Feb 23, 2018
By Brenda Rankhorn
I’m sure most, if not all of you, have ridden a bike. Before my sons were out of school for the summer I had made a habit of taking a bike ride in the mornings. I enjoyed these early morning bike rides so much that I had found several 5-6-mile bike routes that I could take. I would attach my water jug to the bike and set an app on my phone to record speed and distance. This one particular day I had made it about 1.5 miles into my route when the chain came off my bike. Because this bike is a 15-speed with several sprockets, it took me a while to replace the chain. In the meantime, I had to endure people slowing down as they passed, causing me to wonder if some shady character was going to stop and harass me; I had to endure the heat and the bugs; and I had to endure my own worrying thoughts that maybe I would just have to walk all the way back home pushing the bike. After replacing the chain, both my hands were black and greasy from the effort, and sweat was trickling down my back.
Now I had to decide whether to ride the 1.5 miles back home or to ride about another 4 miles to finish my usual route. As I looked at my blackened greasy hands, I was reminded of my chain coming off and how inept I was at replacing it, and I began to worry that it would come off again when I would be even further from the house. I did not relish the idea of possibly walking 2-3 miles back home or squatting by the side of the road again to replace the chain. But as I looked at my hands and thought all these discouraging thoughts, I saw something else that caused my racing thoughts to take a different direction. I saw the ring on my hand and I remembered to whom I
belonged. I knew that worst case scenario I could call on my husband and he would pick me and the bike up and return me to the house. Would I remember who was on my side and continue to achieve my goal of the 5-6-mile bike ride or would I dwell on the past incident and return home quickly and safely?
Just as I had a decision to make about whether to achieve my goal for my bike ride, we all make decisions daily and even hourly about whether we will accomplish or even undertake the goal that God has set before us. There are many things that influence this decision. Before I discuss some of our motivators, or should I say, “de-motivators,” let’s make sure that we understand the goal that God has set before us.
Isaiah 43:7 states “Everyone who is called by my name, whom I have created for my glory; I have formed him, yes, I have made him.” According to this verse we are created for God’s glory. Just to make sure that this is not just an Old Testament idea, let’s see what Matthew 5:14-16 says about this. “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” From this reference, what do we learn is the purpose of our good works, of letting our light shine? To glorify our Heavenly Father. Our good works are for God’s glory. So, our goal, our purpose for existing, is to bring God glory. It is all about God.
This begs the questions: What does it mean to glorify God? And: How do we glorify God? Looking at the word glory in Isaiah 43:7, the Hebrew translation is honor, dignity, reputation, splendor, reverence. From our reference in Matthew, glorify in Greek is defined as “to make renowned, to praise, extol, magnify, celebrate, to honor, and “to cause the dignity and worth of some person or thing to become manifest and acknowledged.” Putting the two together, we can say that glorifying God means to acknowledge His greatness, give Him honor, and to make His worth known through what we say, how we act, and how we think (in every aspect of how we live). 1 Corinthians 10:31 verifies this point: “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” The goal of our lives should be to behave so that God gets the glory just as we read in Matthew 5. Live so that men will see your life and give your Father in heaven glory, not you. There is a spirit of adoration and awe from which the good deeds must flow if they are to bring God glory and be pleasing to him. Because our purpose is to glorify God, we need to know what it takes to accomplish this. Let’s turn to Hebrews 12:1-2 “Therefore…let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith…” In order to run the race that God has given us, to glorify Him, we must get rid of anything that hinders us, run with perseverance, and keep our eyes on Jesus.
Just as there were things that could hinder my choosing the bike route that I set out to take, there are things that hinder us from glorifying God, from running “the race marked out for us.” What are some things that keep us from glorifying God? When we think of glorifying God, we need to remember that it is in every aspect of our lives, in everything that we do. So, what keeps us from glorifying God by being friendly in the checkout lane at Walmart, or from sharing the gospel with the person sitting next to us at a ball game, or from praying with a fellow student at college, or from being kind to an unkind coworker, or from traveling overseas to minister to the sick in Africa? We can come up with a quite a list: pride, fear, inadequacies, busy-ness, distractions, poor health, problems, identity, feelings, our past, etc. The list can go on and on. For the purpose of making a point I’m going to focus on our identity, our feelings, and our past. We will see that the remedy for getting rid of these hindrances will be the same remedy that can be used to get rid of any and all of them.
Look for Part 2 of this series in the next issue of the Sabbath Recorder.
