Not to Us

October 14

Jeremiah 19-21

Psalm 115:1-8

Proverbs 25:1-3

Titus 1

Not To Us

“Not to us, Lord, not to us, but to Your name be the glory, because of Your love and faithfulness.” 

Psalm 115:1 NIV

Me! Me! Me! Me! Me!  Our culture revolves around me!  We hear it all day, every day, wherever we turn.  My rights! My body!  My choice!  Have it your way!  Do what you want!  If it feels good, do it!  You can’t make me do anything I don’t want to do!  Commercials and ads sell selfishness! News stories encourage it!  Social Media thrives on it!  Churches even cater to this mindset.  It is Satan’s biggest achievement.  I can imagine a meeting in some dark room in Hell with Satan and a group of his demons where they devised a scheme to convince everyone that they are the center of the universe, and everything revolved around them.  It wasn’t very difficult.  It didn’t take a lot of enticing.  We fell right into his ugly web of deceit.  He started out by convincing us that there was an epidemic of low self-esteem and that the solution was to make everyone feel good about themselves. We began giving everyone participation trophies and downplayed competition, working hard, and achieving success.    Then he convinced us that saying no to children and punishing them for bad behavior was damaging their self-esteem.  Before long entitlement and selfishness replaced loving your neighbor as yourself, considering others as more important than yourself, and laying down your life for your friends.  Self-esteem does not come by getting everything you want.  It doesn’t come from demanding your rights and getting what you think you deserve.  That is not what it is about at all.  Having a healthy self-esteem comes from viewing yourself the way God views you.  We are made in His image.  We are special and we are unique.  He created us for a specific purpose to glorify Him with our lives.  Our self-worth is found in that and that alone.

We listened to Satan’s lies and we are now reaping the consequences.   Apart from God we cannot think rightly about ourselves.  We were created to be in relationship with Him.  If we don’t have that right, we will never have a healthy self-image.  When we think rightly about ourselves, we also recognize our sinfulness before a holy and just God.  We can accept what He has done for us and our gratitude overflows in love for Him.  Instead of worrying about our rights and getting what we want, we focus on glorifying Him with our lives.  When we stop focusing on ourselves and focus our attention on the needs of others, it is amazing how much more content we are with our own lives.  An other-centered life gives us a deep sense of meaning and purpose that brings joy and peace to our lives that is far better than anything the “me” culture can provide.    As we take our eyes off the mirror, we can turn our eyes toward Jesus.  The things of this world pale in comparison.  We will gladly proclaim with David, “not to us, Lord, not to us, but to Your name be the glory, because of Your love and faithfulness.”