Life of Praise Pt. 3
Good Evening, Partners and Friends!
Today, I am excited to continue with our key scripture found in Ephesians 1:12:
As a result, we - the first to place our hope in the anointed one- will live in a way to bring Him glory and praise.
For the last several weeks we have been talking about how our lives can bring God glory and praise. Last week we talked about how telling others about Jesus brings God glory and praise. This week we are going to talk about bringing God glory and praise by becoming more Christ-like.
What does that even mean - to become more Christ-like? Does it mean we become exactly like Jesus is and be nothing of who He made us to be? No, it does not. God created each one of as a complete individual. There is no one else in the world like you! You may have an identical twin, but even in that, you are still unique to God and also to others who really know you. Becoming more Christ-like is to take who you are, in all your individuality, and press towards God in the spirit. Becoming more Christ-like is becoming stronger in your spirit; then your spirit will flow out and affect your natural man. If God has created you to be funny, then He will use you to reach people through your humor.
2 Corinthians 3:16-18 in the Message Bible state:
Whenever, though, they turn to face God as Moses did, God removes the veil and there they are—face-to-face! They suddenly recognize that God is a living, personal presence, not a piece of chiseled stone. And when God is personally present, a living Spirit, that old, constricting legislation is recognized as obsolete. We’re free of it! All of us! Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so, we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him.
As we press forward in strengthening our spirit man, we will begin to become brighter and brighter like Jesus in our outward man. God will then take our strengths and make us stronger, and He will take our weaknesses and make them stronger.
You may say, “but I am not bold, that is just not my personality.” True, it may not be who you are now, but God will take that and make you a bolder person in Him. First, beginning in your spirit man and then flowing out through your natural man. Just as the scriptures states, this will happen gradually as God enters our lives more and more on a daily basis. As we study His word, confess His word, seek after Him in our lives, we WILL gradually become more like Him. When others see us becoming more like Him and how He uses us individually, it will bring praise to God!
-Candace Brim