GIVING GOD GLORY
By Randall Brewer
There is nothing more important than to have your words and actions line up with your position in Christ. You’ve passed from death to life, from darkness to light, now it’s time to act like it. You are a child of the living God so live up to who you are. Christ is in you so you must live up to that standard. In other words, become in practice what you are in position. Peter wrote two epistles and he begins and ends them with a mandate that you grow up and mature spiritually. He does this because there is nothing more tragic than a stunted believer who has not reached spiritual maturity.
1 Peter 2:2 says “as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the Word, that you may grow thereby.” He then says in 2 Peter 3:18, “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.” Notice that Peter equates growing spiritually with giving God glory. Comprehend what Peter is saying. The master key to spiritual growth is understanding what it means to glorify God.
The greatest theme in the history of the universe is that God is to be glorified. When Jesus was born the angels declared, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, good will toward men!” (Lk. 2:14). The concept of glorifying God is the reason the world exists. “The heavens declare the glory of God” (Ps. 91:1) and so do the beasts of the field (Is. 43:20). You also were made to glorify God. It’s why you exist.
In 1647 the Westminster Shorter Catechism proclaimed that “the chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.” This lines up with what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 10:31, “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” No matter what you do, even the most basic necessities of life like eating and drinking, do all to the glory of God. Jesus came to glorify the Father no matter what price He had to pay (Jn. 12:27,28). You also need to aim your life at His glory and His purposes. When you realize that you are alive to give God glory, you will put yourself in the process of gaining spiritual growth and maturity.
Throughout history, the ultimate condemnation of man is that he didn’t glorify God. Romans 1:21,22 says, “Although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools.” It is a serious thing not to give God glory.
Jeremiah13:16 (NLT) says, “Give glory to the Lord your God before it is too late. Acknowledge Him before He brings darkness upon you, causing you to stumble and fall on the darkening mountains. For then, when you look for light, you will find only terrible darkness and gloom.” The prophet is saying to give God glory or else! When people don’t give God glory, they put themselves in a place of judgment.
In Daniel 4:30, King Nebuchadnezzar claimed God’s glory for himself and be became like a beast of the field for seven years, eating grass like oxen (vs. 32,33). In Acts 12:21,22 Herod blasphemed God and “immediately an angel of the Lord struck him, because he did not give glory to God. And he was eaten by worms and died” (vs. 23).
Those who fail to give God glory are cut off from the blessings of God. In their future is a Christless eternity where they’ll be condemned forevermore. Romans 1:28-32 (NLT) says,
“Since they thought it foolishness to acknowledge God, He abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. Their lives become full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy. They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too.” This doomed existence happens when people fail to glorify God, when their words and actions don’t line up with His. Jesus said in John 8:44, “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do.”
As a true believer in Christ, it should bother you when God is dishonored. David said in Psalm 69:9 (NLT), “Passion for your house has consumed me, and the insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.” The Message Bible says, “I love You more than I can say. Because I’m madly in love with You, they blame me for everything they dislike about You.” This same verse was quoted in John 2:17 after Jesus cleansed the temple by driving out the moneychangers who were there dishonoring God. This was something Jesus could not tolerate so He took a whip and drove them out.
Concerning the church at Ephesus, Revelation 2:2 says “you cannot bear those who are evil.” The people at Ephesus felt the pain of God being dishonored and not being given the glory He richly deserves. The greatest call of a believer is to glorify God, and this happens when you let His glory shine through you.
2 Corinthians 4:6 (NLT) says, “For God, who said, ‘Let there be light in the darkness,’ has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ.” Adam and Eve lived in the presence of God. The glory of God engulfed them as they walked with Him in the cool of the day. When they sinned they were removed from the garden because fallen man cannot experience the glory of God nor can they give Him glory. From that moment on, God has endeavored to get man to see His glory. Adam saw it and now God wants you to see it as well. It was for this reason that He sent Jesus to walk the earth.
Romans 11:36 says, “For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.” The Message Bible says, “Everything comes from Him; Everything happens through Him; Everything ends up in Him. Always glory! Always praise! Yes. Yes. Yes.”
