Agenda of Grace, Not Glory

UV 3320/10000 Agenda of Grace, not Glory
Nebuchadnezzar the king made a gold-plated image whose height including the pedestal was sixty cubits (ninety feet) and its width six cubits ( nine feet). He set it on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon.

Daniel 3 v 1

It is not an external grandeur or glory that we should seek but external simplicity and humility that comes from reverence to the infinite, all knowing, all powerful compassionate God. But right through history rulers like Nebuchadnezzar were attempting to glorify themselves by building grand monuments, statues, edifices in the pursuit of immortality or eternal life. Lesser mortals who were not rulers attempted to glorify themselves by attempting to amass wealth to be the richest, or knowledge to be the smartest, or beauty to be the most admired. Daniel shows through his life, testimony and record of history of Babylon that in vain did the rulers pursue an agenda of projecting their image in a larger than life, glorious way. He left no monument or statue to be remembered by and yet Daniel continues to inspire faith, integrity, courage in the face of extreme adversity and threat to life, wisdom and humility.

We need to have an internal focus and not an external focus to win the admiration of people. The fundamental question we should ask ourselves is whether we are living a life pleasing to the Creator and the Redeemer. The Creator designed us fearfully and wonderfully and the Redeemer paid the full price of redeeming us to eternal life. We no longer have to strive hard to impress others. Our focus should be to manifest the nine attributes of Jesus and exercise the nine gifts of Jesus- the nine fruit and the nine gifts of the Holy Spirit. Our focus should be to display the glory of God working in us.

We are a race made, a special species to enjoy grace and not to aspire for glory. As scripture says, “Let not the rich man boast of his riches or the wise man in his wisdom or the powerful man in his power. If you should glory, glory instead in that you have a personal relationship with the Lord God, Almighty” through His Son Jesus. Our intimate and personal relationship with the Father through Jesus should be our chief joy, our chief pride, our chief source of power and wisdom and enablement. We do not have an agenda of glory for ourselves but we do have an agenda of grace.