JEREMIAH 14:7 – Though our iniquities testify against us, act, O Lord, for your name’s sake; for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against you.
1 JOHN 2:12 – I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for his name’s sake.
THEME OF THE DAY. IT ISN’T ABOUT US. There is a verse that opens the one hundred and fifteenth Psalm that I must often tell myself. You may need to do so also. It reads, “Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness” (Psalm 115:1). As we read it, the language of the Psalmist contains intensity. He repeats himself in his prayer with the words “not to us, not to us.” The reason for these strong words of resolve is because the ease with which humans see and live all of life like it is all about us. Our culture is so narcissistic and self-centered, even among Christians, that we may rewrite the Psalm’s opening to read, “Unto us, O Lord, unto us give glory.” That may sound harsh, but just do a quick survey in our lives, even using an imaginary scale, and see how much of our attention, focus, time, energy, and resources is tipped toward self-interest, self-agendas, and self-fulfillment. Basically, graph a week’s time or make a ledger with two columns. On one side label “Me, my, mine” and on the other mark it “Christ’s interests and the Interests of Others.” This might be an eye-opening exercise to do that may lead us to some shifting of where we invest ourselves. We might find out that truly our lives are more about “Unto us, O Lord, unto us, be the glory.” Well, today’s nugget is designed to free us from such selfish and sinful attitudes and lifestyles.
In today’s scriptures, like the opening of Psalm 115, we find repetition in the two different verses. Granted, not word for word, but close and certainly principle to principle – “for your name’s sake” and “for his name’s sake.” As simple as these are, they are profoundly transformational in the life of a Christian and church . . . if we go beyond saying we believe it to actually living it in word and deed. A good Bible study would be to study the appearance of “my name’s sake” and “His name’s sake”. It appears throughout the scriptures emphasizing it really isn’t about us at all. Now here is the application. Learn to start every day and remind yourself throughout the day that every conversation, every action, and every thought is to be characterized by the desire to bring attention to the Lord Jesus for His sake. Is this hard? No. It is impossible and that drives us to total and continual reliance on the sufficiency of His grace. And when we get to the place of being motivated to live all of life for His sake, not in part, but whole, then empowering grace becomes not something we say we believe, but a reality in how we live.
A second thing to help us live free from a sinfully selfish life to live for His name sake is to remember all God does in us and through us is to draw attention to Himself, not us. Notice the appeals in today’s scriptures toward forgiveness of sin. It isn’t about our comfort, our joy, even about our reconciliation with God. Forgiveness and restoration of His people to Himself is all about Him. Salvation is about God being honored first and foremost, not our eternal comfort. Learn to see that God is not only the author and finisher of our salvation but the One to get all the attention in our salvation and subsequent lives of living out our salvation. Less of us, more of Him is the cry of the heart that is able to say with sincerity, “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us but to your name be glory.” And we will know if we are sincere by how little our lives revolve around ourselves.
PRAYER: “Father, help me to see that all of life and even my Christian life is not about me, but all about You.”
QUOTE: “The more we die to self, the more we discover what the Christian life is all about and it isn’t us”