At some
point today, someone will probably compliment or praise something you do
or say. If not today, it will happen tomorrow, or sometime next week.
How will you respond? How do you typically respond?
How we
respond to praise from others, especially over time, reveals how highly
we really think of ourselves. I’m not talking about every specific email
or conversation or social-media update, but about the trends in our
emails and conversations and social media. Is our default reaction — our
gut heart-level response — to give God credit and glory for our gifts
and achievements at work, at home, and in ministry? Or, are we more
likely to privately savor that moment for ourselves, to turn the praise
over and over slowly in our minds, like a piece of caramel in our
mouths?
Every
compliment or commendation we receive comes charged with potential for
worship. When we quietly, even politely, enjoy affirmation or praise
without even thinking to acknowledge God, we’re not only missing an
opportunity to worship him (and to call others to worship him), but also
robbing God of the glory he deserves for every gift we receive and
everything we achieve.
Dying for Praise
Do you know how the apostle James, brother of John, died?
James
was one of the very first disciples, one of Jesus’s closest friends, and
he was the first apostle to be killed for his faith. Known as “Sons of
Thunder,” James and his brother were fishermen before Jesus called them
into the ministry. He watched Jesus raise a 12-year-old girl from the
dead (Luke 8:51). He stood with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration
(Luke 9:28). He went with Jesus to the garden of Gethsemane the night
Jesus was betrayed (Luke 22:39).
And then King Herod had him killed with the sword simply to entertain angry Jews (Acts 12:1–2).
Herod
hated the apostles, but mainly he seemed to simply love himself. He
killed James, and then, “when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he
proceeded to arrest Peter also” (Acts 12:3). He couldn’t murder Peter
that day because of the Jewish Passover celebration. But he planned to
execute him publicly within the week (Acts 12:4).
An angel
came and rescued Peter from captivity (bound with chains, a soldier
sleeping on each side, and two more guards by the door). When Herod came
the next day to kill Peter, and realized he was gone, he killed the
sentries instead (Acts 12:19). Murder. Attempted murder. And more
murders.
Living for Praise
What
does that have to do with how you receive praise? In the next verse,
Herod turns his anger against the people in Tyre and Sidon, so they
plead for peace and mercy. “On an appointed day Herod put on his royal
robes, took his seat upon the throne, and delivered an oration to them”
(Acts 12:21). The people shouted, “The voice of a god, and not of a
man!” (Acts 12:22). He killed for praise. He dressed for praise. He
performed for praise. And he received his reward.
Luke
writes, “Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down, because he
did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his
last” (Acts 12:23)
God did
not strike Herod down when he murdered James, or when he imprisoned
Peter in order to murder him, or when he executed the innocent prison
sentries. No, God’s final hammer fell when Herod took pleasure in being
exalted by people — when he plagiarized the power and authority of God,
presenting himself as wise in his own wisdom, as strong in his own
strength, as great in his own greatness.
Living for Christ
Two
chapters later in Acts, the apostle Paul gets a similar treatment. After
he healed a crippled man in Jesus’s name, “When the crowds saw what
Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in Lycaonian, ‘The
gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!’” (Acts 14:11). How
does Paul respond to their praise? “We also are men, of like nature with
you, and we bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain
things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea
and all that is in them” (Acts 14:15).
Instead
of soaking up the attention and basking in the glory, Paul and Barnabas
grieved over it (Acts 14:14). And they used their new platform to
rehearse all that God had done (Acts 14:15–17). Whenever people
are under the impression that we have done something impressive, we
have a golden opportunity to teach them we never do anything impressive
or meaningful in our own wisdom or strength or ability. We can say with
Paul, “By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was
not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10).
How to Receive Praise
True humility does not refuse affirmation. It refuses to keep it for ourselves. Paul’s letters are full of warm affirmation:
- To the Romans: “I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world” (Romans 1:8).
- To the Philippians: “I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel” (Philippians 1:3–5).
- To the Thessalonians: “We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 1:2–3).
Paul loves
to praise the grace at work in other believers, often getting very
personal and specific (Romans 16:3; Philippians 2:19–23; Philippians
2:25–30; and more). But he’s always praising grace in people, not people
apart from grace. And he’s always pushing the praise through the person
to God.
When
someone affirms something you have done — at home, at work, in ministry —
you don’t need to rebuke them for not mentioning God. God means for the
joy we have in others’ gifts to spill over into the joy of
acknowledging and affirming those gifts — just not the kind of
acknowledging and affirming that ends with us. Receive the praise with
grace and humility, and then joyfully give the praise away to God. Find a
fresh way to say that you and your work are a product of grace.
Don’t
try to make your admirer feel bad for giving you credit. Affirm his
kindness, give him the satisfaction of receiving his praise, and help
him see, with you, just how much God deserves the glory for all your
skill and effort and success — and for theirs.
God intends for our real and wise fear of hell to be a means of clarifying and establishing his glory and truth in Psalm 8: We Will Reign with the Risen Christ
our hearts
