When is it tempting to NOT give God the glory?

 

Sunday night was "Praise and Pie" night at our church. As we do each year, the Sunday before Thanksgiving we hold a service with music, testimonies, a quick message (short sermon), and more music. This year we also included a special music, which is where our team does a special song for all to enjoy. (This year we sang Cece Winans' song "Goodness of God".) Have you heard it?

Anyway, and on Thanksgiving Day later that week, we held a food service for anyone in the community and church who wanted to attend, including close to 25 of our weekly English as Second Language (ESL) students. We learned and led everyone in singing a worship song in Spanish! 

The question before all the testimonies at Praise and Pie night was:  What is something you’re thankful for that God has done in your life?

Here's what some people shared they are thankful for:    

• Our pastor - who preaches the Word and from the Word. (Holy Bible).  Here in the Northeast especially, that is hard to find. Our bible is being thrown out with the bathwater, to borrow an old expression where I replaced "baby" with "bible." (Forgive me. But understand my point.) Some Christians (and churches) try to do Christianity without the Bible, and that's dangerous ground.

• Our faith family - Someone said they don’t love their own family (or don’t miss their family when they go away) as much as they miss their own church family, which seemed harsh... but c'mon you can understand that motivation, can' t you?

• A widower's late wife - A man who recently lost his wife (also a beloved church family) to a long battle with illness.

• Getting to live in the US - a 20-something woman who emigrated from Ukraine to live permanently with one of our church families (and in the US).

These are all wonderful, yet varied things to be thankful for. 

Gratitude is an emotion. Just like we feel appreciative for all we have, we can also complain and grumble for what we don’t have. The more people thanked our church and our pastor (and indirectly our God) for our circumstances, the more others spoke up to do the same.) A crowd begets a crowd. And, if we were asked to share our grievances, we all would have then begun to share our grievances. 

I used to study marketing. Sometimes my mind goes there. Like in this instance, I want to say, oh yeah, talk about how great our church is and has been to you! 

(DISCLAIMER: well, that might BE your sentiments, I'm making a point, not trying to offend.) 

But we are a Bible-believing and preaching church! The church's goal is to point others to Jesus. 

If we share our blessings, and we are encouraged to do so, to share a testimony, what God has done in your life. 

When it came time to sing my (our) song, God was pressing hard on my spirit to say something.  This is for God’s glory. We are created to worship God. Worship is the right response. God wants all of His glory to go back to Him.

I felt like people weren’t giving the glory back to God, my husband also said, instead were we giving glory to our church?

Who cares! You say what you are thankful for at that moment. Isn't that what (our US holiday of) Thanksgiving is for? 

Let's not forget these truths:  

• Tears of gratitude are typical for someone who is saved.
• Worship is a response to God’s goodness. 
• How is God good even when He takes away?

The widower could barely get out his thank you to the church. He wanted to thank God for the time with his wife as well. That was hard to hear, but even harder, I’m sure, for him to say. He practically choked out his gratitude. A broken halleluiah, as they say.

Another girl spoke up: the beautiful girl from another country.

She choked through tears as she expressed her gratitude. 

Over to you... In this giving season, what are you thankful for? 

I’m thankful for God and His goodness, I’m thankful for faith, and I’m thankful for salvation. I have so many more things to be thankful for … I’m thankful for serving.

When I serve our church, (the church where God currently has us), when I serve God, I feel belonging, we're wanted and needed. We as humans need to feel that way. It gives purpose to our existence. 

Do you know what Jesus did the night before He was to be crucified and beaten and scorned and mocked and killed? He served. He washed the feet of his disciples! He served then. He still serves today. He came to this earth to serve. He lives in heaven and in us and serves. 

If I want to follow in His footsteps, I must learn to serve. Not burn myself out, take breaks when my body needs them, but be willing and ready to serve. And this extends to everyone. I serve my family, I serve my husband, my niece and nephews, the person who cuts in front of me in line. I serve them by giving them grace, etc. etc.

It’s easy to get along with our church family we all speak the same language as someone said last night.

She’s right. And, I am so, so grateful for my church *and other Christians throughout the world because of the language we speak and understand of each other.

(If you don’t know what I am talking about, bookmark this blog, or better yet, sign up and look for a future post about “Christianese” the made-up term for Christian terms.

You can love someone and not even like them. Jesus was friendly with but did not like all of his disciples, I’m sure. But He loved them.

 

John 13:31-35

So, when he had gone out, Jesus said, “now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in Him. If God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and glorify Him immediately. Little children, I shall be with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come, so now I say to you. A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Praying that you and your family have a wonderful, happy and blessed Thanksgiving. 

Vanessa & Kevin 

PraiseHimBlog.com

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Photo by Diliara Garifullina on Unsplash