Do your deeds glorify God?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ©

In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
(Matthew 5:16 (NIV))

How good are you at letting your light shine?

Let me rephrase that question and ask it like this.

Do others see Jesus in everything that you do?

Several years ago there was a big movement with WWJD – What Would Jesus Do? You would see wristbands and stickers and many other things with this prominently displayed. This did quite a lot in regard to reminding people how to act if they wanted to truly follow Jesus. I also think that this was also used by the enemy to trick believers into being submissive out of “love” when they saw something that was not right in the eyes of God. My favorite thing that I saw that someone created to clarify this statement reminded people that at one point Jesus fashioned a whip and turned over the tables of the money changers.

Does this sound like the type of “love” that the enemy has tricked us into believing about Jesus?

Jesus was compassionate toward the people lost in their sin as He encountered them, but He was also extremely passionate about the Father. He would never do anything that was contrary to what the Father instructed. He would never do anything contrary to God’s Word. His compassion for people, for us, was never to affirm them in their sin. It was to call them home to a loving Father. He was calling sinners to repent and return to the Father through Him!

With that in mind, I venture to say that there will be times when we are called to let our light shine and it will actually mean that we will be filled with the righteous passion for the Father and for His Word that made Jesus turn over tables.

Are you willing to take a stand for what is right in the eyes of the Father? Are you willing to make a public profession that you do not agree with the sinful practices that are being done? Sometimes shining your light means that you are to go into battle against the darkness and not simply try to make friends with it.

If Jesus said that only the Father is good, then in order to do good deeds, we must point people to the only one who is good. Our deeds must point to Jesus as the only way to the Father! That is how we glorify God.

Do your deeds glorify God?

Copyright 1998 – 2023 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
https://www.dailylivingministries.org
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Does what you ask glorify the Father?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ©

And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
(James 14:13-14 (NIV))

I don’t know just how many times that I have read or heard this passage, but tonight, I saw something that I understood in a new light. As believers, as Christians, we have taken this passage and condensed it to something that only represents the half truth that whatever we ask in the name of Jesus will be done for us. Read the passage again and stop to think about the things that you ask in the name of Jesus. Looking back on your faith walk, do your answers make you feel shameful for the things that you have asked for? What are some of the things that you remember asking? Did you receive an answer that matched your prayer request?

Human nature is selfish and as a result, even people who profess a faith in Jesus still possess this characteristic. Most people ask for things that benefit themselves either directly or indirectly. Even praying for healing of a loved one can be considered selfish if the reason that you pray is because you will miss them. It is a matter of motives. Do the things that you ask bring glory to yourself or to the Father? Do they stroke your ego or do they truly glorify God? Do they fuel a lust for fame and fortune or do they seek to follow God’s own heart?

You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
(James 4:2-3 (NIV))

Do your pleasures glorify God? Do your wrong motives guide you to seek after God’s heart? Each of us ask so much of God and from God, but why do we ask? What are our motives?

Does what you ask glorify the Father?

Copyright 1998 – 2020 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
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Do your words and deeds bring glory to the Lord?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living

And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
(Colossians 3:17 (NIV))

If you dedicate something to someone, what type of effort do you put into the task?

If you are like most people, then you want the dedicated task to be the best that you can offer. Think about that and then answer this question. Have you ever seen someone dedicate a book that they have written to their children and then the book is so bad that it isn’t even legible? Chances are extremely high that much effort is put into anything that is dedicated to someone. You don’t want to offend the person with less than your best effort.

Have you dedicated your life to Jesus?

Did that last question make you stop mid thought? I honestly hope that it did, for when we profess a faith in Jesus as our personal Lord and Savior, we are dedicating our life to Jesus. We are saying that we repent of our sins and will follow Jesus every day of our life. Are you thankful for the grace that you have been freely given? Are you thankful that the debt of your sin is no longer expected to be paid by you? Are you so thankful that you will leave behind your life of sin and follow Jesus? When we accept this grace, we are saying that whatever we do from that day forward is to the greater glory of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

Many cultures have a tradition that when someone saves your life, you are indebted to them and must serve them out of gratitude. If they do this for someone who has saved their physical life, how much more should we do for Jesus, who has saved our eternal, spiritual life? We should be so thankful that we glorify the Lord in all that we do.

Do your words and deeds bring glory to the Lord?

Copyright 1998 – 2019 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
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Do you do all things so that God may be praised?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living

If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.
(1 Peter 4:11 (NIV))

Have you ever stopped to truly reflect upon your motives?

