God is worthy to be praised for Who He is, what He has already done for us, and what we are trusting Him to do for us in Christ. Every good thing that we have in our lives past, present and future is a gift of His grace. Even the things we think we worked hard to gain for ourselves are made possible by Him, for every ability and opportunity are given to us from Him. Therefore, let us celebrate Him before others and commend Him to others for all that He does for us, and that He delights to do so. Today… Honor Him for His blessings. Honor Him by enjoying His blessings as He intends. Honor Him for being a Blesser.
To Seek His Honor Is To Seek Our Happiness
The ultimate goal of our lives is for God to be honored in us and us to be happy in Him. There isn’t anything higher to aspire to than the duality of God’s honor and our happiness. When we thank Him, trust Him, and treasure Him, these two things are achieved. Thanking Him means our hearts are glad because of something He gets glory for doing. Trusting Him means we delight to do what God has decided because we believe that He is good. Treasuring Him means we find enjoyment in His companionship because He is infinitely worth knowing. To seek His honor is to seek our happiness.
It Is Always Appropriate To Applause God
Who He is deserves it. What He does deserves it. Our great God accomplishes great things and is worthy of our heartfelt praise. Let us stand still, stand back and stand in awe of the One Who is perfect in every act, every decision, every purpose, every trait and every way. He creates from nothing. He rules over everything. He can do anything. And all that He is, says and does is good. We cannot improve upon a single thing in the universe that bears His handiwork or bears His likeness. Today, let us worship Him with glad and grateful and glory-giving hearts, remembering this: It is always appropriate to applaud God.
Whatever It Takes To Be Happier In Jesus
Every single day you and I should do whatever it takes to be happier in Jesus. That’s how we win against temptation, frustration and dissatisfaction in this life. The attempts we make to improve ourselves, improve our circumstances, and improve our lives should not simply be about trying to take away things we dislike and add in things we do like. Instead, our goal should be to know and enjoy Jesus more and more and more. We grow in our inner peace, rest, security, confidence, hope and joy not because over and over we figure out a way to make things better, but because over and over we find our way to Jesus.
To Gain All That Jesus Has To Offer
We go to great measures to gain treasures in this world. But trophies, trips, triumphs, titles, toys, things and time spent on earthly pursuits and pleasures with no regard for eternity will undo us in the end. It’s not that these things are inherently wrong, evil or unprofitable; it’s that we often ignore God to pursue them and value them more than we do Him. God has given us all things richly to enjoy, but the point of that enjoyment is to point us to Jesus. To gain all that the world has to offer yet not have Jesus is to have nothing at all. To gain all that Jesus has to offer yet not have the world is to have everything.
Seeing Signs Of God Everywhere You Look
You can look all around and conclude that God is absent or that He is present. May He give us spiritual eyes that see… Not just the beauty of a sunset, but the God who paints the sky. Not just the miracle of a baby’s birth, but the God who brings things to life. Not just the taste of a great meal, but the God who invented flavors. Not just the satisfaction of achieving a goal, but the God who empowers us to do so. Not just a lovely wedding, but the God who created marriage. Not just a great day, but the God who offers us eternal life. Shining through every good and right and true thing we see is an ever-present God.
He Is The Real Gift
It is right to enjoy the good gifts of God in the way that He designed them to be enjoyed because that’s why He gives them to us. The sights, sounds, smells, tastes and touches of the created world are supposed to be enjoyed because God made them to send and made us to receive … pleasure. But rather than enjoying them too little (ingratitude) or too much (idolatry), let us enjoy them as they were intended, as a catalyst for treasuring the Gift-Giver far beyond what He might give to us. The gifts that God sends us are wonderful; but they are nowhere near as wonderful as Him. He is the real gift!
Not To Us, But To God Be The Glory
Christians should talk more about what God does than about what we do. Even when we speak of what we do, it should be as a platform to talk about the enabling power, provision and presence of God in our lives. We don’t have it all together. We won’t get it all together. We can’t keep it all together. None of us wear capes as if we are super Christians; we wear the righteousness of Jesus. None of us have magical powers that enable us to do things; we have the power of the Holy Spirit. None of us belong on the throne of worship; we belong to a Heavenly Father Who does. Not to us, but to God be the glory!
God Is Greater
God is greater. A chef prepares delicious and nutritious foods, but God made flavors and taste buds and ingredients and nutrients. An engineer builds strong and magnificent structures, but God created angles and dimensions and textures and materials. An artist paints beautiful canvases, but God invented shapes and colors and strokes and imaginations. We do whatever we do only because God does what He does. The talents to use the things we see, hear, smell, taste and touch in this world all come from God. He invents and inspires every good thing that we use, arrange, perform, create or do. God is greater.
Most Thankful For Him
The sweetest of all thankfulness isn’t superficial; it goes deep. It goes past feeling happy that certain things are in our lives. It goes past naming those things so it is known that we appreciate them. It goes past even tracing their origin back to God and thanking the Giver for all of our blessings. There is a delightful, wonderful, beautiful experience when our gratitude is not merely directed toward God for His gifts, but toward God for Himself. We give thanks that among many things, He is a holy, loving, kind and gracious Father. The way to be best thankful for all that God has given us is to be most thankful for Him.
