EXCELLENT WORKS
Phillipians 1:10 That they may approve things that are excellent…
A closer look at this scripture, you will find two words that stands out clearly here; they are: “approve” and “excellent”. The Greek lexicons used for these two words are: “let” and “differ” respectively. In other words, when you paraphrase you will have: that they may let out, produce, bring out, manifest, things that are different (excellent).
Excellence here means to be different. To stand out, to be a higher version of the flock. Therefor God is calling out excellence from us because we have it in us. Excellence is scarce around us today because many people prefer to blend in the mix rather than stand out. But we tend to forget that the more we seek the applause of men, the more we fit into the mix and this tendency robs us of our creativity, ingenuity, innovations- and this trend is the bane of excellence.
I was speaking to my team on this subject of excellence and I pointed out to them using the seats in the auditorium we were occupying for an analogy. The seats had this red cushion with chrome metallic frames. So when you look through the room everything looked the same, and it really looked nice and brought some form of organization to the room. But unfortunately, that was all.
Then I asked a question: “if I remove a seat from this room, will anyone miss the seat”? Some answered “no” because if I remove a seat, they will simply replace the seat because there were so many of them there. But when I introduce a higher version of the the seat with probably a golden frame with a richer cushion and I suddenly remove it. You will find that you will immediately miss the seat because it is different from the rest.
Why is this so? Because we have produced or let out a different seat from the rest. We have not blended into the mix. We have simply stood out with our work. There is a high demand for excellence in the world today. In our workplaces and in our lives and relationships; because we are tired of the blend. We want something exciting. In the absence of excellence, work and life is generally boring.
Excellence brings that needed spark in our spaces. When you blend in, you bring boredom to your space. This is why our focus scripture encourages us to approve things that are excellent. We should, as young people who represent Christ let out excellence in al that we do. God expects excellence from us because he has put excellence in us but we have to stir it up like the scripture instructs that we do concerning our gifts.
A great way of doing this is through the way Romans 8:26 teaches us…” likewise the spirit itself helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what to prat for as we ought, but the Spirit maketh intercessions for us with groaning’s which cannot be uttered. He helps us out in our infirmities. Infirmities stands for our weaknesses, our shortcomings, our disadvantages, our flaws, our inability to produce excellent works.
When we pray in other tongues like Jude 20 tells us to, we will be building up ourselves, sharpening our discernment and intellect-our tendency to produce excellent results shoots up. Just like a centrifuge- when there is a continuous spin, no matter the speed, as long as it is continuous, every component of the solution is separated and made clear. This is what happens when we continuously stir up our spirits by praying in other tongues.
When we do this, we will be more prone to produce excellent thoughts, excellent emotions and consequently, excellent works.
