Remember We Are Servants of God

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cripture: 1 Corinthians 3:21–23 (NRSV)
21 So let no one boast about human leaders. For all things are yours, 22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all belong to you, 23 and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.

Devotion:
            One way we can go about being a peacemaker is to be what one author calls self forgetful. Many Christian leaders cause untold mayhem for themselves and their followers by thinking they are something they are not. We are all live under the threat that we may believe our press clippings and start to build our egos rather than our faith and obedience to Christ.
            I have seen Christians who have been told that they are great preachers, teachers etc. They become more and more enamored with the sound of their own voice that they very rarely let others speak their words of testimony and they stifle others desire to serve because they alone think they know how to do things the “right” way.
            I myself struggle against this temptation daily. God has sent me a thorn in the flesh in the form of mental illness to make sure that I am always reminded that I cannot do many things better than other people. I have a natural weakness for people pleasing that has gotten in my way many, many times. I am glad that I suffer from mental illness; my symptoms remind me that I must struggle to be as obedient to God as I can be even when my symptoms get in the way.
            We should be so thankful for God’s word here in First Corinthians. It reminds us that we belong to Christ and that Christ belongs to God. So no matter what success or failure comes our way it is all to the glory of God. Since Paul writes in Romans 8:1 that there is no condemnation for us in Christ Jesus. We are free to live our lives for God and not worry about what anyone else thinks of us.
            The truth is that if we belong to Christ we are new creations. We still sin and fall short of the glory of God. But God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and restore us to full relationship with God and other people. No matter how crazy life gets this is the secret to peace with God. Knowing that God loves us no matter what and that there is nothing we can do to change that. If we can have peace with God then we can be peacemakers for God. To God alone be all the glory!

Prayer:
Lord God we praise you. We find it hard to accept ourselves as we are. We confess our sins and know that you forgive us of those sins. You restore us to fellowship with you. You take all our deeds and use them for the good of your kingdom. Through even our weakest and most flawed efforts you can build a great work for yourself. Keep us humble and help us to serve you in the ways you have called us. In Jesus name we ask this, Amen.  

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