Glory

Here's a thought from Ephesians 1:11-12: God chose us to reflect his glory.

And according to 2 Corinthians 3:18, we do this with unveiled faces. We shine for Jesus as we become more like him.

There are people who believe that what really matters is that you're a good person. That's how you earn God's favor.

But not only is that untrue (God's love is unconditional, and only Jesus can earn us eternal life), it's a faulty way to look at why we live the way we live.

If I make good choices, but do it for selfish motivations, I might be considered a "good person." But really, I'm like a Pharisee, doing good to show off for others. It's all about me. What people think of me. 

We were made for so much more than that. God chose us to reflect his glory. Our good deeds can shine before men so that they can glorify God. (See Matthew 5:16.) I can use good deeds to have others say, "oooh, look at her! What a nice person she is!"

Or I can use good deeds for something so much bigger, so much greater—to show off the glory of God. Those same people ought to be able to look at my life and say, "Oooh, what a picture of God's love for me!" And then they want to know God just a little bit more. How much greater my act will be if I do it for God's glory?!

My prayer is that God will gradually remove the me out of my motivation. My pastor spoke last week about motivations for serving God. One that he didn't mention is the motivation of showing God off. I want to live in such a way that with an unveiled face, I boldly shine a brilliant reflection of God. I want to be a mere conduit for others to see his goodness.

Prayers

When I was in third grade, there was a raffle every day in our classroom, and the winner got to choose 7 pieces of candy. Whenever I won, I chose all Smarties.

And I often prayed before the drawing that I would win. Despite the selfishness of my prayer, it worked.  I won an inordinate amount. So one day my classmate asked me why I won so often. And I told her I prayed that I'd win. She asked me to pray for her to win that day, so I did. And she won.

Now looking back, I know those prayers were completely selfishly motivated. But God did use them to help me show a classmate the power of prayer.

Last week I was reading up on Gideon. And I noticed that unlike the judges preceding him, Gideon never seemed to be motivated by protecting the Israelites. Every time he went after the Philistines, it was always for the sake of revenge against something personal they'd done to him.

We do a lot of things for selfish, greedy reasons. But the good news is that God can take even our selfish actions and turn them into something good, whether that's protection from the enemy Philistines or spreading the truth of his power by an answered prayer for candy.