Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
This verse is challenging to me in unexpected ways. When I read this verse, it's beautiful and poetic in language. But if I'm completely honest, it really pushes on something that needs to be challenged in my life on a regular basis. It says, "For everything comes from Him and exists by His power and is intended for His glory. All glory to Him." If I'm completely honest, I don't know that I always live for everything to be for His glory. There, I said it out loud.
The Tension of Living for His Glory
When I read this verse, I think it's important for me to feel the tension and the weight of what it means to live on Earth as a follower of the way of Jesus. Because my life is redeemed and restored by the blood of the Lamb, it's because of Jesus's death, burial, and resurrection that I have new life. 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 17, the same guy who wrote these words, Paul, is telling me that if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation. The old is gone and the new has come. My life in Christ is one that I celebrate because of what He's done on my behalf.
Here's the thing that's so interesting. My new life in Christ, the way that I get to live on earth, is one that I celebrate and know comes from what He's done for me. But when I think about being a human here on earth, even seeking to bring glory and honor to the very Jesus that died so I may live—if I'm honest, I don't know that I always do that with good and real and sustainable intentions. There are times that, even as a Christian, I do things for my own gain. I am focused on my own well-being. I'm focused on my own comfort. If I'm honest with you, there are times where I withhold parts of myself because it makes me feel uncomfortable. There are times where, even as somebody who seeks to glorify and honor God with the decisions that I make, I start thinking about the financial consequences. Sometimes I think about what it will cost me.
Autopilot Christianity
The reason I want to be this vulnerable with you is because I think if we're not careful, we can slide into a mode where we go into autopilot, thinking that simply being a Christian by title and identifying as a part of the family of God, we go through life frictionless and just hope for the best according to our best intentions. There are Scriptures over and over again, even in this very book that we're talking about today called Romans, where we're challenged not to just know that we're part of the family of God by description and title, but we're called by God to show up with full intention to bring ourselves before Him to be utilized in this life for His glory, so that He may be lifted up.
What that requires sometimes is dying to ourselves, dying to our own preferences, dying to our own intentions and purposes. Sometimes we have to remember that there is a desire for God's glory for us to experience things in this life that might be different than we would have picked, or maybe even projected in our own decisions. When we say the thing that we started out saying today, when we pray a prayer like, Lord, I want all things to be for Your glory, it's either true or it's not.
Is It True?
If it's true, there may be times where my life is challenged to operate outside the ways that I would maybe naturally pick. Today, I want you to just take a minute to just consider: What does it mean for us to live for the glory and the honor of the God of the universe?