Not To Us

“Not to us, O LORD, not to us
but to your name be the glory,
because of your love and faithfulness.”
Psalm 115:1

This song of praise begins with words of humility. These words acknowledge God as the object and source of their worship. As this song was sang by the worshipers in the temple they were reminded of God’s love and faithfulness for His people. All of the achievements of the Israelite’s were not their own, but God’s. The words “Not to us” pointed people to God with a resolve for all others to know God and His love. Their words of worship have a simple, yet powerful truth about humbling ourselves before the Lord.

The Psalms have a supernatural way of opening our eyes to our selfishness and pride. When we step back from our human perspective and seek God’s perspective we can see the immense amount of effort, money, and time we spend in our culture to win. I do believe competition and winning can be a good thing to sharpen our skill and abilities and create a fun, interactive environment.  I love a good competition. Sadly enough, winning has become more about placing our worth in defeating others, trying to get more attention from more people, and lifting ourselves higher and higher on the pedestal of pride. Winning has become the definition of value and importance in our culture. What breaks my heart is how easy it is to turn everything in our lives into winning, thus to bring the focus onto ourselves, our accomplishments, for our glory.

As we prepare our hearts for the time of worship, including the vote, on Sunday afternoon, I believe we must approach it more than simply as an exercise to win. At first glance this may sound counter intuitive to all we’ve been discussing and praying. It’s not. Yes, we do believe it is time to step away from the denomination and discontinue our affiliation because of a lack of alignment in Biblical understanding and interpretation. And, yes, that will require from us more “Yes” votes, than “No” votes. Yes, God has laid the conviction to take this necessary step onto the hearts and minds of the leaders and congregation of this church family. However, a win can be a loss if we don’t give God the glory and continue to seek Him in the days ahead. If this vote is about US winning, pride will take hold of our hearts. If this vote is about US pridefully declaring victory over others, then disrespecting and devaluing others will be the norm. If this vote is about US getting praise and attention, then God will not get the glory.

Our prayers and mindset must be that God gets the glory, no matter the result of the vote. Our prayers must gratefully declare that God’s love and faithfulness has and is being poured out on this body of believers known as Eaton Community Church. Our prayers must be that we will walk with God in our convictions and seek to be obedient to Him and His Word. Our prayers must be that others would praise Him!

Join me in today’s prayer:
“God, we come together in prayer this day to declare that you ARE God! We are grateful that you have demonstrated your love and faithfulness in every situation. To You, God, be the glory! We ask that in this time of discernment and preparation you would speak clearly to us about this important decision of leaving the denomination. To You, God, be the glory! We confess that we are prone to being prideful. Forgive us God, for any hurt or disrespect of you or others that we have shown. Thank you for your forgiveness. To You, God, be the glory!Lead us in obedience to your Holy Spirit and may all of our actions and words point people to you and your Son, Jesus. Not to us, O LORD, but to your name be the glory. 
In the name of Jesus, we pray.  AMEN