Shema
CF Ambassador
An Emoji devotions for Mon, April 18, 2022
Topic: Glory to God – our responsibility
by Pastor Wenger
Highlights:
Not to us, Lord, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness. Why do the nations say, ‘Where is their God?’ Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him. (Psalm 115:1 – 3)
May you be blessed by the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. The highest heavens belong to the Lord, but the earth he has given to the human race. It is not the dead who praise the Lord, those who go down to the place of silence; it is we who extol the Lord, both now and for evermore. Praise the Lord, Hallelujah! (Psalm 115:15 – 18)
Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits – who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked. (Luke 12:48b)
When we read through the Old Testament we are reminded to praise and glorify the Lord time and again. Nevertheless as we arrive in the last chapter of it, we hear the God fearing people complain and speaking harshly against God. ‘You have spoken arrogantly against me,’ says the Lord. ‘Yet you ask, “What have we said against you?” ‘You have said, “It is futile to serve God. What do we gain by carrying out his requirements and going about like mourners before the Lord Almighty? But now we call the arrogant blessed. Certainly evildoers prosper, and even when they put God to the test, they get away with it.”’ (Malachi 3:13 – 15) What happened?
The asking of the nations mentioned in Psalm 115 got so strong that the God fearing people began to get in tune with the evil song. God got degraded to a weak “quantity negligible” and human power and achievement were praised. They forgot to praise the Lord, which is the foremost task of his followers. With the neglecting of glorifying God they lost their joy and inner balance and slowly but surely, following God grew to a mournful and futile burden. It is not enough to preserve the scriptures and to adhere to what the Lord has done in the past, although this is the basis for our living with God in the here and now. We are responsible to praise the Lord for his past deeds and for what we are experiencing with him in the present. By diving into his goodness and love we will be renewed daily in our living hope for the glory to come, in which he grants us a place on his side. “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will – to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.” (Ephesians 1:3 – 6) He has bequeathed us with his whole inheritance. Is this not enough to publicly sing his praises?
His handiwork, the heavens and the earth, his whole creation worships and praises him, but Psalm 115 reminds us that it is we, who are responsible to extol him. He has given us not only much, but literally everything. He has a right to expect thankfulness and praise from us. Dear Brother, dear Sister, let us stop complaining about hardships and let us fill our environment with glorifying him and singing his praises, no matter what!
Prayer: Dear Lord God, dear Lord Jesus, I repent from my being gloomy instead of giving you thanks and praise for all you have done for me and for all you are presently doing for me on a daily bases. I want to open my mouth and fill my life and the lives from the people around me with your praise and glory. I am weak, but you are strong. Fill me with your spirit so that my life will glorify you in the mighty power of your wonderful goodness, your mercy and your strength. Amen.