Knowing human nature, I would venture to say that each of us think that we have pure motives for our thoughts and actions, but human nature is deceitful! According to this passage, everything that we do should glorify the Lord. Are you able to say that all of your thoughts and actions glorify God? There is one sure way to see if this is true. Simply have someone cut you off in traffic and see how you react! Do your words praise God? Do your actions bring glory to the Lord? There is a very good chance that even those of us who are able to spend most of our days praising the Lord will think or say or do things that are less than glorifying.

Is this your intent, or do you feel remorse when these situations bring out the sinful human nature that resides in all of us? Even if you repent of these thoughts, words and actions, what do your actions convey to the world? We know that if we repent, we will be forgiven by the Lord, but the world sees us and immediately calls us hypocrites because our actions don’t always match what we profess. Perhaps this is why we are told to think, speak and act as if we are glorifying the Lord. How we present the Lord through our personal conduct is sometimes all that the world will see. We are called to reflect His light, but if we aren’t careful, we reflect the wrong thing.

Please don’t misunderstand me on this. We are called to mature in Christ and become more and more like Jesus. This is what the Lord wants of us, but we must also recognize that we do not live in this world by ourselves. Everything that we do, especially if we profess a faith in Jesus as our personal Lord and Savior, is under constant scrutiny by the world. We don’t want to give the world anything that they can claim as falsehoods and hypocrisy when it comes to our Lord. I believe that I can safely say that too many people look to those who profess a faith in Jesus expecting them to be perfect. They have a wrong understanding of those who follow Jesus.

We aren’t perfect, but we have a Lord and Savior who is!

We should always strive to reflect Jesus in all that we do, even when we are less than perfect ourselves. We should have the desire to do all things so that God may be praised!

Do you do all things so that God may be praised?

Copyright 1998 – 2019 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
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What are we guilty of doing in our churches?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living

When Jesus entered the temple courts, he began to drive out those who were selling. “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be a house of prayer’; but you have made it ‘a den of robbers.'”
(Luke 19:45-46 (NIV))

We, as the Body of Christ, have a tendency to gloss over the events between Palm Sunday and the Upper Room, but it is crucial to remember one important event in relation to the temple during this time. Jesus made it a point to criticize the established practices of the day. He made it a point to let Jerusalem and all of Israel know that what they were doing in the temple was not acceptable in the eyes of God. They had turned the concepts of prayer, repentance and sacrifice into a business.

I want you to think about this for a moment. Most people who came to the temple came a long way so it was not easy for them to bring animals to sacrifice. As a result, someone started the practice of having animals and other offerings for sale within the outer courtyard. I am sure that these people thought that they were providing a service to their fellow Israelites who had come a long way, but it appears that they were more concerned about helping themselves get rich by charging high prices for their goods. It appears that they were so much more concerned about profit than honesty and righteousness. Jesus saw their hearts and reacted accordingly.

I want you to stop and consider some of the things that we allow to take place within the boundaries of our churches!

As we move from Palm Sunday into Good Friday and then Resurrection Sunday, it is my desire that everyone who professes a faith in Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior would take a serious look at their actions and their motives for these actions. It is my prayer that each of us would reflect on what faith in Jesus and church has become. I want you to ask yourself a few simple questions.

Is this what Jesus had in mind when He went to the cross?

Do my actions and my motives glorify Jesus or do my actions and my motives glorify me?

In essence, we need to make sure that we treat the Lord’s house with the same zeal we know that Jesus had for the temple. Are we doing things that would make Jesus chase us out?

What are we guilty of doing in our churches?

Copyright 1998 – 2019 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
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What do others see in you?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living

In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
(Matthew 5:16 (NIV))

Each of us have a spark of something that we let the world see. For far too many, that spark is something far less than what it should be. They show the world anger, greed, deceit, lust, envy and much worse. They show the worst possible traits that humanity can possess. Does this sound like a group of people that you would want to associate with? I believe that I can safely say that most of us would not want anything to do with people who possess these traits.

The sad thing about human nature is that we all can exhibit these traits at any time of our lives!

When was the last time that you felt anger? When was the last time that you deceived someone, even if it was just the proverbial little white lie? When was the last time that you looked at something or someone and had thoughts that you weren’t proud of? When was the last time that you saw the things that others have and wished that you had them?

The question that we all need to ask ourselves is a simple one.

What do others see in me?

Do they see the sinful sparks that can ignite an all consuming fire of destruction or do they see the light of Jesus?

“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.
(Matthew 5:14-15 (NIV))

If you have allowed the light of Jesus to have a place in your heart, don’t hide it under the destructive sinful nature that we all share. Allow the light to shine! Allow the light to break through the bondage of sin and death. Let the light shine so that others may see it and be drawn to it!

What do others see in you?

Copyright 1998 – 2018 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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How brightly does your light shine?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living

In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
(Matthew 5:16 (NIV))

We are told just a few passages earlier of our impact on the world.

