Sometimes I'm singing in worship, and I think about exalting God, and lifting Him higher, and I wonder who I am that I could lift Him high. After all, I am so low, how could I actually lift Him higher? He is already so high...
But today I realized something. I haven't made Him as high as He ought to be in my life. God isn't asking us to be great enough to lift Him up through our greatness... He's simply asking us to lift Him up into His proper place in our lives. No matter how low we are, we can lift Him up higher in our lives, in our mindsets, and fully recognize how important He is to us and those around us. We can have more trust in Him each day, more hope in Him, more love for Him. We can give up control of our lives to Him... as we ought to have done already. This is how we lift Him higher, and no one is so low that they can't do this, no one is disqualified from, or unable to lift Jesus higher. It doesn't depend on our greatness, it recognizes His.
God is big enough, and great enough, that He doesn't need us to make Him greater than He actually is. But when we recognize His greatness in our lives, and start living that out, other people will see it and it will inspire others to make Him higher in their own lives as well, and in that sense we are exalting Him in the world around us as well. He has always been great, but in obedience in this way, we can partner with Him in the recognition of that greatness spreading. What we are doing is not making Him greater, but spreading His fame, making His Name more famous. You and I, no matter who we are, no matter what we've done or experienced, can exalt God in the way that He desires us to.
Sunday, November 08, 2015
Sunday, October 11, 2015
Turning the World Upside Down
These days I often see people posting various quotes on social media that are being put forth as wisdom, and they do seem wise at first look. Quotes like:
"Respect yourself enough to walk away from anyone or anything that no longer serves you, grows you or makes you happy."
Under the guise of self-respect, these quotes are encouraging us to love those who give us what we want, and walk away from anyone who doesn't. Now, from the world's viewpoint, that makes sense... why would I waste my time and energy on someone who hurts me, or who ignores me, or who only takes from me? However, digging deeper, this is a very self-focused thought, and misses the bigger picture. Even from a common sense view, if you take this thought to its logical extreme, parents would disown their children, and children their parents... husbands and wives would get divorced for any and every reason... homeless people would be ignored and left without hope on the street... friends would walk away from childhood friendships over silly arguments... in short, each person would only interact with another for what they could receive from them. There would be no love, only gain, in every relationship.
That, unfortunately, sounds a lot like the circumstances we see happening all around us in this world. What we need is not found in getting what we want from people or walking away from them... so that means there must be something else, something better. We need to turn the world upside down, to build relationships on love, rather than gain.
1 Corinthians 3:18 says, "Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become 'fools' so that you may become wise."
If this 'me-first' psychology, though it feels good in the short term, doesn't work, then what does? If the world's wisdom doesn't even make the world happy, then maybe we should look at God's wisdom.
1 Corinthians 1:25 says, "For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength."
So what is God's wisdom? How does he want us to treat others? Since He is worthy of the ultimate respect, did He walk away from anyone who no longer served Him, grew His fame, or made Him happy? Did He leave us to fend for ourselves?
Romans 5:8 says, "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
God didn't focus on what He could get from us in order to build a relationship, He focused on what He could give. Instead of asking us to fix the relationship ourselves, He forgave us, and did what needed to be done to fix the relationship Himself, through unconditional love and sacrifice.
This week, at Emmaus Church, Pastor Kip spoke on how we can keep our happiness through all kinds of problems, and something he said resonates with this topic:
"The reason most people are miserable is because they think happiness comes from self-gratification... but happiness actually comes from self-sacrifice."
So what can we learn from this? Self-respect doesn't come from being respected by others... it's separate from that, and that's why we can have self-respect and still show others forgiveness and work towards reconciliation. To be like Christ means to be willing to be disrespected, mistreated, cursed, persecuted, and return love. Yes, it hurts, but the only way to build a real relationship is to be willing to be that vulnerable. To love first, and longest. To hope beyond hope. To get our self-respect from the value that God put on us when He sacrificed everything for us. To turn the world upside down.
"Respect yourself enough to walk away from anyone or anything that no longer serves you, grows you or makes you happy."
Under the guise of self-respect, these quotes are encouraging us to love those who give us what we want, and walk away from anyone who doesn't. Now, from the world's viewpoint, that makes sense... why would I waste my time and energy on someone who hurts me, or who ignores me, or who only takes from me? However, digging deeper, this is a very self-focused thought, and misses the bigger picture. Even from a common sense view, if you take this thought to its logical extreme, parents would disown their children, and children their parents... husbands and wives would get divorced for any and every reason... homeless people would be ignored and left without hope on the street... friends would walk away from childhood friendships over silly arguments... in short, each person would only interact with another for what they could receive from them. There would be no love, only gain, in every relationship.
That, unfortunately, sounds a lot like the circumstances we see happening all around us in this world. What we need is not found in getting what we want from people or walking away from them... so that means there must be something else, something better. We need to turn the world upside down, to build relationships on love, rather than gain.
1 Corinthians 3:18 says, "Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become 'fools' so that you may become wise."
If this 'me-first' psychology, though it feels good in the short term, doesn't work, then what does? If the world's wisdom doesn't even make the world happy, then maybe we should look at God's wisdom.
1 Corinthians 1:25 says, "For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength."
So what is God's wisdom? How does he want us to treat others? Since He is worthy of the ultimate respect, did He walk away from anyone who no longer served Him, grew His fame, or made Him happy? Did He leave us to fend for ourselves?
Romans 5:8 says, "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
God didn't focus on what He could get from us in order to build a relationship, He focused on what He could give. Instead of asking us to fix the relationship ourselves, He forgave us, and did what needed to be done to fix the relationship Himself, through unconditional love and sacrifice.
This week, at Emmaus Church, Pastor Kip spoke on how we can keep our happiness through all kinds of problems, and something he said resonates with this topic:
"The reason most people are miserable is because they think happiness comes from self-gratification... but happiness actually comes from self-sacrifice."
So what can we learn from this? Self-respect doesn't come from being respected by others... it's separate from that, and that's why we can have self-respect and still show others forgiveness and work towards reconciliation. To be like Christ means to be willing to be disrespected, mistreated, cursed, persecuted, and return love. Yes, it hurts, but the only way to build a real relationship is to be willing to be that vulnerable. To love first, and longest. To hope beyond hope. To get our self-respect from the value that God put on us when He sacrificed everything for us. To turn the world upside down.
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