It's Not About How Great We Are

Ezekiel 36:22-23

"Therefore say to the house of Israel, 'Thus says the Lord God: "I do not do this for your sake, O house of Israel, but for My holy name's sake, which you have profaned among the nations wherever you went. And I will sanctify My great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst; and the nations shall know that I am the LORD," says the Lord God."


Has anyone else noticed how self focused modern Christianity seems to be? I keep hearing about how wonderful I am and how God desires me so much. Certainly God does love me, just as He loves all of His children. But its not because I'm so great. If God's love depended on me being great and desirable, I think I'd be in pretty big trouble.

Because the truth is that apart from God's sanctifying work in my life, there's nothing all that desirable about me personally. Why does this matter? Well,I think we see ourselves as much too important in the grand scheme of things. Yes, I know, nobody likes to be told that they aren't important. But that's not what I am saying at all. What I'm saying is that we find ourselves too important.

The truth is that God is the one who is important, not us. He is the one who has glory, not us. He is the one that is worth pursuing,not me. He is all-knowing, perfect, righteous, beautiful, wise and holy. Me? nope, none of the above.


And it struck home to me last week as I read the verses from Ezekiel at the top of this post. In the first part of chapter 36, God has given Ezekiel a prophecy about how He is going to bless Israel once again. Remember that Ezekiel's contemporaries are living in Babylonian exile. They are experiencing firsthand the punishment brought about by their great sins.

And after God has told Ezekiel that He will restore Israel and bless them, He goes on to tell them that they have done nothing to deserve it. In fact, wherever they have gone, they have profaned the name of God. And because they have behaved so wretchedly, they need to understand that God is not about to extend His blessing to them because they have eared it. They have done the contrary. It is for God's own sake, and for His name's sake that He will bless Israel.

I think we can say the same is true in each of our individual lives. We haven't done anything to deserve God's grace and favor. We've all gone around profaning the name of God since we were born. But He is going to bless us anyway. Not because of us, but because of Him.

At first glance this might not seem like good news. Especially to a people like us, who believe that there is worth in earning things. But if you think about it a while, I hope you will agree with me, that this is the best news we could ever get. Its not about us at all. Its about God. We might fail, but God never will. We might be unworthy, but God is going to redeem us anyway. And even though we never have and never will deserve anything good from God, we're going to get things from God that are great. Why?

Because His name is at stake. That's why.