Whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, do all for the glory of God

I have been thinking a lot lately about the call of doing everything for the glory of God. That is an amazing goal. Over the past couple of months I have been praying more with God-centered requests. It has been something different, but peaceful. This thought process has carried over into my daily behavior and goals and actions. I find that I do very little with a God-centered consciousness. This has at least three-fold effect on me. One it humbles me. All I do without His glory as my goal is sin. So if I ever thought, “I am a pretty good person”, this pretty much devastates my case. I fall far short of doing the only true good there is…glorifying God. Second, it drives me back to the cross of my redemption. If not for Jesus laying down His life for me, I would suffer the wrath of God myself. But as it is, He took my punishment on Himself. Third, it pushes me to press harder for this goal…to think more…to be more thoughtful about all I do. In too many ways, we “retire” from thinking. We learned so many ideas when we were young that we accepted without consideration and we refuse not only to bend in those views, but also to even think them through. No thinking! We believe what society teaches us without thinking it through. We even accept what any preacher says, whether or not it is what Scripture means or not. We have lost our minds…or the proper use of them anyway.

So, I am driven to think more. Why am I against abusing drugs? Is it because I was taught to be or because it is objectively wrong? How should I glorify God with the issue? Is abortion wrong? How can I glorify God in defending the unborn and fighting the evil of murder? How can I fail to glorify Him in doing it? Sports. How can supporting a sports team glorify God? How can it fail to glorify God? Why am I a Republican about to be an independent? Should I separate politics from God? No. That would glorify politics. I am here to glorify God. I cannot support things God condemns and I cannot condemn what God condones. I need to make my decisions based on Scripture. Why does Socialism threaten me? Why do I believe in a Republic and Capitalism? How can I glorify God in fighting things that are not good and standing for things that are? Is my fight worth anything if it is not for God’s glory? Even if I stand for all the right things, and fight against all the wrong things…if I do not do it for Him and His greatness and value to be put on display, I have done nothing better than my enemies and opposers. So please pray this prayer for me: That I would be Biblically thoughtful in all I do this coming year.