I saw the Lord, high and exalted… And I cried, “Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” Isaiah 6:1,5
Last time we saw that our faith in Jesus is the measure of our significance and value and respect, because faith means looking away from ourselves to Jesus and embracing Him as the personification of all that is significant, valued and worthy of honor and respect.
And when that happens, we become Jesus-worshipers.
Focusing on Jesus is all it takes to transform you and me into passionate worshipers.
Paul admonishes us to “judge yourself sensibly, based on the standard which God has given to each of you, namely, the amount of faith God has given to you” (Rom 12:3). This is because human beings tend to be ‘glory-junkies’. In other words, we’re forever pursuing our own glory. This is why we talk and think so much about ourselves. It’s why we get defensive when someone challenges us or our thinking.
Mature Christians aren’t like that.
Like Isaiah in our verse today, just get a glimpse of God/Jesus and His significance, value, and honor trumps our own. His glory not only trumps our own glory, but it leaves us utterly overwhelmed with the passion to honor Him.
And this passion for Jesus is an expression of our love for Him that is so strong that worshiping freely just becomes natural…not an act, not a discipline, not a program, not a performance: it’s an instinctive, effortless, spontaneous response to Jesus’ worth.
Mature Christians are like that. But show me someone who is an attention-seeker, self-absorbed, self-promoting, and I’ll show you someone who needs to grow in their focus on Jesus.
Mature Christians can deal with their own value because they have an accurate picture of God and His value. And in addition, they can rightly honor others because they honor Him.