"And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money charges and the seats of those who sold pigeons. And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. And he was teaching them and saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.” And the chief priests and the scribes heard it and were seeking a way to destroy Him, for they feared Him, because all the crowd was astonished at His teaching. And when evening came they went out of the city."
It is not about me it is about God. It is not about making more of me and wanting attention for myself, it is about making more of God and pointing others to Him and what He did through Christ. As I am reading through the Bible I am seeing more and more the overall picture of how God is trying to redeem people for Himself. Humankind overall got distracted and is overcome by the lusts of our eyes and the pride of life amplifying selfish desire and ambition, while making God less and less. The passage in Mark indicates that the chief priests and the scribes got angry that their spotlight was dimming and instead now turned brightly on Jesus as people became astonished by His teaching. The part of me that smirks, shrugs shoulders, and looks at the ground to appear humble, absorbing the praise, instead of pointing them to Christ is no different than the chief priests and scribes. I am not out to destroy Jesus, but in a way that is what I do when I take that glory that does not belong to me. When I take that glory I become a distraction. It is my desire to give praise to Jesus and boldly give credit to him, but sometimes that glory is affirming, instead of pointing the praise to where it belongs, I absorb it like a sponge in a bucket of water. The chief priests, scribes, and I don’t deserve such praise or glory, only God does. God is redeeming His people and I don’t want to distract people from that truth! May there be less of me and more of you, Lord! What a good reminder!
No comments:
Post a Comment