

Doing Things to God's Glory

You know the feeling: "I hate doing this. What's the point? It doesn't really matter anyway."

Have you ever thought about what is happening spiritually when you think such thoughts? If you examine it honestly, you'll find that you are trying to convince yourself that it doesn't matter if you do a bad job or even if you don't do it at all.

Why do you suppose you are doing that? Is it because you really believe that it doesn't matter or is it just that you don't want to do whatever it is that you have been asked to do? Most of the time I think it is safe to say that it's just that we don't want to do a particular job and that is why we have those thoughts.

This is an important lesson for anyone wanting to be a good leader. We should try not to allow our emotions to dictate whether we do a job well or not. It's important to note here that I am not talking about people going against their consciences, just their preferences.

Usually when people drag their feet with a job, it's not that they disagree with it intellectually, just that they lack the enthusiasm to take a personal interest in it. When that happens the job drags out, gets done incorrectly and usually takes much longer than if you had just done it right the first time.

I'm hoping that through this study I can help to clear up this area of fuzzy thinking so you can be more single minded and focused on what you are doing. 1 Corinthians 10:31 says "Whatever you do, do it to the glory of God."

When you complain (or murmur) in your spirit and drag your feet when asked to perform a duty you don't like, then you are not really building God's kingdom; you're just being a systemite. God's kingdom is only built when we do something "to the glory of God".

The above phrase can become a cliché if we don't think seriously about what it means. It is a spiritual concept which can be difficult to describe. It is deeply rooted in sincerity.

The more we do to the glory of God, the more we build His kingdom. "Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it." (Psalm 127:1) The key to doing something for God is motivation! If we are doing it with the wrong motivation it's like building in the wrong place; it won't achieve anything in God's eyes.

The opposite is also true; we can be doing the "wrong" thing but because we are doing it for the right reasons God counts it in our favour. When we understand this concept of doing all things to the glory of God, it helps us to see how sincerity works and how important it is to God. (It never ceases to amaze me how churchies can so easily accept that a person may be condemned for doing the "right" thing for wrong motives and then stumble over someone being forgiven for doing the wrong thing because they had good motives.)

God knows our hearts and our thoughts, so next time you start to do something grudgingly, stop yourself and think about how what you are about to do could be an eternal contribution to God's kingdom if you have the right motivation.

Get yourself back in the spirit and into the right perspective. Don't waste this valuable opportunity. No matter how small the job may be, it's your motivation that counts and because of that all things can be done to the glory of God, from cleaning the toilet and getting out tracts to playing cards, watching a movie and even eating and drinking! Do it to the glory of God. Anything less is a waste of time.

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