This morning, I’m going to ask the ladies in Bible class for ways we can give God glory when people praise us for something and we know the praise belongs to God. I am personally interested in their responses because this is often difficult for me.
Praise has a way of corrupting any good attitude that I might have. When someone tells me I’ve done well, pride jumps up like an impertinent ‘friend’ and says, “Pick me!” Even pondering the thought immediately stands in the way of praising God.
The person offering praise needs to be considered too. They mean well. If I’m too abrupt, I can see in their face that what I say sounds to them like a criticism of their intentions. Instead of praising God also, they are thinking, What a dolt. She’s trying to be holier than thou.
One summer day I was weeding our front yard rock garden. A neighbor drove up, got out of her car, chatted for a minute, then said, “Your garden is lovely.” In a spontaneous gesture, I held one hand up toward heaven and said something like, “Thank God.” She offered back a thumbs up response, grinning broadly. For me, praising God is seldom that simple.
In the New Testament as the church was beginning, the religious establishment didn’t like anything the disciples of Jesus Christ were doing. On one occasion, a man had been healed then Peter spoke to the amazed onlookers. Acts 4:2 says that the priests, temple captain, and Sadducees were “greatly disturbed that they taught the people and preached in Jesus the resurrection from the dead” so they put them in custody.
The next day they asked, “By what power or by what name have you done this?” In other words, who gave you the right to teach spiritual lies (in their minds) to the people? Where does your authority come from?
In those days, that was a threatening question. Peter answered it, but first God filled him with the Holy Spirit. His response meant sticking his neck out, saying things that he knew could get him in a lot of trouble, yet he pointed to the Lord as his source of power, doing so without fear.
When someone sees me do something that impresses them (I’ve not healed anyone though), they seldom, if ever, ask how I could possibly manage that. Instead, they praise me. Compared to what happened to the disciples, I’m convicted. I’d rather my actions be such that people knew I could not possibly do such things on my own, and that I needed something or someone outside of me to accomplish them.
In my heart I know that I need the Lord to do even the most ordinary stuff. I’ve never planted or cared for a rock garden and am grateful for His goodness in allowing me to do it and making it grow so beautifully. But the people around me don’t know that unless I tell them. Others grow gardens without thinking of God, so in their minds, what’s the big deal? How can anyone need God for such basic stuff?
Later on in Acts, Paul had opportunity to speak in Athens to a group of philosophers who worshiped idols. He talked of God as Creator and said, “For in Him we live and move and have our being.”
Perhaps experience plays a role, and certainly the Word of God has shown me that this is very true. I could not draw another breath apart from the grace of God. He is in charge of my life; He allows me to live and breathe, never mind accomplish things. Like Paul, I want people to know this, but telling them often seems more difficult than spontaneous. In the garden that day, the Holy Spirit lifted my hand and gave me a simple way to do it.
I’d like it to happen more often.
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