all we do is to god's glory

Leszek Kolakowski, a great intellectual crusader against Communism, wrote: “A modern philosopher who has never once suspected himself of being a charlatan must be such a shallow mind that his work is probably not worth reading.”

The Bible said the same thing when it said, So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall! (1 Corinthians 10:12 NIV).

Anyone who thinks he is great is fooling himself. You may be great, you may be wonderful, the most wonderful thing to ever grace the earth, but when you begin to think so, you have lost it.

That isn’t to say that you cannot have pride in your abilities to do a certain job, or know your talents in a certain area. Otherwise, no one would ever lead worship, or play piano, or teach, or preach.

But no one is more irritating than the person who thinks they are God’s gift to the church. The teacher that considers everything that drops from their lips to be divine honey. The singer who thinks that everyone in church is dying to hear her sing. The preacher who believes God only speaks through him.

We have to remember that all we do is to God’s glory. Every word we say, every song we sing, every committee we chair, everything, is to the glory of God.

The Bible says that we are brought into the kingdom to do whatever we do for his good pleasure (Ephesians 1). We are his oracles, his works, his glory. Not our own.

Again, that doesn’t mean that we cannot tell someone they did a good job doing what God gave them to do. That is a normal human response to someone who did good, and a normal human response to like being told you did good.

On the other hand, as one pastor friend of mine likes to hear me say, it is not why we do it.

We do it for God. As long as we remember that, we are standing firm.