PSALM 115:1 – Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!
THEME OF THE DAY. THE WAR FOR HEART SUPREMACY. As we read today’s scripture, do we feel the conflict in the Psalmist’s heart? It is not difficult to see the war raging within him. It is intense. It is gut-wrenching. And it is a war that rages in every Christian. It is defined by the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Galatians – “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do” (Galatians 5:16-17).
There is a spiritual conflict within us between two competing forces. The nature of the conflict is about control; about supremacy; about who is on the throne of our hearts. The identity of these “combatants” are self and the Lord Jesus. Or we might further define them as either self-love or Christ’s love slugging it out for supremacy in our hearts and lives. So, along those lines, let’s enter the battle today . . .
First, the war for heart supremacy is on-going and intense. Twice the Psalmist proclaims, “Not to us, Lord, not to us” regarding who the center of attention is in our lives or whose glory is to be exalted. The double negative reveals this is no small matter to the Christian. Never underestimate the deceptive power of the sin of self-love. We are a people always prone to put self-interests ahead of both Christ’s interests and the interests of others. That is what sin does. It focuses on self. It seeks to put personal preferences, personal desires, and one’s will above the Lord’s will. In the Garden of Gethsemane, the Lord Jesus agonized in prayer to His Father these words, “Nevertheless, not My will, but Your will be done.” In the Christian life, our daily battle of self-centeredness will pull us to live the opposite of the Lord’s words, “Nevertheless, my will be done, not Yours.” Oh, we would never “pray” those words of selfish rebellion, but we easily live those words of selfish rebellion. When we give more of our time to self-interests and self-serving than Christ’s interests and serving others, we are living out the words, “My will, not Yours, be done.” To do so means Christ does not have the place of supremacy in our hearts.
The second truth in the war for heart supremacy is the way to victory, with victory being defined as Christ Jesus holding the chief place of affection in our hearts and lives. Notice where the Psalm places the emphasis after refusing to allow self-glory to reign in his heart. He takes his eyes off himself and places his heart’s eye on God’s name and the manifestation of His steadfast love and faithfulness. The way to kill the sin of selfishness is to learn to meditate upon God and His incredible acts of love and faithfulness to us. Renew the mind by thinking long and often on the majesty of our Lord in the many expressions of His love and faithfulness to us. The more we draw our attention to think on God the less we think of ourselves. The more we are occupied with meditating upon the attributes and character of the Lord Jesus, the more self-centeredness is purged from our lives. What we give our attention to in our thinking will always lead to what we give our actions to in living.
Friends, our hearts where created anew in Christ Jesus for Him. He is the only King who is to occupy the throne room in our lives. It will be a battle to keep Him high and lifted in all we do, but it is a battle we may win. All spiritual victories begin with desire; a desire expressed in prayer, “Nevertheless Lord, Your will be done, not mine.”
PRAYER: “Father, help me to daily fight to keep Your Son, not a part of my life, but the center of my life.”
QUOTE: “Everything, every person, and every event in life exists and occurs for one purpose – God’s glory”