Do you want to find out what you really live for?

When you are tempted to do wrong, what makes you think twice before you do it?

Being found out?
Being punished for it?
Causing harm to yourself?
Losing what you treasure?

If the answer is any one of those or all of those, then you are living for yourself.

Listen to what stops a godly man (woman) from doing wrong:
Ps. 69:6, “May those who hope in you not be disgraced because of me, O Lord, the Lord Almighty; may those who seek you not be put to shame because of me, O God of Israel.”

It wasn’t so much what harm he might incur but rather what it will do to God’s name and to those who trusts in that name. He didn’t want His fellow believers to get a bad reputation because of his selfishness!

That’s what it means to think first about God and subsequently His community.

Do we care so much about God’s reputation that we do not want to do anything to take away from it even if it means a certain loss on our part?

If we are worshipers of God first and foremost, then we would…

PH