- Glorify God with my body by what i eat, drink, wear, and do (1 Corithians 6:20;10:31)
- Glorify God with your talents/gifts (1 Peter 4:10-11)
- Glorify God with unashamed suffering (1 Peter 4:16)
- Glorify God with your death (John 21:18-19)
- Glorify God with creation (Psalm 72:19 Habakkuk 2:14)
- Glorify God with the way we live and shine His light (Matthew 5:13-16)
So...That is what I have to do to Glorify God with my life....well the first one gets a big OUCH!!.... 1 Corithians 6:20 says to glorify God with your body. In the verses before verse 20 it is talking about fleeing from sexualimorality and talking about our bodies being TEMPLES!! ok so what does that have to do with anything....well just think if you were living in a temple what would bring into the temple? Drugs, alcohol?....Nope i didn't think so...so why do we say trying it never hurt anybody? I bet that what that addicted said before he/she was hooked! WAKE UP The HOLY SPIRIT LIVES INSIDE OF YOU!!! and the Holy Spirit is one of the trinity...so that means that GOD lives in YOU!! YES YOU! So would you give God Drugs and alochol!? ummm...NO! Ok so those are obvious things! what about the things we eat and taking care of our body? How would you take care of a Temple? Constant cleaning, constant tiding up...And so it is with our bodies.....We have to constantly clean up acts wise and think about the food we put in our Temple! Is a constant stream of junk food keep your body nice and tidy!? No This can even relate to you outward appearance....Am I taking care of my Temple, keeping it in good shape?...OUCH....that hurt my diet! Now back to outward appearance....what i put on my body should Glorify the Lord...is my wordrobe one that says Glory to God? Or do i show off something that makes my brothers or sisters stumble.... bc i hate to tell ya making a brother or sister stumble is not bring Glory to God! I know i struggle with this...Girls like to be cute...and now days cute is not glorifying to God.... it prolly would make God throw up! Lord, what do i need to take out of my closet to better Glorify you!?
Number 2...Glorify God with my talents/gifts.... And we all say but i don't know what they are... I am calling your bull.... If you have a talent/gift more than likely you enjoy doing BC YOU ARE GOOD AT IT!! So guess what...God says I gave you that for a reason! TO GLOIFY ME! Is that what you are using it for? What talents might you have that you are scare to show poeple?..OUCH!!!... I think i need to sing more than I do... I let me fear of what people will think about my voice get in my way...I let sheer FEAR get in my way....OUCH.... letting fear get the best of me is like telling God he can't handle my fears!! better yet not using you talents and gifts that the Lord has blessed you with is like saying NO lord i don't want your blessings!...ARE YOU KIDDING ME!! You are going to tell an ALL POWERFUL GOD NO!!...OUCH....Or better yet am i using my talents to bring glory to the WRONG things!.....Holy Cow... talk about a jealous God!! remember GOD WILL NOT PLAY SECOND FIDDLE!!
Number 3...Glorify God through my suffering...wow! Now this....this..is hard!! So many times when we hurt we just want to get angry and pout and whine...when we should be praising the Lord for the hard times.... Hard times builds one up!... Plus lets quickly review... God goal is to Glorify Himself.... so us suffering and us turing around and praising him brings him Glory!! So when people say suffer for Jesus.... it is like basically saying To the Glory of God!... There is so many times when i get so caught up in the hurt and just throwing myself a pity part that i forget to Thank the Good lord above... Sound crazy...not when you weigh out the other end... Praise the Lord for suffering that will one day cease...or... Refuse to Glorify God for taking on the suffering that could have easily been ours on the cross... talk about perspective... our little suffering could NEVER compare to the suffering the Lord went through on that CROSS... Even Jesus praised God for His suffering on the cross! If Jesus can do it while HANGING on a CROSS... I am pretty sure we can praise Him through ALL of our sufferings!!....
Number 4...Glorify God with your death...ok now this i still don't think i complete understand.... In John 21:15-19 is when Jesus ask Peter do you love me? and Peter says yes Lord and Jesus asks him 2 more times.... And the last 2 verses says..." I tell you the truth, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go." Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, "Follow me!"....after doing some other reading I think the Lord is saying....no matter what may happen to you in death, make sure you live everysecond to the glory of God! It makes me think about this...When i die will poeple say She died for the Glory of God? not talking about dying a mrtyers death...but dying in away that there is no question who i worshipped and there is no question that for whom my life was lived for! EVEN OUR DEATH should bring Glory to God!!
Oh and number 5...Glorify God with creation...Oh how marvelous it is!! And the amazing this is that he gave it to us so we could enjoy it!! So are we abusing his creation?.... Are we allowing creation to Glorify Him or are we hiddinger that.... OUCH...littering...my littering can kill creation (animals)....
And Number 6 the last one covers and to me kinda ties in to number 4 with John... all i have to say is Matthew 5:16... "Let your light SO shine that they may SEE your good works and Glorify your Father in Heaven!" Do I live in such a way that the only reason they can give is God.... Does the way i live my life say "to the Glory of God" Will people literally say Glory to God...NO! but it should point them to God and NO WHERE ELSE!! Talk about a powerful verse!!
So all of this and what does this have to do with God's heart for the nations....well...this was in my book and I love the way they explain this...Glory is a noun which is used to describe the POWER of God. And then it says that God Glory "is the self-manifestation of God's character, atributes, and actions as he invades human reality." God's passion is for himself and his glory.....so that is the reason for ALL of His actions... This means that since God's passion is for is glory and if we are to have the heart and mind of God then our MAIN goal should be to bring Glory to God!! How does this die in with the nations? well God created all! And God's goal is to have ALL of his creation (which means ALL nations) bringing him GLORY...So what did he tell us to do...Go out and tell the Nations! about Him and his Glory... So that they too can bring him Glory... So how do I become a missionary for chirst... JOhn Piper is quoted saying "A heart for the glory of God and a heart of mercy for the nations make a Christ-like missionary."
So my challenge... Have a heart for the glory of God and a heart of mercy for all of God's people! Christianity is not just a US thing...God did not just write the bible for the US God wrote the bible for EVERYONE!! for ALL NATIONS... so ALL NATIONS! will bring Glory and Honor to His name...So Am I doing what the Lord is calling me to do for his ultimate Goal?...wow...What a question...
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