The focus of your life is to glorify God and this happens when you confess Jesus as Lord (Plp. 2:9-11). You cannot give glory to God unless you give glory to His Son. Jesus said in John 5:23, “He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.” When Jesus is the Lord of your life, you will obey Him always and do the things He tells you to do.
Living a Christ-centered life is how you bring glory to God the Father. Colossians 1:27 (GNT) says, “God’s plan is to make known His secret to His people, this rich and glorious secret which He has for all peoples. And the secret is that Christ is in you, which means that you will share in the glory of God.”
In order for the world to see God’s glory in you, you must grow spiritually. As you do that, you will be changed from one level of glory to a higher level of glory, You’ll go from glory to glory (2 Cor. 3:18). The apostle Paul had to go through a growing process where God had to transform him so he could be used for the glory of God. You also have to go through this same process. In Acts 22:3 Paul tells how he was educated from his early days in the laws of the Jews and he grew up and became a strict Pharisee. He was very passionate and his religious zeal was displayed in his intense persecution of the church (Acts 29:9-11). In his own words Paul testified that “in raging fury against them I persecuted them even to foreign cities” (v. 11 ESV). Then something stopped Paul dead in his tracks.
One day as Paul was traveling on the road to Damascus to persecute more Christians, he met the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 9:3-5) and suddenly his misguided zeal came to a screeching halt. It was on this day that Paul’s life was drastically changed. Like him, many people have been religious their entire life and yet have not been transformed into the image of Christ. They don’t realize that spiritual growth is not a matter of knowledge only. It’s what you do with that knowledge that determines the measure of your growth and maturity. In fact, 1 Corinthians 8:1,2 says, “Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies. And if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know.”
Also, spiritual growth has nothing to do with the works you do in and for the kingdom of God. Nobody was busier doing religious activities than the Pharisees but nobody was further from the truth than they were. Matthew 7:21-23 tells how being busy for God doesn’t even qualify you for salvation let alone spiritual growth. What people need is a Damascus road experience, a face-to-face encounter with Jesus.
Paul went on to become a great apostle and wrote half the books in the New Testament. He started many churches and was used by God to ignite the miraculous growth of the first century church. Just like God did with Paul, He also wants to give you a new life, a new beginning. He wants to take you from darkness to light, from pride to humility, from glory to glory. God has a plan and a purpose for you just like He had for the apostle Paul. Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” The Message Bible says, “He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join Him in the work He does, the good work He has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.”
God’s plan is for you to have an ever-growing relationship with Him and a life that is supernaturally transformed so you’ll become like Him. “As He is, so are we in this world” (1 Jn. 4:17). God wants all of you, not just a part of you. He wants you to be set apart, wholly devoted to Him in every area of your life.
There is a role you have to play in order for this to happen. For sure, spiritual growth requires a lot of involvement on your part. You’ve got to actively abide in Christ and pursue a deeper relationship with Him. You need to yield to Him always and purposely set your minds on things above and not beneath (Col. 3:2). You have to choose to do these things. You have to choose to walk in the Spirit without giving in to the desires of the flesh (Gal. 5:16).
It’s by abiding in Christ that you’ll have peace that passes all understanding (Plp. 4:7), joy unspeakable (1 Pet. 1:8), and love that never fails (1 Cor. 13:8). You’ll be unshaken even in the midst of difficult situations. You’ll have an inner confidence that you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you (Phil. 4:13). People wrongfully believe that if they’ll only get saved they’ll automatically have love, joy, peace, and happiness all the days of their lives. No, it’s the process of spiritual growth that brings all these blessings into your life. They come from an ever-deepening relationship with Christ. They come from abiding in Him.
The power behind spiritual growth is the Holy Spirit. It is He who energizes your growth. 2 Corinthians 3:18 (CEV) says, “So our faces are not covered. They show the bright glory of the Lord, as the Lord’s Spirit makes us more and more like our glorious Lord.” As you behold the glory of the Lord, as you gaze into His glory, the Holy Spirit begins the process of spiritual growth.
