One-hundred and ten years later, in 2011, it had risen to 79 years. According to some calculations provided by Our World in Data, the average life expectancy for people living in the United States was 49 years in 1901. You probably know this already, but there is no fountain of youth. Our culture has made an idol out of many things, and one of these things is good health. But be careful that by avoiding bad health you do not also despise it. This is being a good steward of the life and the body that God has given you. ![]() We all should live responsible lives, caring for our body, eating a balanced diet, and avoiding sinful behavior which may cause physical problems and disease. Now there is a fine line between avoiding bad health and despising it. Our lives should be marked by that idea: God must be glorified in all things, not me.Our culture has made an idol out of many things, and one of these things is good health. We would do well to heed the words of John the Baptist: “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). How? Take the time to dwell on God’s glory, be motivated to glorify Him rather than self, do things in the name of the Lord, and be thankful for the blessings He has given you. So what does this mean for you? It means that in the menial tasks at work, in those difficult moments with your kids, in the homework that seems pointless, in the time that feels wasted in traffic, in that quick bite to eat at McDonalds – and so on and so forth – we are to be glorifying God. Our lives should be marked by a desire to glorify God, by living to do things in the name of God, and thanking God. We see in these two verses that we are to: 1) glorify God in all things 2) do all things in the name of the Lord Jesus and 3) give thanks to God in all things. God is all about His own glory, and as we are transformed by His Spirit we too become more and more about God’s glory! Therefore, whatever we do, we should be striving to glorify Him – striving to please God, praise God, thank God, and pursue God. Paul writes in Colossians 3:17, “whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” And in 1 Corinthians 10:31 Paul writes something similar, saying, “whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” The Bible is very clear: whatever you do, do it for God’s glory. That’s what the Bible commands us to do, as we see in today’s reading. ![]() And when that happens, our lives should change from being about glorifying self to being about glorifying God. We need to have our hearts changed by God, to be drawn by Him toward Him, to see even a glimpse of His glory. ![]() We should seek God’s glory, not our own.īut this is not something we do naturally as unbelievers in fact, even those ‘good’ things that we do apart from Christ are not actually good, because we are not doing all to the glory of God as the Bible commands. The Bible makes it clear that we should do all things to the glory of God, because HE is the most glorious, in HIM is the fullest pleasure found, and HE is most worthy. But here’s the problem with that: we should seek the glory of the One who is most glorious and in whom is the most pleasure and who is most worthy, and we are not Him. This is no surprise, becasue we all fundamentally are bent toward seeking our own glory. In other words, maybe when I’m retelling a story I will filter out some of the ugly parts and just tell it in such a way as to make me look better. There’s a funny little thing that I do, sometimes almost unknowingly, that I’m sure will be all too familiar for those reading this post: I tend to filter events through a lens of making myself look better.
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