There is a progression that we must go through in order for our habits to glorify God. This devotion looks at how our thoughts, aspirations, and obedience bring God glory.
Nuggets
- Our thoughts impact our lives and how we glorify God.
- We take our thoughts and want to honor God.
- We follow through with our thoughts and desire by putting them into action by obeying God’s commandments.
To read devotions in the Habitual Holiness of Heart and Life theme, click the button below.
We want to get practical this year. How do we make holiness habitual? One concept that might have us scratching our heads is glorifying God.
One sermon I threw in the drafts folder was Crummell’s Glorifying God. We can have questions about exactly what that means.
Resource
Crummell wrote that we are to glorify God in our body and spirit. But what does that look like?
Let's Put It into Context
Here is a running list of nuggets for the series.
Glorifying God in our Thoughts
“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (Phil. 4: 8 ESV)
Our thoughts impact our lives and how we glorify God.
Paul gave the Philippians a list of things on which to think. What he was really telling them to do was to think on perfection – becoming mature disciples in God.
Perfection means we reach a state of maturity because the combination of the spiritual graces form, when all are present, spiritual wholeness or completeness — holy, sanctified, and righteous.
- Spiritual graces are worldly morals that have been submitted to God to further His kingdom instead of enhancing this world.
- Holy means to be set apart — because of our devotion to God — to become perfect, and morally pure while possessing all virtues.
- Pure means not being sinful or having the stain of sin.
- Virtues are standards of moral excellence.
- Sanctified means to be set free from sin.
- Sin is not believing that Jesus is our Savior to save us from our actions by humans that disobey God and break one of His reasonable, holy, and righteous laws and commandments, goes against a purpose He has for us, or follows Satan’s promptings.
- Righteous means we are free from sin because we are following God’s moral laws.
- Holy means to be set apart — because of our devotion to God — to become perfect, and morally pure while possessing all virtues.
Glossary
There might be an element of fake-it-until-we-make-it here. We need to see ourselves as the pure disciple that God sees – even when we know we aren’t.
No, that isn’t supposed to make us proud or entitled. It shows us our potential – what we are supposed to be.
What difference does that make? Crummell spelled it out. He wrote, “It is evident that all human actions commence in the mind of men. The mind, under some impulse or motive, moves and then the man moves.”
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When we begin with a picture of us as God sees us, our actions stem from that picture. It is better from that picture than a picture of sin.
We say we act without thinking. Crummell disagreed with that. Our actions are governed by our thoughts. Our thoughts either make our character or indicates what our character already is.
I think I know what Crummell is saying. We may not think in the heat of the moment, but our character is built by our previous thoughts. When we act in character, we are acting out our thoughts.
The problem is, many times, we are just thinking about this world. We leave God out of our thoughts.
For some, that rejection is a conscious decision. We choose to deliberately ignore God.
Crummell acknowledged that others dishonor God through neglect rather than a conscious decision. We become careless and indifferent in our relationships with Him. (Isn’t that what the Israelites did?)
What was Crummell’s advice in progressing from thoughts to aspirations?
- Approach thinking about God soberly.
- Consider what He did in the past, is doing in the present, and will do in the future.
- Consider what He did in valley experiences as well as mountaintop experiences.
- Think about all His attributes.
- Study His laws and commandments along with His covenants.
Being sober is a character trait distinguished by self-control, genuineness, and sound moral judgment. It is a calm and temperate disposition.
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
We can’t gloss over the meditation part of this. It is a thorough examination of the holiness to which God is calling us and where we are falling short.
We are to thirst after righteousness. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied” (Mt. 5: 6 ESV).
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
Bottom line is we have to keep our thoughts on God, His character, and His commandments.
Glorifying God through Our Aspirations
“I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart” (Ps. 40: 8 ESV)
We take our thoughts and want to honor God.
Knowing about God’s Plan of Salvation isn’t enough. Jesus is not our Savior and Redeemer until we genuinely ask Him to be.
To do that, we have to want a relationship with God. We have to know that Jesus is the only way that the penalty for our sins – which we have – will be paid. We have to choose to submit to them.
Crummell said that we can’t have a unresponsive attitude toward God. He wrote, “Few things are more injurious to the mind than that passive contemplation which fails to run out into active desires or stimulated hope. It will do no good for us to think about God if such thought is not used as a means to an end, but it will do us harm.
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We can’t just think of things and not want to put feet to them. We can’t think and not let it change us.
We can’t think of God as a gum ball machine Who gives us whatever we want. Talk about insensitive and irreverent!
We do have to set our thoughts on things above.
Look at the verse again. We have to delight in God’s Will. Pierson said it is the highest way of giving God glory.
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We don’t want to just speculate on God. We have to progress to where we make a decision what to do with the knowledge of our Savior.
A big caution – we can’t make that decision based on worldly things. We will never understand everything about God and what He has done and why.
We need to decide to ABCD because we need a Savior – and that is only Jesus.
Glorifying God through Our Actions
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (Jn. 14: 14 ESV)
We follow through with our thoughts and desire by putting them into action by obeying God’s commandments.
God doesn’t want us to stop at either the thinking stage or the want-to stage. He wants us to follow through to the doing stage.
No, we don’t do to earn salvation. We do in the process of sanctification.
Salvation is the gift of life through the deliverance from condemnation and sin to acceptance and holiness and changes us from being spiritually dead to spiritually alive.
- Holiness is the transcendent excellence of His nature that includes elements of purity, dedication, and commitment that lead to being set apart.
- Purity means possessing God’s moral character, having eliminated the stain of sin.
- Spiritual death is the spiritual separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin.
- The spiritually alive are those who have ABCDed, so they are no longer separated from God.
