Monday Memo 892: Self-Promotion 3

God has assigned you a purpose, made you creative, and given you gifts so you can do His work in creation to the extent that He has established for you. I just returned from Kenya where I took 20 people on a tour of the country. I am well-known in Kenya and people readily associate me with the purpose message. Kenya represents a place where God put me in in response to my cry to "put me in, Coach," I have been on numerous local radio and television shows there, and have spoken in many churches. God opened a door for effective ministry work for me, and I have not shrunk back or hesitated to say that God has sent me there. He put me in the game and I want to play to the full stature of my abilities and gifts.

As I put myself forward in Kenya, I am actually magnifying the Lord, which is the concept I want to discuss in this week's Memo.

MAGNIFY THE LORD

In the Old Testament, we are told to magnify the Lord. We have made that simply a matter of praise and worship where we exalt and describe God's attributes in clear and exuberant terms. Yet think about that word "magnify." Doesn't it also mean to take the smallest thing and make it larger so it is easier to see and examine? Could it mean that we are to take the smallest thing that God has done through us and in us and make it "bigger" for all to see, not with the intent to see us, but in seeing us to help people see Him?

Is self-promotion, done with right intent, really any different than giving a testimony? When God does something for you–-provides, heals, delivers, or reveals–-is it wrong to stand up and say what He has done? So if God has given you a gift or purpose, is it any different to broadcast the truth of what God has done or can do in and through you? And when you do, is that not the same as magnifying the Lord–-taking His work in you and "blowing it up" for all the world to see?

INTENT

Self-promotion can stem from two sources: the desire to promote yourself, pure and simple, or the desire to further God's work through you as you serve others. Consider what Paul said in Romans 11:13-14 (NKJV):

For I speak to you Gentiles; inasmuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them.

Paul magnified his office (other translations say "proud of, make as much as I can of, or glorify my ministry") so he could win more Jews to the gospel. Paul promoted what he did because God appointed him and his work was critical. He was not concerned with what others thought, only what God thought. He was telling the truth with the right motives, and therefore he magnified himself so he could ultimately magnify the Lord.

Your job is not just to magnify the Lord by behaving yourself and not robbing banks or watching bad movies. Even heathen can do those things. What they cannot do but you can is to express God's love for His creation through you, specifically through your purpose, gifts, and goals. Perhaps it is time you realized that your distaste for what you call self-promotion is really a means to protect yourself from criticism and being misunderstood. It may also be an attempt to protect your privacy, for once God puts you on "front street," you lose control of your life. If God wants to put your face on a billboard, it's none of your business. Jesus and Paul promoted and people criticized them; can you expect any different treatment?