We’ve sung that children’s church song about hiding our light under a bushel. It’s all about having the brilliance of Jesus in our life and letting it shine for him.
Sometimes we overlook the responsibility we carry when Jesus chooses to shine through us. The glory we receive is to be given unto him, not squandered on ourselves. The reality of our relationship with the Father above and with our fellow believers is that we are human, and he is God. He is far above us, and we operate within the permissions of his gracious love.
God doesn’t look at us and see us as Baptist, Lutheran, Chinese, African, male, or female. He also doesn’t see us as rich or poor. He pays no attention to the car we drive or the labels on our clothes.
Paul says it well in Galatians 3:28:
“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
When God blesses us, it’s not so we can lift ourselves up above those around us. It’s so we can channel the blessings of God to those who need it from our hand. If we do great things for God, and the world praises us, we are treading unstable stones if we begin to think we are the ones who deserve man’s accolades.
“Not me,” we cry. Yet, we demand a high-dollar hairdresser before the cameras roll for the Sunday night broadcast, and our hotels must be five-star when we are on the road. Our car? It must be of Cadillac quality, and only a private jet will do.
At what point have we shifted the glory of God to ourselves? Is it when our Sunday morning outfit would feed a family for a year? Or perhaps when our bottle of cologne costs as much as a struggling church member’s house payment for the month?
When God blesses us, the money’s ours. He doesn’t count every dollar we spend. Yet, does the world look at us and see our standard of living, or do they see the light of Jesus in us? In other words, have the blessings of God become the bushel that blinds the eyes of the world from seeing the truth?
We are all one in Jesus Christ. We have to be satisfied with being no more than a face in the crowd, so that Jesus is what people see when they look at us.
Our Lord is what we want them to see, after all, not our finery and standard of living. We want them to find their joy in his love and compassion, not in the blessings he can provide.
If we let God’s blessings turn us into peacocks, how will the world find the glory of Christ in us?
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Code: FGO.F.02.15.vp.esv