Day 38: Glorify God NOT The Struggle

Psalms 86:12

I will give thanks to You, O Lord my God, with all my heart, And will glorify Your name forever

We can all say that we’ve been gone through some hard times in our lives, we have bad days, and we go through rainy seasons, and dark valleys. It’s inevitable, it’s just how life is, sometimes it’s hard. However, with that being said, I feel like humanity loves to glorify the struggle, we credit our pain, and struggle for getting us where we are, as opposed to thanking and glorifying God for bringing us out of those dark valleys and low places. Because it definitely wasn’t us, we didn’t get ourselves out, so why is it that when we get out of the rainy season, we act like it was our strength and our strength alone? We thank the people that held us down because “it’s the only reason we were strong enough to get up.” We thank the haters because they “make us better”. But we tend to forget about the people who stayed praying for us, we forget to thank God for the good times. If I’m being honest it’s the prayers of our mothers, our elders, our peers. It’s Jesus standing at the right hand of God constantly interceding for us. But we choose to glorify the things and people that could care less about how far we’ve come from where we used to be. That makes no sense.

The scriptures says; Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. (Psalms 100:1-3)

Every moment of our lives we must glorify God, we must remember to thank thank Him for the things He does for us. What keeps us from glorifying God and thanking Him for bringing us through the hard times in our lives, is our pride. We want the credit. We want everyone to see we made, especially our haters.  Everyone wants to be “self-made”. We want everyone to know that we climbed to the top on our own, we made our own paths, we got to the top because of our hard work and dedication. Yes, but too often we forget that we are standing on the shoulders of our savior, we are standing on the shoulders of all the people who prayed for us. We are standing on the shoulders of our elders. But we got there “alone”.  It is God who made us, not we ourselves, we are merely vessels used to bring Him glory.

Today we’re going to keep it simple and sweet, but I want to end with this story.

Luke 17:11-19

Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!” When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed.One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan.Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”

Reflection

1. Based on the above passage, think back and reflect, how often have you been the one out of the ten that came to thank Jesus?
2. How often have you been the ten?
3. Based on your answers to the above questions, what can you do to change or improve your answer?
4. Why do you think we as young people tend to glorify our struggle?

Prayer Time

Reread the passage above, and ask God to help you become the one that will always come back and thank Him. Take the time today to just honor and glorify God for all the things in your life, all the good things, even the struggle because He is glorified even in the darkest moments.

Be thankful for the good things happening in your life today and everyday. Pay no attention to those holding your down, or those who don’t want you to succeed. Remember the ones that are praying for you, the ones that lift you higher so you can reach your potential.

I love you! Have an amazing day and make sure you come back tomorrow for Day 39!