It’s puzzle season in my house right now. Usually starting sometime in November I start feeling the itch to start one. I’ve always loved puzzles, but they just hit differently in your thirties. Maybe it’s a (almost geriatric) millennial thing. Anyways, you know who else loves a good puzzle? My three-year-old. He’s actually not terrible at them, considering how young he is. He has a funny habit though, of taking pieces out of my fingers right as I’m placing them in their designated spot. If I manage to get one locked in before he grabs it, he has to take it back off of the board and pretend he was the one who found where it goes. With a triumphant, “It DOES go there!” he puts the tiny puzzle piece in its place. Little glory stealer. Just kidding.
That did get me thinking though, how often we try to steal the glory from God. In our gifts or talents, we want the praise, forgetting every gift comes from above. When we share the gospel with someone, disciple our kids well, keep our home clean, serve our husband, or take a meal to a friend, we want people to take notice. We are little glory stealers. Apart from Christ, we can do nothing good. None of the works he’s prepared for us are possible without him enabling us to accomplish them through the power of his Spirit. You and I have zero claim on anything good.
How do we move from glory stealers to God glorifiers?
- PRAY that God would protect us from pride and grow us in humility.
- PAUSE and discern if any of our thoughts or actions reveal glory-seeking.
- ASK the Holy Spirit to convict us and help us repent when needed.
- THANK God for everything good in our lives, including evidence of sanctification.
- PRAISE God for his glory.
- MEDITATE on his glory often.
We will never have perfectly pure motives. But we can be mindful of that, praying God will reveal to us when repentance is needed. And we can praise our gracious God that his grace covers even the sins within our hearts we’re blind to.
