Glorifying God

If you were to randomly interview folks and ask them what it means to glorify God, what kind of answers would you get? You would hear answers such as singing praises, giving money or time, serving others, praying, reading your Bible, going to church, speaking out for God, etc. There is nothing wrong with any of these answers, but is this truly what glorifies God?

Because of our performance driven culture, we have been programmed to focus on outcomes. In other words, there is a goal or outcome we strive to reach. Until the outcome is achieved, we seem to feel incomplete or lacking. This mind-set has been transferred to how we approach glorifying God. We see glorifying God as an outcome of something we do.

Were the first human beings driven to achieve? Did they focus on the works of their hands as something that would hopefully bring glory to God? I think the answer to both those questions is “no.” They did not have a Bible to study, rote prayers to recite, a church to attend, or a cause to champion. They simply expressed moment by moment the life they contained.

Glorifying God has never been about outcomes. In applying a deeper understanding of who God is, we can quickly realize that God is not dependent on outcomes. He can speak the non-existent into existence. He does not live for tomorrow. God is content, He is peaceful, He is joyful, and He is Life and Light and Love. He is not waiting for or in need of something to happen before He can experience all that He is.

There is nothing in creation that can produce something God needs because God needs nothing. He is complete in and of Himself. Whenever you look at a mountain you can see the expression of God’s glory, yet the mountain does nothing to produce glory for God. The mountain is what it is. The mere fact that God created the mountain is the expression of His glory.

You and I have been misled to believe that we must produce an outcome in order for God to be glorified. Glory is and has always been about expression. We were made for expressing God’s greatest glory – the expression of God’s Life, Light, and Love. Whenever we love we are expressing glory; whenever we are patient we are expressing glory; whenever we are gentle we are expressing glory, etc.

You might say, “Ok, I know I can sometimes be patient, but most of the time I am not.” You are now focused on the outcome. In other words, one day you hope to be a patient person all the time. God is not waiting for you to be patient all the time, He wants you to trust Him and express patience in the moment. No matter how many times you have failed to express patience, those failures will not overshadow the times that you are. God is glorified every time we trust Him and allow Him to express Himself in and through us. This is only accomplished in total surrender to His presence in us.

I want to stop focusing on the past – all the moments I failed to express God’s glory. I also want to stop focusing on the future – hoping I will always express God’s glory in all that I do. God is teaching me to look at Him now and trust Him now and to cease looking to the past or to the future. I am so glad that God is not about outcomes, but revels in the moment-by-moment expressions of His Life in me!