March 1, 2023
Growing up in a pastor’s family, I had what some people may label an “inherited faith.” It was in college that I sorted out my belief system for myself. Even at a Christian university, it could have been easy to succumb to the pressures of my culture and walk away from my childhood faith. But instead, I found a new close relationship with Jesus and I have continued growing spiritually ever since. I remember dissecting a short essay in my English class titled “Dogma is the Drama” by Dorothy Sayers, and was forever marked by her radical words.
She says, “We do [Christ] singularly little honor by watering down his personality till it could not offend a fly. Surely it is not the business of the Church to adapt Christ to men, but to adapt men to Christ.”
This week, I was convicted of watering down my Lord while reading John 5.
“How can you believe [in Me], when you [seek and] receive glory and approval from one another, and yet you do not seek the glory and approval which comes from the one and only God?” John 5:44 (AMP)
I so often minimize the value of God’s approval of me. I water down His glory. My people-pleasing flesh would rather have the momentary accolades of my girlfriends than the eternal glory only God can give me.
The Greek word for “glory” in John 5:44 is doxa, meaning: a good opinion concerning one, resulting in praise, honor, and glory.
It’s literally the same word used in Mark 2:9 to describe the atmosphere surrounding the angel who appeared to the shepherds the night Jesus was born. “An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.” (NIV)
God has a good opinion concerning me, which results in praise, honor, and glory. He literally correlates the atmosphere of angels with … ME. And for some reason I’d rather have glory or approval from my girlfriends rather than from God? Hence the conviction.
May we stop watering down the glory that our Lord desires to show us. May we truly believe that God has a good opinion concerning us; may we truly believe that He thinks highly of us - that He loves us. May we stop striving for the approval of man and instead discover the true peace of our souls in the approval of the God of the universe.
3 Then Samuel said to all the people of Israel, “If you want to return to the Lord with all your hearts, get rid of your foreign gods and your images of Ashtoreth. Turn your hearts to the Lord and obey him alone; then he will rescue you from the Philistines.” 4 So the Israelites got rid of their images of Baal and Ashtoreth and worshiped only the Lord.
I Samuel 7
Psalm 84: How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts! My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God. Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young at your altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God. Blessed are those who dwell in your house, ever singing your praise! Selah Blessed are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion. As they go through the Valley of Baca they make it a place of springs the early rain also covers it with pools. They go from strength to strength; each one appears before God in Zion. O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer; give ear, O God of Jacob! Selah Behold our shield, O God; look on the face of your anointed! For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly. O Lord of hosts, blessed is the one who trusts in you! (ESV)
