a little torqued at the fact that others are being recognized for my work. I am after all human. We all crave recognition.

The problem is that my head is at odds with my heart. In my head I know that all that I do, I do as unto the Lord. I know that the work that I do with our ministry partners is all about ministering to the poor and disadvantaged. I should glory in my service to God.

In my heart the Old Man rears his ugly head. It seems as though if this big event I’m working on doesn’t go well I will get the blame, but if it goes well someone else will be seen as pulling it off. The flesh rears up in me and it ties my guts in knots.

So why am I in this place? Simple, I’ve been so busy working and getting things ready that I’ve taken my eyes off the Lord and put the focus on me, myself and I. Whenever I start navel gazing the pity party soon follows. Add to the equation the fact that I’ve been sick and going morning, noon and night and I turn into the world’s biggest grump. It got so bad I even lashed out at my dear wife. She looked at me the way a puppy does when you scold him for something he did yesterday. She had no clue why I was so angry.

It got so bad that I even thought about not writing this blog anymore. Why bother writing it when nobody reads it? Sound familiar? It should, it’s the same lies Satan tells all of us.

This morning I was doing a team project with some other staff from Metropolitan Ministries and a brother mentioned to me how much my blog blessed him. He said that no matter what he’s going through God talks to him through these words. Others have said the same thing but it’s easy to forget when you are focusing on the negatives.

It is only when I focus back on the Lord that I am reminded of the fact that His Holy Spirit empowers my yieldedness and accomplishes His purposes when I surrender to Him. He has never failed me yet, nor will He ever.

God gives us exactly what we need through His Spirit in order to accomplish the task that He has called us to. He keeps us dependent on Him. We can’t take credit for anything or glory in anything other than Christ Jesus and our service to Him.

Enough for now, I need to go worship Him for a while so I can get my head and my heart on the same page.

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