Daily Java: I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20).
Everything we do should be to his glory. As a child of God, we are no longer motivated by our own desires, but his. It is he who lives in us that motivates us. We live to his praise.
That is hard to remember when we want to do stuff that isn’t necessarily God-honoring.
But when people see us, if we claim to be a Christian, they see Jesus. If we are petty and ugly in our attitudes, they see him as that kind of person. If we are greedy, as far as they are concerned, Jesus is a greedy God. If we are judgmental, he is too.
That is the problem with being his people and his representatives in this world. People see us and assume that Jesus is like us.
Of course, he isn’t like us. We are like him. There is a difference.
We strive to embody his attributes in our lives, not impose on him our attributes.
He was gentle, we want to be gentle. He was accepting, we want to be accepting. He was loving, we want to love. As he was, we want to be.
It is hard for people to see that. They figure that if they are this way, then Jesus would be this way also. It is hard to make the leap that we are to be like him, not him to be like us.
There is a leap to be made that almost defies logic. The ancients couldn’t make it with their gods. When you make gods, they are like you, only bigger. They are what you would be if you were a god. You are mean and petty and greedy and lustful, they are the same only larger – on a global scale.
God, however, is God. He is like himself regardless of what we want. And his demand is that we be like him.
We cannot make him like us because he is too great. He is God.
And any God that we can mold into our shape, or enlist to help us in our causes, or use to promote our agenda is not God. He may be a god, but he is not worth worshipping.
My God is worthy of our praise. He is above all, and over all and untouched by all. At the same time, he is moved by our prayers and loves us. Yet, in all that, he is still God.
Praise his name.
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