Little by Little

Today while reading my bible, something stood out to me that I've never really thought about before. It is so hard for me to wrap my mind around the idea that my life brings glory to God. Most of the time, I still see myself as a dirty, failing sinner who is nowhere where I want to be, instead of looking at all the ways that God has changed me already. That is what brings glory to him. Not anything that I have done myself but how God has slowly changed me by changing my heart and changing my mind. Sometimes I am so focused on my sinfulness that I fail to recognize the freedom that comes with knowing Christ. I shouldn't feel constantly  weighted down my by sinful nature (although I should always want to be mindful of my sin) but thankful that I am not defined by that sinful nature anymore. I am not trapped by it; I am set free by Christ. And there is no condemnation. So even when I feel like I am failing in becoming more like Jesus, all I have to do is look back on the way my life used to be before God started to really change me. Doing that always makes me realize that God is working in me every day, even if I don't always feel like I'm being changed. Little by little, God is making me more like Jesus. But when you look at the past, it is easier to see how far God has brought you. I can't even count how many times I have remembered the way I behaved and thought in the past and thought "Thank you, Lord, that I am not who I used to be!" And that is how my life brings glory to God. Because others can see the transformation in me in different areas and they will know that is from God's work and nothing of my own effort. I guess until today I could see where so many others' lives bring glory to God but never considered that my own could. Just another way that my small thinking as a human has limited the glory that He deserves for changing me in so many ways. There are many ways that God has changed me that others can see but even more ways that He has changed me that only He and I may ever know. He really does change you from the inside out- from the way you think, feel, how you pray and how you view life and other people. I know that I can bring even more glory to Him by truthfully looking at my life and admitting where I need Him to make me more like Jesus.