Saturday May 2, 2020

Your Daily Dose of Inspiration:

It is good to desire the praise and glory from God, but it is folly to seek it from men. We must be very careful not to do anything in order to gain the praise of people. We live in a culture which is constantly looking for affirmation from other people, constantly looking for praise, constantly looking to be noticed. Over 1,000 selfies are uploaded to Instagram every 10 seconds. We have become so engrossed in this culture of people paying attention to us that our brains are actually programmed to respond to Facebook notifications in the same way that they respond to drugs. Have we forgotten that we are not seeking the approval or glory of men?

If we pray so that others are impressed, what reward is there in that? If we brag about how much we do, what praise can we expect to get from God? Jesus warned His disciples that if they did anything in order to be praised by people, then that would be the extent of their reward. No, Matthew 5 tells us to let our light so shine that men would see our good works and give glory to our Father in heaven. We are not trying to put ourselves forward, we are trying to put God forward. The approval of people comes and goes with each passing trend. The approval of God, however, is eternal. 1 Corinthians 10:31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

You may be thinking that you have been working hard for a long time. You have gone unnoticed, unpraised, and certainly not exalted. We get tempted in the waiting to do it ourselves. We get frustrated with a lack of recognition or not moving on to the next level immediately. Do not allow that frustration to push you into exalting yourself. For if you exalt yourself, God will not. He has his time, and if you trust Him you will discover that His timing will be infinitely better than your own. 1 Peter 5:6-7 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, (7) casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. When we find ourselves frustrated by a lack of recognition or exaltation, we ought to recognize that impatience as pride trying to rise up inside us. Do not give into that. Put pride to death and do not become weary in well doing. Be like David who waited for the Lord’s timing to exalt him, be like Jesus who waited for His Father to glorify Him rather than glorifying Himself, and be like George Mueller. George Mueller was a great evangelist who cared for more than 10,000 orphans during his lifetime and established 117 schools which educated more than 120,000 impoverished children. His life was full of stories about God’s provision and faithfulness. He was a man humble and submitted to God, and I will close with his response to a person who asked him the secret to the success of his ministry.

“There was a day when I died, utterly died; died to George Mueller, his opinions, preferences, tastes, and will; died to the world, its approval or censure; died to the approval or blame even of my brethren and friends; and since then I have studied to show myself approved only to God.” – George Mueller

-Jared Freeman, “Humility & Exaltation”