FROM THE DAWGHOUSE…
RECEIVING GLORY FROM MERE MORTALS
When you read the Bible over and over and over, truths can still jump out at you and grip you by the throat.
Like this one did today:
Jesus is talking to some hardcore, grizzled disbelievers and outright persecutors…of Him:
“How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another, and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God?”
John 5:44
When a man is totally consumed with what other people, mere mortals, think of him, he will not have any inclination to seek the praise, honor, reward…aka…glory, that comes from God. He won’t even think of putting his trust in Christ’s cross work, let alone in God’s existence because God does not matter to him.
People matter to him. Mere mortals matter most to him.
Imagine that.
Why would I want praise and admiration and glory from people who themselves are so often severely flawed, selfish, self-absorbed, narrow minded, short-sighted, intellectually obtuse, educationally limited, politically dense, and relationally stunted?
It’s a mystery. But it’s often the truth for us:
Mere mortals ourselves longing for the praise of other mere mortals.
Some questions:
- Where in my life do I seek approval and praise from people?
- How do I go about trying to get people to praise me?
- How could these strategies to gain glory be manipulative of others?
- Why don’t I value God’s glory or praise of me more than mere mortals?
- What in my early life experiences or temperament could have caused me to be obsessive about getting praise from others?
- How does our culture fuel glory-getting from people?
- How can a focus on my identity as God’s deeply beloved son in Jesus institute a new attitude in me of seeking to get praise from God and not from mere mortals?
- If I seek glory from God, will it increase my faith? Is that what Jesus is saying here?”
Chew on this some. I am.
I suspect that Jesus here is poking a weak spot in all of us.
Here’s to finding glory from God and not from mere mortals!
Pete Alwinson
