Tag Archives: excellence

December 19, 2022 · 5:30 AM

Offering God Excellence

I heard the story of a carpenter who spent his whole career working for one builder. When it came time to retire, he spoke to his boss. The builder begged him to stay on for one more job. Reluctantly he accepted even though he didn’t want to. During the whole job, his heart wasn’t in it. He cut corners and did some shoddy work. When the house was finished, he called the boss to come do a final walk through. After walking through the house, the builder turned to the carpenter and handed him the keys. He told him that he had been a good worker all those years and wanted to gift him a house. The carpenter was very thankful, but all he could think about was how he was going to have to live in a house where he cut the corners and did shoddy work.

In Genesis 4, we read the story of Cain and Abel, the sons of Adam and Eve. Both were raised in relationship with God and knew Him. Cain became a farmer and Abel a shepherd. The Bible doesn’t tell us if they gave offerings to God often or if the offering in this chapter was the first one. Both decided to give God an offering from their work. Verses 3-4 say, “When it was time for the harvest, Cain presented some of his crops as a gift to the Lord. Abel also brought a gift—the best portions of the firstborn lambs from his flock” (NLT). Cain gave from his harvest, but not really his best. That’s why God rejected his offering. It was a half hearted gift while Abel brought his best.

Ecclesiastes 9:10 says, “Whatever you do, do well.” I believe excellence is a choice. Every day we’re faced with the opportunity to give God our best or something less than that. Our offerings to God are more than our money. Paul said in Philippians 2:17 that our faithful service is an offering to God. Everything we do for God should be done from our best efforts. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but it can’t be our leftovers. Look at your life and the service you’ve been offering God. Is there room for improvement? Find ways to give God excellence in your life. When you give Him your best, He honors you and blesses your life.

Photo by Avi Richards on Unsplash

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April 14, 2022 · 5:30 AM

The Importance Of Excellence

It was a sculptor named Frederic Bartholdi who designed and built the Statue of Liberty. It was built and then dedicated in New York City In 1886. It would be nearly 20 years later when the Wright brothers first took flight in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Yet, when building the Statue of Liberty, Bartholdi refused to cut corners, especially on the head of Lady Liberty. To think that someone would ever be able to see the top of her head never crossed his mind, but he took the time to put the same amount of work and detail up there. When you’re driven by excellence, you focus even on the details you don’t think that others will see. You understand that when you get the small details right, the big problems rarely show up.

My personal motto is, “If it has my name on it, it needs to be done with excellence.” If I’m going to spend my time working on something, I want to make sure I don’t cut any corners or do a job that will reflect poorly on me. In my mind, I think about how the things I do don’t just reflect myself, but God. As a person who bears the name Christian, I should also be concerned about the reputation of the One whose name I bear. According to 1 Corinthians 12:7, each one of us are given gifts by God in order to help each other. If we’re going to maximize our gifts and their effects in the lives of others, it’s important that we understand how to use them and that we focus on using them well. We should never take these gifts lightly.

Galatians 6:4 says, “Let everyone be devoted to fulfill the work God has given them to do with excellence, and their joy will be in doing what’s right and being themselves, and not in being affirmed by others” (TPT). You have work that God has called you to do through the unique gifts He has equipped you with. If you don’t use them, or do your work half heartedly, you diminish the ripple affect into the lives of others. To have the greatest impact on this world, we each need to know our giftings and operate in them with the excellence they deserve. Put time into perfecting the details, even the ones you think no one will ever see. You never know what God will do or how He May bless your commitment to doing all things with excellence.

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Throwback Thursday is a feature I’m using to help build some margin into my schedule to pursue other ventures. Each Thursday I’ll be bringing you a previously written devotional that still speaks encouragement to us from God’s Word.

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September 27, 2021 · 5:50 AM

Work Hard

One of my favorite lines from Marin Luther’s “I Have A Dream” speech always challenges me. He said, “If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, “Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.'” Each time I hear that or read it, it pushed me to make sure that I’m doing things to the best of my ability or not. A bad boss or a job I don’t like shouldn’t keep me from doing my job well. Whatever God has given me to do at that time is what He needs me to do my best at.

Paul wrote something similar in Romans 12:6. It says, “In His grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well” (NLT). We each have different gifts and different responsibilities given to us by God. Paul goes on to say that if you have the gift of prophesy, then do it with as much faith as God has given you. If you are called to serve others, then do it well. If you are to encourage others, be encouraging. He lists multiple in this passage and after each one, he encourages us to use it to the best of our ability and to use it in love. We don’t need to compare ourselves to each other because we’ve been given unique gifts to fit our life and the people we’ve been called to serve.

He starts to conclude his thoughts on this in verse 11 by saying, “Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically.” Whether you like your gifts or where God has placed you right now, you should be working hard and enthusiastically as unto the Lord. When we do our jobs or activities for a person, we can let our attitude towards them affect our performance. When we do it unto the Lord with our whole heart, then excellence becomes a natural byproduct. We must remember that our work ethic represents Him as well. What we do and how well we do it is a reflection of Him because we bear His name. So whatever you’re called to do right now, do it as Michelangelo painted, Beethoven played and Shakespeare wrote. Do it with all your might and enthusiastically unto the Lord.

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Having An Excellent Spirit

I love watching the Olympics. The people who go there have not only dedicated countless hours to their sport, they have honed their skill to be one of the best at it in the world. Their excellence is a byproduct of their rigorous schedule and dedication to what they do. To be that excellent at something, you have to have natural abilities, but you also have to do things consistently to keep improving day after day. To them, it’s not enough to just be good at it, excellence is what drives them. It got me to thinking not just the aspects of being excellent at a skill, but also about becoming excellent in spirit. Can I become more excellent in my walk with Christ? What does that look like? What do I need to be doing on a consistent basis to become more excellent spiritually?

In my quest, I found Daniel in the Old Testament. His nation had been defeated by another country and he had been taken as a hostage from his homeland. Instead of complaining about all the unwanted changes in his life, he continued to remain faithful to God in prayer. He also did whatever the king of the new country asked of him as long as it didn’t interfere with his faith. This attitude caused him to be noticed. Daniel 6:3 says, “Then Daniel became distinguished above all the other high officials and satraps, because an excellent spirit was in him. And the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom” (ESV). Daniel was excellent in his abilities, but he also excelled in his attitude. He didn’t let his circumstances affect the performance of his responsibilities. He excelled internally and externally. That’s something that appeals to me because I’m pretty good at letting my circumstances affect the level of excellence I provide at times.

In Mark 12:30, Jesus affirmed the greatest commandment to us when He said, “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” This commandment calls us to be excellent in our love for God in all phases of our being. We can be excellent in our spirit through loving God with our very being, through our spirit, through our thoughts and through our actions. Being excellent in spirit is finding ways to serve God and love Him even through the most difficult circumstances and letting it show in our outward actions and attitudes. Because Daniel served God this way, he was set apart. Even when those who were jealous of him tried to get him killed, he still served God faithfully. As a result, many others put their trust in God. Think of the kind of impact you an I can make when we fully dedicate ourselves to loving and serving God with excellence despite the things we’re going through.

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