God’s eyes are not our eyes.
What we find impressive, He finds sad. What causes us to
marvel causes Him to bring correction. What we view as can’t-be-missed, He
views as a complete miss. What we find wise, He finds foolish. In short, He is
God and we are not! We view appearances . . . God views our hearts! There have been times my Twitter feed has been filled with scripture, inspirational quotes and quotes from great thinkers and theologians, but my mind was filled with lust, my hands wet from dipping them into the vast ocean of sexual gratification and texts inbox filled with women. Conversely, there are times where my timelines don’t have much of a display of Jesus and I am, in fact, walking closely with Thou. Is it a matter of being fake? While that’s part of it . . I also believe our timelines reflect who we are in our hearts, spirits and souls—at times who we WANT to be, but not yet are. If we’re honest, our timelines are a representation of what we believe, but not what we always consistently live.
We can do the best things, most selfless acts possible, dripping with altruism, from the outside looking in, with the wrong motives and they become detestable to a holy God. Conversely, we fall short, miss the mark, fall on our faces, but have our hearts in the right place, truly seeking after God’s own heart, and our failures become more of a pleasing offering than when we do things in hopes of getting recognition, basking in the glory or just wanting to be viewed as bigger than we really are.
See, we, as believers, must serve with only one intention . . . giving God the glory! Many of us will never get to be in the spotlight, sign autographs, take pictures or have a fan base. We will never have strangers clamoring for our attention when we go about our daily lives, never have them beg for RTs and follows and never have meals interrupted by people who choose their want over common decency. (Can’t they at least wait ‘til after the meal?) I pray if you do, you point the people who follow you to Jesus by acknowledging the Source of your peace, your happiness, your joy, the origin of your blessings!
But it’s not about how many people see us do good things as much as our motives behind why we do them! Man sees WHAT we do, while God sees WHY we do them. I think of the man who came to ask Jesus a question and called him ‘good teacher’ . . . to which Jesus responded, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.” (Mark 10:18) When we do things, it’s not about looking good, showing off or being good, after all, how can we be good when our righteousness is but filthy rags to Him, it’s about simply showing others how awesome God is by showing His Love to them through how we love them!
I’ve learned to view ‘MY’ good work, altruistic acts, in the same way of our Savior. Numerous times in the Gospel Jesus said go and tell no one. . . the man with leprosy, the blind man who received sight and even more amazingly the parents who had just watched God in the flesh raise their daughter to life—all of them had the same directive. Why you may ask? I believe it’s so people won’t let the miracle distract us from the message and the One who fulfilled it. One of the most incredible mysteries is how the King of Kings and Lord of Lords could become meek and humble! The only One who deserves the glory is the One who made us—God (Romans 11:36). . . sadly, He SO often is robbed of it.
Jesus was very clear we aren’t even supposed to let the left hand know what the right hand is doing much less tell anyone. Many people want to look good, appear ‘holy’ be the hero or heroine, so they post picture after picture of philanthropy work, pelt Facebook and Twitter with occasion after occasion of them looking good. While it’s natural to want to receive a ‘thatta boy’ or ‘thatta girl,’ if your post isn’t to encourage people to roll up their sleeves and whose ultimate goal is to give God the glory, it’s nothing more than an idol and a heaping pile of warm dung.
I know apart from Christ I can do NOTHING good and whether it’s in my acts of service or in my writing and hopefully one day life itself, I only want to see God glorified. I enjoy compliments, but any compliment I receive for me is not only misguided in reception but slowly becomes fatal. May You be lifted high God. I’m so thankful my attempts at blackening Your eye only glorifies You more for it shows how desperately I needed, need and will always need a Savior!! I’m equally as grateful I haven’t, in my selfishness, contaminated the beautiful Ocean that is God by pissing on the shore as I saw a blog state it.
“The motive and ultimate purpose of pride is to rob God of legitimate glory and pursue self-glorification, contending for supremacy with Him thereby attempting in effect to deprive God of something only He is worthy to receive.” - C.J. Mahaney – Humility
Psalm 115:1 Not to us, Lord, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness.
