Maybe memory is in the air today as i sit and sip my morning brew. With an open bible before me, i see the circles, notes and underlines from times i had been there before. I could only read so much today, before God began to speak to me, distracting me from my reading, reminding me of where we’ve been together. I remembered when i would measure the value of my pursuit of God by how many pages turned, how many chapters read. And just who set those bars? Someone else. Not God. I heard someone say, “you should do such and such...” I assigned value to those words and chose to measure myself by them.

In the midst of memory, the Lord whispered to my heart,

The one who has the power to invalidate you is the one to whom you have given the power to validate you.

I remembered hearing, “you should do such and such...” and feeling so invalid until i had done that thing. The times that i “succeeded” i felt good, valid, accomplished. But, it was fleeting.

I had given power to someone, something else, to validate me, and by extension, the power to invalidate me.

Have you ever experienced this, or am i the only one here? Have you ever listened to someone describe their life with Jesus, and it sounded so wonderful that you suddenly felt insecure about your own life with Jesus? When you hear me say things like, “God whispered to my heart” do you feel that way? Do you ever say to yourself, “God doesn’t whisper to my heart. These things don’t happen to me. I don’t do what he does or what she does...” and so begin to invalidate your relationship with God? I have.

If you have, then you too have given someone else, something else the power to validate you; the power to IN-validate you.

This is quite normal in the fallen world: others have the power to validate or invalidate us. That’s natural. It’s expected. But not so in the kingdom. No one has that power unless we give it to them. It is a gross perversion for children of God to receive their status from creatures.

As i reflected on these things, the phrase came to mind, “our praise is from God.” I wondered where that concept is found in scripture and i found it here in Romans 2:29:

“But he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.”

These are some pretty radical words: Paul just leveled the playing field, stripped titles and status from millions of people. Do you see how no one, nothing has the power to verify your status? Only the Spirit. You can have all of the natural, physical, external requirements covered and it means absolutely nothing! Hallelujah! This is good news!!!

This means that your church attendance is meaningless! Your baptism is worthless! Your bible reading, prayer-saying, food-fasting, do-gooding benefit you NOTHING!!! Glory! That is, unless it is an internal reality, born of the Spirit of God.

Your praise is not from men. No one has the power to validate or invalidate you, unless you have given them that power. If you have, take it back and give it back to the One to Whom it belongs: your Father Who loves you. Your praise is from God. The best thing you can do today is the thing that He leads you to. Everything else is invalid.