You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.
(Matthew 5:14 (NIV))

Each member of the Body of Christ is to have an impact in this world. We are to share the truth and the light of the Gospel with a dark and dying world. No single individual can do it all. We are to each do our part. If we could physically see the light that we shine into the darkness, how bright would your light be? Are we truly doing what we are called to do?

He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”
(Mark 16:15-18 (NIV))

It is a wonderful thing to profess a faith in Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, for that is what is required to be saved. Once saved, we have a responsibility to share that saving grace with anyone and everyone whom we meet. We must allow the light that we have received to shine into the lives of those around us, for it is said that we may be the only Jesus that some people will ever see.

Copyright 1998 – 2017 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
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When you speak, what do you say?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ^©

Jesus answered, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from him who sent me. If anyone chooses to do God’s will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. He who speaks on his own does so to gain honor for himself, but he who works for the honor of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him.
(John 7:16-18 (NIV))

When you speak, what do you say?

Do the words from your mouth glorify you or do they glorify the Father?

If Jesus, as part of the Trinity, never spoke to glorify himself, what should our words be doing?

It is human nature to be self-promoting. It is human nature to stroke our own ego and to make ourselves sound more important than we really are. I often think that the fall from grace in the garden took away more than most people realize, for it took our ability to be at peace with our gifts and talents in relation to everyone else. It made us feel inferior while giving us a major desire to make ourselves feel superior. We want, or perhaps I should say that we need to feel that we are much more than we are. Have we been hardwired with a desire to be what we were in the garden only to be left without any understanding of what that was or how to regain it?

All of human history, from the fall from grace to this very day, has been nothing more than billions of stories all focused around me, myself and I.

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death–
even death on a cross!
(Philippians 2:5-8 (NIV))

Can any of us honestly say that we would be willing to humble ourselves in such a manner as to point completely to someone else? That is exactly how Jesus lives His life when He walked among us. Everything He said and everything He did pointed to God, the Father.

I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.
(John 14:12 (NIV))

According to Jesus, we should be following His example!

Copyright 1998 – 2016 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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You are uniquely created for a purpose!

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ^©

Now the LORD was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did for Sarah what he had promised.
(Genesis 21:1 (NIV))

Do you ever feel that God is not going to keep a promise to you?

Take a look at Sarah.

If you remember, Sarah was very old. She was too old to have children, yet, God promised her that she would have a son. Sarah even laughed at God. Still, He kept His promise.

What is it in your life that God has promised you? Be honest. Don’t look at your life from a selfish perspective, but look at the things that have been tugging at your heart. The things that you know are impossible. The things that would glorify God if they came to be. These are the promises. God calls each of us to be a unique creation. If He created us to be that unique creation, then we each have a promise from God that He will fulfill that unique purpose if we will let Him. It takes faith. It takes patience. Sometimes, it may even take laughter. We can laugh at the impossibilities as the world sees it, and rejoice.

For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God.
(2 Corinthians 1:20 (NIV))

God has given us a gift of salvation through the atoning blood of Jesus. He has also given us a promise. He will keep His promise to each and every one of us when His timing is perfect.

When it seems that God has forgotten you and His promises to you, remember Sarah and rejoice.

Copyright 1998 – 2016 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
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Do you truly understand the love that He has for us?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ^©

After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:
“Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.
(John 17:1-5 (NIV))

We are rapidly coming up on Easter, the time when we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus from the grave.

I am thankful for the resurrection! I am thankful for the defeat of death that the resurrection brought, yet, we, as the Body of Christ, have glossed over the pain and suffering that Jesus endured before and during the crucifixion.

Jesus knew exactly what was coming!

We see images from reenactments of the passion, yet, we still don’t truly understand what He went through in order to redeem us, to bring us salvation from sin and death.

Have you ever caught your arm in the thorns of a rose or bush? Did it draw blood? It probably hurt. Now, think of the flesh being ripped from your back with each lashing of the scourge. Think of the crown of thorns being driven into your head. In comparison to what you have experienced, can you even comprehend the pain that Jesus endured so that you could claim salvation?

Have you ever hit your thumb with a hammer? It hurts. In comparison, can you imagine the pain that Jesus endured when they drove the nails into and through his hands and feet?

Jesus knew that all of this, and much more, was waiting for Him. He willingly went through all of this just so that each of us could be offered grace and mercy through His shed blood. The price that Jesus paid was far greater than many of us can even imagine, yet, He paid it willingly. I want you to stop and think about the passion. I want you to stop and think about the pain. I want you to stop and think about the love that drove Him to the cross.

Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.
(John 15:13 (NIV))

Do you truly understand the love that He has for us?

Copyright 1998 – 2016 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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