Galatians 1:24 is the epitaph that I want engraved in my
headstone. “And they were
glorifying God because of me.”
Galatians 1:24 comes in a section of the book where Paul is
giving some personal history about the time following his conversion. He recounts, briefly, how he had come
to saving faith amidst his vehement persecution of the church and how God
radically transformed his life.
There was a time where he was unknown by sight but well known by
reputation in the churches of Judea and they were amazed and glorified God
because of the amazing change that had occurred in this man.
Now I am in no way trying to compare myself with the Apostle
Paul but the prayer of my life is that, in the end, it could truly be said that
others glorified God because of my life.
Some might think this is a prideful desire, and it certainly could be I
pray against my own pride daily, but the reality is that every Christian should
have this desire as well. It isn’t
about self-promotion at all it is about God promotion. This desire could easily
turn into selfish pride if we think we must have a greater impact than
others. If we desire the largest
church to pastor, the widest audience with our speaking or writing, the most
converts “to our name,” or the greatest influence in any arena so that people
would remember ME then we have missed the point.
We should pray Romans 12:1-2 over our lives. We need to be living sacrifices. People who gladly lay down our lives on
the altar and die to self so that we can bring worship and praise to God. All of us have an ingrained desire that
our life would count. That it
would truly matter or make a difference or simply mean something. This desire is good and a gift from God
because He created us to have purpose.
We must continually ask ourselves, “What am I living for?”
When your life on this earth is over someone is going to
look back at the way you lived and try to sum it all up into a few paragraphs
to be read allowed or printed in a newspaper. When they do, what will they say? What will they say your life was lived for? Someone else is going to be given the
task of boiling your life down even farther than that to a simple sentence
engraved in stone. What will that
line be? What do you want on your
tombstone?
