What Does Your Life Say?

..."Look at me!" or "Look at my great God!"?...

Last week I wrote about taking our thoughts captive, and while praying about what to share this week it seemed only logical to go to the next step…our actions.

I loved during JP’s last message when he said, "How you act shows what you are under the influence of…the way we act is important because it points back to who are influencer is."

I always feel a big gut check when thinking about this:

Have my actions glorified God or myself?

For 25 years I’d say I lived trying to control, doing things my way, to make myself feel better or look better in the moment. My actions glorified how "strong" I was and had nothing to do with how great God is. There was a year of my life where I was under the influence of alcohol quite a bit. I used to like to say it gave me "liquid courage" to do and say things that I wanted to. The truth is, I used alcohol to numb how I was really feeling…lonely, broken, scared, hopeless, unlovable, and unforgiveable.

Todd touched on it Sunday when he said, "closed doors will never stop or hide the destruction going on in your life." I thank God so much for bringing me to my knees, and to a place of true authenticity where I didn’t have to hide my struggles behind closed doors. I could finally lay down everything at the foot of the cross. Because of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus I found healing, forgiveness, peace, and love.

It wasn't until I truly grasped the Gospel that I could understand Romans 7:15-25. I encourage you to spend some time with the Lord going through this passage. I’ve put some of the verse below:

"For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do--this I keep on doing... What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!"

It’s so easy to live in a way that our actions glorify ourselves. The whole "look at me" mentality, saying we don't care what others think of us, yet living in a way to get others attention and approval. I pray that our actions and words would glorify our SAVIOR instead of ourselves. That we would love and point to our CREATOR rather than his creations.

I was reminded recently that I shouldn’t fit in the scene I used to be a part of. Not because I am in any way judging, but because I am alive in Christ and live in the light. As believers we should stand out by our actions. People should want to know what/who we are being influenced by...Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.

Are you under the influence of self and this world, or under the influence of Christ? Are your actions pointing back to and glorifying God?

I loved after winning the Super Bowl Greg Jennings first response was, "Wow...To God be the glory."

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