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I desire to make God look good. To exalt him, to lift up His name and His truth. Sometimes that doesn’t work so well as sin catches me off guard or takes a momentary foothold.

Let these three things be a challenge. I hope you want to make God look as great as He is. Here are three ways we can make Him look bad whether we intend to or not.

1. Act like He is not in charge.

The clear Scriptural message is that God IS in charge. He knows better than we do, He plans far in advance of our awareness, and His authority extends beyond the sum of all human government – EVER. To wallow, sulk, engage anxious thoughts, and question His plans puts the spotlight on you and takes away from the glory He deserves in all situations.

2. Continue in sin.

Believers who continue in sin without waging war against that sin make God look bad. I have been guilty of this in various seasons.

It makes God look bad because it denies the foundation of His relationship with us. If we claim to worship Jesus and fail to fight against areas of persistent sin, we deny the power of his grace and the Holy Spirit which lives inside us! He died to forgive us of our sin, yes! But He died that we would not be slaves to it, but rather slaves to Him. Continuing in sin looks bad.

3. Put most of your time and energy into this life.

I want to challenge how much time you spend making plans for this life versus time you spend praying over ministry or strategic decisions to point people to the next.

If the vast majority of our conversations are sports, weather, our upcoming trip or our next home improvement project, how do we propose (Colossians 3:2) to be “setting our hearts on things above?” Zeroing in on the things of this life makes it look like our interests haven’t changed and features our earthly concerns.

In this scenario, God’s power to change our affections is really diminished.

Think. In what ways can God’s glory shine through more in your life?

Act. If any of these three convict you, I would encourage you to get some accountability for specific changes you’d like to make and pray like crazy for God’s help to make Him look great!