“Not to us, Lord, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness.”
Psalm 115:1 (NIV)
Being a Christian is not actually that easy. And being a Christian AND a teenager is 2x more difficult.
Simply because we deal with a lot of things that could challenge our faith such as pulsions, (bad) friends, teachers, habits… so completely dedicate our lives to Christ as a teenager can be very difficult.
And two of the most complicated things I’ve had to deal with must have been submission and humility.
When I gave my life to Christ, I had what I call “the zeal of the beginning”. See, I used to think that I could do anything BY MYSELF to make MY NAME known and then God’s name known.
So yeah, I thought I could do a lot of stuff. And I’m not that wrong. I can sing, jump, run, preach and everything. I have that “zeal” and energy of the beginning.
But it took a lot more time to realize that everything that I may do wasn’t for myself or by myself but everything was only for God’s glory.
And God made me understand one of the most important things and one of the fondation of our Christianity :
“Then Jesus said to his followers, “If any of you want to be my follower, you must stop thinking about yourself and what you want. You must be willing to carry the cross that is given to you for following me.”
Matthew 16:24 (ERV)
So, yeah. I can sing, jump, run and all those stuffs. But if today God tells me to preach, although I want to sing, I must do what He wants me to do because in any ways, all the glory belongs to HIM.
Of course, giving up on our own will is hard. Actually, it’s pretty hard. And can be frustrating. And irritating. But it’s also peaceful. Why ? Because God knows better than us what is better for us.
So if God isn’t the one who inspires everything we do or say, even if it’s good and in line with the Bible, what we are doing or saying is pointless.
Why ? Because it is all about Him. Not about us.
Our goal, as Christians and children of God, is to make Jesus-Christ’s name known before any other name.
And even though, those kind of submission and humility can be really hard, we can do it with the help of the Holy Spirit.
If the disciples, who were just as humans as we are made it, why wouldn’t we ?
It’s hard, but we can make it by sincerely and truly submit our lives and heart to our Lord and savior Jesus-Christ.
And as Kari Jobe perfectly said in one of her songs “The Cause of Christ” : “I pray it’s said about my life
That I lived more to build Your name than mine.”
May this be our daily prayer too.
God loves you.
You’re blessed.
You’re important.
You’re precious.
You were born to shine.
– A-J.M.
#SavedToServe.
BORN TO SHINE 