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Is God Egotistical?

May 14, 2011 by Fritz

I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images. – Isaiah 42:8

We don’t like people who consider themselves, usually at our expense, supremely important. Yet God considers himself the most important person in the universe for all time. Is God egotistical? It would be incorrect to think so.

John Piper (1946 – ), Reformed Pastor and Theologian, addresses it this way,

God would be unrighteous (just as we would) if He valued anything more than what is supremely valuable. But He Himself is supremely valuable. If He did not take infinite delight in the worth of His own glory, He would be unrighteous” – Desiring God, pg 42-43

We don’t like those of our rank who consider themselves supremely important because they are not, but God is.

He calls us to value him highest because as we do we place life’s anchor on someone who will not give way. His glory is not at our expense but for our benefit.

Prayer: You, Father, are supremely valuable and it is right for all creation to give you, alone, praise and worship! Amen!

Sound Bite: It is right to give God thanks and praise!.

-fritz@langgang.com

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Praising Without Feelings

May 13, 2011 by Fritz

Anthony Bloom

Some think it insincere to offer praise to God without the corresponding feelings.

Anthony Bloom (1914 – 2003), Archbishop in the Orthodox Church, has good insight here.

When you live in your family, and you work out of doors and are doing a heavy kind of work, you may come back physically worn out. If at that moment your mother, your sister, your father or whoever else, said ‘Do you love me?’ you would say ‘I do.’

If the other person goes on investigating, ‘Do you really love me at this moment?’ what you could honestly have said is ‘No, I feel nothing but my aching back and worn out body.’ But you are perfectly right in saying ‘I love you’ because you know that underneath all exhaustion, there is a live current of love.
– Beginning to Pray, page 35-36

It is that way with God. For one reason or another we don’t always feel our love for him but there is, still, a live current of love.

Prayer:Father, I thank you there is a live current of love in me for you and yours, even when I don’t always feel it.

Sound Bite: The live current of Love for Christ is deeper than my surface feelings.

– fritz@langgang.com

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Give Yourself A Good Talk’n To

May 12, 2011 by Fritz

Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah. – Psalm 4:4

Dr. James Strong (1822-1894) in his Concordance, did us a great service.  He shows us that the Hebrew word translated here as, “commune”, actually means to “talk to”.   So this is not a command to meditate or get in touch with your inner self but to give yourself a good talking to.

The Psalmist knew an important fact about the human psyche – the different parts don’t always align. We sometimes have to tell ourselves to get with the program, to stop sinning and start believing what we know is true, to stop worrying and start trusting God and his word.

Don’t be like a cup, blown around by the wind, start talking to yourself!

– fritz@langgang.com

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