“For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.
And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
1 Corinthians 1:26-31 ESV

In his letter to the church, James reminds teachers that we are going to be held doubly accountable for what we say and teach (James 3:1) and that is something that I know I take very seriously. I also stand with Paul knowing that my words are not anything special in and of themselves, and that if anything powerful or good or special or motivating or righteous comes out of my mouth, then it must be God at work, and not me.

There has to be a large degree of humility that comes from handing your life over to Christ. We must admit that we have a problem that we cannot overcome by ourselves, that we are powerless to beat it and that we must have God’s help to even make the slightest motion forward. We admit our weakness, our faults, our failure, and we must be humble enough to admit that anything worth bragging about must have come from Him, and so we don’t even get credit for that…

Instead, we look at what God has done. We examine our redemption and our Redeemer. We study our salvation and our Savior. We learn from our Lord & Master and we humbly follow along in our calling by the One who has saved us by virtue of His own righteousness. We did not contribute to the effort. It was all his doing.

“But I had to…”
No.
“And when I gave…”
No.

We admitted we were powerless without Him and destined for Hell. That is what we had earned for ourselves; damnation (to use an old churchy term.)
Our best efforts had us separated from God for eternity and our most wonderful intentions left us morally bankrupt. Scripture says that ‘there are none who are righteous, no not one.’ (Romans 3:10) and that ‘all have fallen short of God’s glory’ (Romans 3:23) in and because of our sin.

We don’t brag in front of God because He did all the work. We simply submitted ourselves to Him. We admitted our faults. Received His grace and were baptized into His love. Our redemption is all about Him, not all about us. It’s not about ‘our best life now,’ it’s about His glory for eternity. It’s not about us ‘naming and claiming’ anything. It’s about His justice, mercy and grace. It’s not about health and wealth in this life, as if our God is so shallow and that the best example of His love and blessing would be shown through such petty, worldly ways.

God’s love, grace and mercy is best shown when His children live as His church, dead to self and living to serve others in His Name for His glory in the ways that He has gifted us to do so, and again so that He would be glroified.

Dead to self.
Alive in Christ.
(Romans 6:11)

He must become greater, we must diminish.
(John 3:30)

It’s not about ego. It’s about proper respect and the acknowledgement that God’s glory over us, in us and through us is the highest calling we can recognize or ever be given. It’s not just for ministers, priests and guys who wear robes on Sunday mornings in front of groups of people. It’s about taking the love that was first shown to us and glorifying the One who loved as we GoLove others in His Name, for His sake. We share Jesus, who was given for us. Be bold. Speak out. Say _something_. Consider your calling and live it out humbly in love and under grace.