"Humble Yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time."
The exaltaion that we will receive from God will be in His time. That is what "due time" means. It is also translatated, "that He may ealt you at the proper time." This text reminds us we do not serve God to enhance our egos, but to ultimately bring glory to Him. The proper time for exaltation is whatever time God chooses. If we base our exaltation in our Christian service on the enhancement of our egos, we are doing it for the wrong reason. If what we do brings only glory to ourselves, we have accomplished absolutely nothing. I cannot speak for every preacher; I can speak only for myself. This has been a recurring problem that I have encountered in my years of ministry. I found it easy to desire to hear from people, such comments as, "I enjoyed the sermon," or "that was good preaching." There is nothng wrong with people saying it; it is wrong when we take it to ourselves and claim the credit, and really believe the compliments that we receive. When one person says that, there might be several others who would say: "You call that preaching?. Preaching is indeed in the ear of the listener. The question is do my sermons bring glory to me, or is God lifted up in the person's life. I have heard preachers that were not eloquent, or learned, but when they preached people were challenged and changed. This can be true of Sunday School teachers, choir members, soloists, etc. I recall a lady who used to sing solos in her church. Perhaps a musician would find fault with her talent, but when I heard her sing my heart was blessed. The fact of the matter was that she was not singing to entertain me, but she was singing to bring a musical blessing that would glorify God. Her joy in singing praise to God touched my heart, and in the heart of everyone else in the congregation. When we have a place of service in the church, or when we are serving in the workaday world, we should ask if we are exalting God or self? Does our service feed our egos, or does it feed the hearts of other people, and does it bring glory to God? I do not mean that we should not use the best of our talents in serving God. God gifts us and expects us to use His gifts to bring glory to Him, and to touch hearts of other people. And, I might add to gladly use those gifts whatever other people may say. The question for us to ask in our service is not "am I doing a great job?" The question we need to ask ourselves is "will what I am doing lead people closer to God?" Keep on serving God in whatever tasks He has called you to, and do it for HIm. Appreciate the kind things that people say and tell them "thank you." Give glory to God that He is using you in His service. "He will exalt you in due time." Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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September 2021
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