Offer Thanks For His Giving
We can be grateful for many things, and we should be. We can be grateful to many people, and we should be. We can be grateful on many occasions, and we should be. But there is One who makes every good thing, every good person and every good occasion in our lives possible by His amazing grace. God sent Jesus to be perfect for us because we aren’t, absorb wrath for sin so we don’t, and secure the blessings for us that we can’t. Jesus paid our sin penalty and paid for our special privileges so that we might be forgiven, freed and favored. Today and every day, let us offer thanks for His giving.
Grace Points The Way To Be With Jesus
All of God’s gracious actions toward us are designed to lead us toward Him. He means for us to respond to His gifts not by seeking more gifts, but by seeking Jesus … to know, trust, serve, obey, honor, enjoy, worship and love Him as we follow Him. Grace enables and encourages us to take steps with Jesus. When we do, we grow in our relationship with Him as we go with Him wherever He leads to do whatever He says. God woos us with His kindness along the way because He wants us to be together every step in this life until we are with Him forever in the life to come. Grace points the way to be with Jesus.
He Gives Grace, We Give Glory
We require it. We request it. We receive it. We rely on it. But let’s be clear about it… Grace isn’t given because we are great, but because God is. The grace of God testifies to the glory of God. When it is received and rightly understood, it results in worship for the One who gives it. It should prompt in us as receivers a celebration of Him and commendation of Him as a generous, powerful, wise, good, rich, holy and loving God. Those who think they merit what they receive have little praise for God; those who know all they have is a gift have much praise for God. Today, as He gives grace to us, let us give glory to Him.
Conviction And Celebration
Christians should know two feelings better than anyone else: conviction and celebration. We must never lose sight of this: our sin is great. We must never lose hope in this: our Savior is greater. A right response to our unfolding transformation as we follow Jesus in faith is the ongoing rhythm of repenting of our sin and rejoicing in our salvation. We were guilty, yet acquitted. We were undeserving, yet rewarded. We were trapped, yet freed. May we know the humbling, exalting experience of knowing both our sinfulness and our Savior. Let us be glad in this: Our sin may have begun our story, but the grace of God will end it.
The Prayer That Works
Many people feel like their prayer isn’t “working” so they barely or rarely pray at all. Prayer, as with all of life, should be about God being honored in us and us being happy in Him. This is why we are to pray for… The hallowing of His Name. The coming of His kingdom. The doing of His will. This results in His glory and our good! Know this… Prayer isn’t about filling up our kingdoms with what we think will make us happy; it is about being filled up by all He offers in His kingdom so we can actually be happy. You can be sure of this: the prayer that “works” is the prayer that “wants” all that God has for us in Jesus.
Praising Him And Pleasing Him
A heart that worships God strives by grace to put God at the heart of everything else. We increasingly, though imperfectly, want Him to become the center of what, when, where, why and how we do what we do. Our adoration of Him overflows into allegiance to Him. Our gladness in Him leads us to do what will glorify Him. Our love for Him compels us to live for Him. Worship changes how we think about our time, money, relationships, priorities and life purpose, and how we carry out the plans of God for us concerning these things. May God produce in us today both a delight to praise Him and a desire to please Him.
Doing Good In His Name
Let’s be honest: It’s tempting to quit doing good in this world when the good we do is not noticed by others, appreciated by others, reciprocated by others or supported by others. Yet, we must remember that none of this is the reason why we do good in the first place. We do good because God has been good to us, is being good to us and will continue to be good to us forevermore. It is His image that we show to the world when we let our lights shine, so that He might be glorified. What a wonderful reminder for today: God is good, and we get to make Him look good, when we do good in His Name.
Unending Joy In Our Unchanging God
One of the reasons why are told to “rejoice in the Lord always” (Philippians 4:4) is because all other things we might rejoice in will change. Circumstances change. People change. Interests change. When we look for our ultimate joy in something that isn’t steady and reliable, neither will our joy be. Circumstances can become unfavorable, people can become unpleasant and interests can become unfulfilling. But God doesn’t change! He never goes from good to bad. So, let us enjoy the gifts of God as a means of deeper joy in Him, remembering… We can have unending joy when we look for it in our unchanging God.
When God Says No
There is much I love about my heavenly Father. One thing is this: He doesn’t just let me do anything I want to do. He knows that there are many things I want to do which are not good for me or for other people. So, instead of letting me live selfishly, He removes some things from me in order to replace them with better things. His plans for my plans. His ways for my ways. His outcomes for my outcomes. The result isn’t that I experience less, but that I experience more. More peace. More joy. More hope. More purpose. Remember, when God says “No,” to something, He is saying “Yes” to something better.
He Is As Awesome As He Seems To Be
We live in a world that is full of exaggerations that routinely don’t live up to the expectations they create. People often make claims that misrepresent reality by making something seem bigger and better than it really is. While there are many stretches of the truth in the words of those around us, the Word of God is a reliable source of truth. Consider what it says about Jesus. The Bible does not over-state, over-hype, over-sell or over-promise on who Jesus is and what Jesus does. As infinitely perfect and infinitely great as He is spoken of in it, Jesus lives up to it. This is our expectation: He is as awesome as He seems to be.
