It is, perhaps, one of the hardest struggles of the Christian life to learn this sentence-- "Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name be glory."
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of attributing glory to God rather than seeking it for ourselves.
In this quote, Charles Spurgeon reflects on a fundamental struggle within the Christian faith, which is to prioritize God's glory above our own desires or recognition. He highlights the challenge of humility and selflessness, urging believers to acknowledge that all honor and praise should ultimately be directed towards God, not themselves, acknowledging a higher purpose in the Christian journey.
In practice
This quote can be used in a sermon to remind churchgoers of the importance of glorifying God.
Amusement should be used to do us good “like a medicine”: it must never be used as the food of the man...Many have had all holy thoughts and gracious resolutions stamped out by perpetual trifling. Pleasure so called is the murderer of thought. This is the age of excessive amusement: everybody craves for it, like a babe for its rattle.
When you see no present advantage, walk by faith and not by sight. Do God the honor to trust Him when it comes to matters of loss for the sake of principle.
It is far easier to fight with sin in public than to pray against it in private.
You will never glory in God till first of all God has killed your glorying in yourself.
After faith comes repentance, or, rather, repentance is faith's twin brother and is born at the same time.
["All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant."] The original Hebrew word that has been translated "paths" means "well-worn roads' or "wheel tracks," such ruts as wagons make when they go down our green roads in wet weather and sink in up to the axles. God's ways are at times like heavy wagon tracks that cut deep into our souls, yet all of them are merciful.
Nothing in the nature around us is evil. This needs to be repeated since one of the human ways of talking oneself into inhuman acts is to cite the supposed cruelty of nature.
If I were to remain silent, I'd be guilty of complicity.
To each individual the world will take on a different connotation of meaning-the important lies in the desire to search for an answer.
Democracies are indeed slow to make war, but once embarked upon a martial venture are equally slow to make peace and reluctant to make a tolerable, rather than a vindictive, peace.
How can a doctor judge a woman's sanity by merely bidding her good morning and refusing to hear her pleas for release? Even the sick ones know it is useless to say anything, for the answer will be that it is their imagination.
For man is a giddy thing, and this is my conclusion.
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