I don’t have the opportunity to see either of my parents very much.  In fact almost never.  It’s been a long time since I’ve seen either of my parents.  I was hoping to make the rounds this Thanksgiving and Christmas season to see them both.  My Dad is in South Georgia and my Mom is up in Virginia.  Conversations on the phone is about as good as it gets.  Seeing my Mom is off since I will be working the day after Thanksgiving and seeing my Dad is still on the table in the next 2 or 3 weeks.

So, yesterday I spent some time making the rounds talking with them over the phone.  I was out with my son yesterday afternoon riding bikes.  He is still using his training wheels up and down our long driveway.  As he drove past he asked, “Who are you talking to?”  It was his Meme (My Mom) in Virginia.

Once he was done riding he wanted to tell Meme about his bike riding…  That he had some mud on his pants… and more importantly the mud that was on his front tire.  My mother told him, “I bet you have changed so much that I wouldn’t recognize you.”  Walker’s response, “Well, I still have the same face.”

2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (NIV).  When we live a surrendered life to Christ he changes us on the inside.  Our heart changes and it takes on the heartbeat of God.  As we grow in God’s Word, our mind begins to think the thoughts of God. See Psalm 119:9-11.  The changes begin to take place inwardly.

As the changes begin to take place – we still have the same face.  Our thoughts, attitudes, and praise given to God will lead to a world of changes on the outside.  But we still have the same face.  People that know us will look at us and recognize us and they will see the change as it is lived out.  It is not for us to go about telling others, “Look at the changes, listen to how I pray, or see how I have sacrificed.”  Once we go about bragging spiritually speaking who gets the glory?

It’s one thing to go through a crisis grandly, yet quite another to go through every day glorifying God when there is no witness, no limelight, and no one paying even the remotest attention to us. If we are not looking for halos, we at least want something that will make people say, “What a wonderful man of prayer he is!” or, “What a great woman of devotion she is!”  (Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, November 16).

…whatever you do, do all for the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10:31.

Today, spend some time thinking about your human life and how it is impacting your spiritual life.  What is it that you seek in life?  Who are you seeking in life?  Whose attention is it that you seek?  Are you looking for the approval of others or that of God?  Seek first His kingdom and is righteousness. Matthew 6:33.

In today’s devotion Chamber’s goes on to say,

The true test of a saint’s life is not successfulness but faithfulness on the human level of life. We tend to set up success in Christian work as our purpose, but our purpose should be to display the glory of God in human life, to live a life “hidden with Christ in God” in our everyday human conditions ( Colossians 3:3  ).