For His glory

I will be sharing some of my devotion thoughts and reflections. Some I shared before, some are recent reflections.

Today I just want to share something I reflect few months ago. Will be sharing from Joshua 7

One thing I learn after reading and reflecting from that story is that we should be chasing God's glory, not the world's glory.

A bit of the background story... Joshua was fighting a new war, after conquering Jericho. He was about to attack the city of Ai. I was told that city is a much much smaller city than Jericho. (Ironically it sounds Ai.. in Asian culture, it sounds like small).

When attacking, the army lost terribly and Joshua came before the Lord to seek Him. You gotta understand their feelings... imagine your favourite football team, a giant lost to a small time football club.. there must be something wrong some where.

The Lord revealed the reason to Him. And Joshua went out looking for it...

He approach the camp and question everyone... when he came to Achan, he said something that really struck me.

"My son, give glory to the Lord, the God of Israel, and honor him. Tell me what you have done; do not hide it from me"

Achan then showed Joshua what he stolen from enemies' camp -- beautiful robe, gold, silver -- which was quite symbolic for me.

If you read further, Achan suffered terribly for his disobedience.

Now come back why I said it was symbolic, as Joshua said we must give glory to God.. be after His glory. But then, Achan chose to take the world's glory -- represented by robe, gold, silver.

Apply it to our lives.

When we live our lives, when we serve God, the key thing is to give God all the glory and honor He truly deserves.

Problem is some of us tend to be like Achan. Not faithful in our walk with God as it reflected in verse 1 - "But the Israelites were unfaithful in regard to the devoted things" and being tempted by the things of the world.

Be always on guard and check our hearts/attitude when we serve God. Or else it will be a big stumbling block to us or even the ministry or people around us.

It's just amazing God knows what is in our heart so no point hiding our motives from Him, just like Achan tried to hide his prize from everyone.

So be always after God's heart.. live to honor and glorify His name.

Go after His glory, not after the world's glory.