11/30/2023
God works in us each and every day. He brings us to the doorstep of His will, and then perfects us as our efforts join with His in accomplishing it. However, none of this achievement is possible without His efforts in us, and none is possible by our own doing. So when His will is done, in some manner, how should we respond to others when they acknowledge it in gratitude or amazement?
“But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.”
1 Corinthians 15:10 ESV
I was reading a devotional this morning, and in it Oswald Chambers made a couple of points I found myself guilty of; not out of a desire to increase myself, quite the contrary, it was in an attempt to lessen my role in God’s work. Here is a scenario… how would you react if faced with it?
I was a member of a long standing, and Iconic, three man intercessory prayer team at my previous church, and God’s hand was all over having made me a part of it, yet when asked about being chosen by Him, I would often responded with what I thought was humility. I would say things like “I am unworthy, and I really don’t know why I was chosen” or perhaps “I feel so out of place with Jack and John, they are amazing men of God.” This might sound as though I was taking a humble stance to you, but to God it was implying that He was incompetent in selecting me for this calling. Oswald Chambers describes such responses like this...
“The way we talk about our own inability is an insult to the Creator. The deploring of our own incompetence is a slander against God for having overlooked us.” - Oswald Chambers
God didn’t make a mistake in choosing you or me for the calling we are working with Him to achieve. He didn’t overlook some glaring fault in us that would make us unworthy. If anything, God chose us because of our faults, and in the midst of our work with Him he intends to address those faults with us; to extract them from us in some manner. You see, His ability isn’t limited to identifying who we are, He sees from the very beginning who we can, and will, become by His hand. My response should have been something like this... “I am so blessed to be a member of this team, and God uses us to glorify himself.”
People were healed, lives were changed, and God’s will was done in powerful ways... who was I to belittle this by implying that He made some mistake in choosing me as His implement? I should have been thanking and praising Him before the world... always.
The second way that I was convicted by my devotional reading this morning was by denying my status in faith. Do you do this as well? When someone comments that you are a saint, do you deny it? Do you respond “Oh no, that isn’t so, I am just an ordinary man (or woman) who struggles every day.”? On the surface this might sound humble to others, and in our own eyes we might think we are showing humility as well, but in truth we are claiming that God’s work in us isn’t meeting with success. Chambers described this in no uncertain terms when he wrote:
“”Oh, I shouldn’t like to say I am sanctified; I’m not a saint.” Say that before God; and it means - “No, Lord, it is impossible for you to save and sanctify me; there are chances I have not had; so many imperfections in my brain and body; no, Lord, it isn’t possible.” That may sound wonderfully humble before men, but before God It is an attitude of defiance.” - Oswald Chambers
God has been working in and with us, towards achieving our righteousness... don’t deny His good work. Despite all of our shortcomings, some of them seemingly ugly, He has steadily been working through Jesus to perfect us.
“And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”
1 Corinthians 6:11 ESV
The proper way to respond to such accolades regarding our faith is like this... “The Lord has been good to me, and every day I praise Him in prayer for His many good works and blessings in my life.” Then perhaps you might go on to say “I see He is working similarly in your life as well.” God doesn’t fail in us, nor in others. Even in those times when we are uncertain of the outcome, He continues the process of our refinement... don’t deny Jesus Christ or God before others.
“So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.”
Matthew 10:32-33 ESV
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for all the ways you work in my life, and for the righteousness you lead me in as I strive to please you. I thank you for the way you use me, and for the way you increase my faith along the way. Help me Father to praise you mightily, and not to make the mistake of denying your good works in me for my own humility as I speak with others. Let me forever lift you up before the world in word and deed, and in so doing, give me the wisdom it takes to differentiate between my attempts at humility and selling your good works short in me. Let me not boast, but never let my actions or words lessen your successes in my life, and faith. I pray Lord, that your success and good works are always on my lips, and that others see you there. Praised be your name Father as I acknowledge who I have become in your hand.
Rich Forbes