Sanctification is the transformation of mind, body, and soul, which begins with regeneration; gradually changes our nature and morals through the promptings of the Holy Spirit; and ends with perfected state of spiritual wholeness or completeness.
- Regeneration is being changed from spiritually dead to spiritually alive and the internal new birth and requickening that God brings about through the work of the Holy Spirit to give us new character.
Glossary
Crummell said there is a really important reason we do. He wrote, “This is practical religion; it answers the requirements of our blessed Lord that we do His commandments. And there can be no true religion without this habit of outward obedience.”
Resource
The way I read this is the blessings are in the obedience, not in the doing. It isn’t that we feed the hungry. It is we are obedient to God’s directing us to feed the hungry – whether it be physically or spiritually.
These actions show how sanctification is changing our heart and character. Our relationship with Jesus has to permeate our lives, actions, thoughts, speech – everything.
Jesus isn’t interested in the concept phase. He wants the building phase. We are building our character to be like His.
Notice that the obedience is based on love. We have to know Christ through the Holy Spirit.
Spurgeon brings up a great point. He wrote, “Our [Savior] puts this ‘if’ in such a way as to teach us that love must be prior to obedience. … The essence of obedience lies in the hearty love which prompts the deed rather than in the deed itself. A heart at enmity with God cannot be made acceptable by mere acts of piety.”
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So, it boils down to two things.
- What is our meaning and purpose of doing the action?
- What are we intending to accomplish?
That means our love for Jesus governs our actions. Our actions are nothing without Him.
What if we look at it this way? Instead of making it a if…then exercise, we look at it as more of a test.
Jesus is saying, “I will know how much you love Me by your actions/obedience to my commands.”
That cuts out the interpretation that disciples don’t have to follow the laws and commandments after conversion! (Remember, God takes the worldly morals to the next level as spiritual graces.)
Maclaren reminded us that Jesus’ commands are plain and simple. He doesn’t want us to do impossible deeds.
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Jesus wants us to read His Word, take His commandments to heart, and obey. He wants us to make the progression: believe, love, obey.
We are to imitate Him! There is certainty that — when we love Him — we will be obedient.
Making the Connections #1
We want to keep our thoughts focused on God. Crummell wrote, “Nothing can be more evident than the guilt of shutting out from the mind the grandest Being and the noblest idea which can reach the intellect — thought of the Infinite and Eternal One.”
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We choose to focus on God during our lives or shut Him out. That is because God gives us free will. Free will is the ability within us to make decisions, which determine actions that produce character.
Making the Connections #2
“As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God” (Ps. 42: 1 ESV)
Crummell gave us an example. Let’s look at David.
When we think of David, we think he was described as a man after God’s own heart. Why. Crummell said it was because he continually thought about God.
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
This wasn’t some surface consideration. It was a deep contemplation. He devoted His life to God.
Did David continue to sin? Yes.
But David’s life and thoughts were centered on God.
Making the Connections #3
It will help getting it to the action level when we realize the actions are guided by the heart.
Pierson tried to help us with this concept. He wrote, “Piety is not so much any conformity of outward life, as it is a disposition toward the divine, which, in a growing Christian will become more and more habitual as a law of life, and in a sense unconscious.”
Resource
God’s priority is our spiritual condition. Our outward lives flow from that.
How Do We Apply This?
- Open our minds so that we desire a relationship with God.
- Humble ourselves before God.
- Train our minds to set our aspirations on God.
- Study God’s Word to use our own faculties to choose what is good.
- Study all the virtues.
- Progress from thinking about God to aspiring to be like Him.
- Meditate on God’s character.
- Study and pray to grow our Christian character – a part of our making-disciples purpose.
- Study to find the true meaning of God’s law.
- Fully submit to God.
- Our love of duty grows as we perform our duties.
- Grow happiness by being more obedient.
- Determine what His laws and commandments are and memorize them.
- Live according to our belief in Jesus.
- Make changes in our hearts when we struggle with one of His commandments.
Resource
Father God. You give us laws and commandments for our benefit. It shows us Your character. It is also a way to show our transformation to His character. Help us to show our love through our obedience. Amen.
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
Searching for and Seeking God
Hearing His Word (Rom. 10: 17).
Reading His Word (Rev. 1: 3).
Praying to Him (Heb. 4: 16).
Studying His Word (Ac. 17: 11).
Meditating on His Word (Ps. 1: 1-2).
Memorizing His Word (Ps. 119: 11).
If you have not admitted that your relationship is not right with God,
have not asked Jesus to be your Lord and Savior,
and have not confessed your sins,
please read through the Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
Related Links
Related Links
I have created a worksheet of the questions above. Click on the button below to access it.
Don’t know what your spiritual gifts are?
Take this Spiritual Gifts Inventory
The Disciple’s Job Description
Complete Job Description
Individual Description
The Disciple’s Job Description
Complete Job Description
Individual Description
Job Duty #4
Proclaim the Gospel (Mark 16: 15)
Job Duty #6
Make Disciples (Matthew 28: 19-20)
Job Duty #1
Be a Living Sacrifice (Romans 12: 1-2)
Job Duty #2
Work Out Our Salvation (Philippians 2: 12)
Job Duty #3
Bring Him Glory (Matthew 5: 16)
Job Duty #4
Proclaim the Gospel (Mark 16: 15)
Job Duty #5
Love People (John 15: 12)
Job Duty #6
Make Disciples (Matthew 28: 19-20)
Job Duty #7
Other Duties as Assigned
(Ecclesiastes 3: 1)
It Was Enough
Vocalist: Elaine Guthals
Keyboard: Chris Vieth
What do you think?
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