Motive Checks: The "So That"
The summer I was a counselor at Spruce Lake Wilderness Camp, each week, the girls claimed a "night out" on the ballfield, and the boys would do the same the next night. Way out in the wilderness where we were, there was very little light pollution, and the stars became a brilliant, speckled covering as we lay our sleeping bags out on the grass in a big circle and sang songs before we fell asleep. Often, shooting stars gave us a "live action" visual to add luster to what we were already seeing.
It was a good thing I was already lying down as I studied the heavens; it tended to make me a little dizzy.
Paul ends Romans 11 with a doxology of praise to God, Who is so far beyond the reach of explanation, that it seems a fitting conclusion to this complex, layered, and incredibly grace-filled plan to bring about the salvation of both the Jews and the Gentiles to culminate in the salvation of every person who believes in Jesus -- from the beginning of time to the end of it.
He says: "Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgments, and His paths beyond tracing out! Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor? Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever! Amen" (Romans 11:33-36).Y'all, when was the last time you sat (or stood) and simply... praised Him? When was the last time you praised Him without expectation, without requests, without payback?
Here was my epiphany moment this morning: Even when I praise God... there is a part of me that realizes: This feels good. Feeling good = payback. Feeling good = endorphins. Nothing against feeling good. Feeling good is a natural outpouring of what happens when we open ourselves up to Him.
But why am I praising Him? What are my motives? Am I praising Him, because He is worthy of praise, full stop?
This is where the "sacrifice of praise" (Hebrews 13:15) comes in. Am I praising Him because He is worthy of praise, and that's it? Or am I adding on conditions: I'm praising Him, but also, it's nice to feel like I'm doing what I should be doing, and also, because if I do praise Him, maybe He'll answer my prayer requests, too...
I talked about ambushes of praise yesterday, praising God as a front-line offensive strategy against the enemy, but even there are ulterior motives to praise.
When was the last time we praised God -- not with hands outstretched in expectation for return gifts -- but empty hands, simply because "from Him and through Him and to Him are all things?"Paul gives a motive-check in Ephesians 1:17: "I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know Him better."
Motive-Check: So that. Why do we want a spirit of wisdom and revelation? So we can wow our friends with how wise we are? So we can "see" clearly into situations or events and give a revelatory word? So that we can feel like we are doing good things for the kingdom of God?
All of these circle around to the big M-E. Me, me, me.
They take our attention right off of: "...so that you may know Him better."
The galaxies are mind-bending. The sight of them, in comparison to self, obliterates any thoughts of, you know, importance in this vast universe. And yet the stars were created, too, by the Creator, just as we were. The stars give us a fraction of a glimpse of the overwhelming and vast glory of God -- as David says in Psalm 8:3-4: "When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, what is man that You are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?"And even in all that, God made mankind as the crowning jewel of His creation: "You made him [mankind] a little lower than the heavenly beings [angels], and crowned him with glory and honor. You made him ruler over the works of Your hands; You put everything under his feet" (Psalm 8:5-6).
That's incredibly humbling. That in spite of all the glory of creation, the Lord put us in charge of it, of "ruling" it.
And in our sin-nature, how we've misguided that intention and responsibility. How we've directed the Lord rather than the Lord directing us. "How unsearchable His judgments, and His paths beyond tracing out! Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor? Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?"So when we don't understand the why's, praise Him so that we can know Him better. When we question the Lord's wisdom, praise Him so that we can know Him better.
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