David focused on the glory of God and his heart was made glad. Psalm 16:8,9 says, “I have set the Lord always before me; Because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices.” Abiding in Christ is the channel through which this supernatural power flows. It’s this power that allows you to thrive in your Christian life. It’s this power that turns you from a nobody into a somebody but it takes involvement on your part.
If you’ll join God in the work He’s doing, if you’ll do your part, you can have the assurance “that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:6).
There is a commitment you can make that will give you the assurance that God’s work of transformation will take place in your life. Paul tells you what that commitment is in Philippians 3. He begins in verses 5 and 6 by telling how religious he was before he met Christ on the road to Damascus. His life was changed at that moment and he then writes in verse 7 (NLT), “I once thought those things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done.” He then shares the mindset you must have that brings true spiritual growth and maturity. “Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with Him” (vs. 8,9 NLT). Jesus Christ is everything and compared to Him everything else in the world is garbage. Committing yourself to having this mindset is the beginning of a radical transformation in your life. This is where the journey of spiritual growth begins.
Jesus said in John 15:4, “Abide in Me, and I in you.” The God’s Word translation says, “Live in Me, and I will live in you.” If you want your life to be transformed, you must be in a continual living union with Jesus. The Amplified Bible says you have to be “vitally united” to Christ. The word “vitally” means ‘essentially, critically, crucially, centrally.’ You abide in Christ when you make your union with Him the central focus of your life. This is the mindset you must have in order for spiritual growth to happen. You must embrace the fact that nothing equals the infinite value of knowing Jesus and being found in Him. It’s by abiding in Christ that God is able to pour the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit into your life.
You must be willing to be in this for the long haul. The only way for you to thrive in life is to abide in Christ and this don’t happen overnight. It’s something that is cultivated and developed over time much like a branch slowly growing on a vine. Yes, it’s hard work but well worth the effort.
To abide in Christ means to be immersed in His presence. No matter what you’re going through, Jesus said “in Me you may have peace” (Jn. 16:33). He’s talking about abiding in Him. Believers who are stressed out all the time are not abiding in Christ. This is why the Christian divorce rate is the same as that of nonbelievers. The husband and the wife are not abiding in Christ and thus they don’t have the power to overcome their marital trials. Sad to say, it has become the accepted norm that Christians in today’s world act just like the unsaved. Why is this so? Because they don’t abide in Christ and they haven’t grown up spiritually. Jesus then said, “In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (v. 33). That alone should motivate you to bask in His presence every hour of every day. If you’re not doing that, then it is doubtful that you’ll be able to handle the trials of life that are sure to come. To unbelievers Jesus says, “Follow Me.” To the born again Christian He says, “Abide in Me.” By saying that, He is preparing you to live in a world of tribulation.
Most Christians never learn the concept of abiding in Christ. They try to walk the path of righteousness in their own strength not realizing that this is a futile and worthless effort on their part. Don’t you do that. From this moment on you must learn to be immersed in your relationship with Jesus, to commune with Him, to walk with Him, to experience Him on a daily basis. No longer do you consider it a burden or an obligation to read your Bible but a joy and a privilege. A growing hunger for God is in your heart. You’re not just satisfied with knowing about Him, now you want to know Him intimately in a personal way.
As you grow spiritually, you’ll have less and less desire for what the world has to offer. The closer you are to Him, the more He’ll fill your life where in the past you tried to fill that void with the things of the world. No longer will you go in debt because of the wrongful use of credit cards. No longer will you throw away your weekly paycheck at the gambling casino. You are abiding in Christ and no longer is there a craving for worldly things.
The more you abide in Christ, the more your life will change for the better. You can now love people that you couldn’t love in the past. You can accept people for who they are and not for who you want them to be. You’ve gone beyond loving those whose performance and conduct match your personal standard. It’s now easier to forgive those who offend you. Jesus said on the cross, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” Do the people who hurt you know what they’re doing? Probably not. They don’t understand that when they harm you, they are in actuality harming themselves. They don’t understand that there are long-term consequences that come from sinning against a child of God. Loving those who do you wrong is a sign of spiritual growth. The time it takes you to forgive a person gets shorter and shorter. No longer do you hold grudges and no more do you let the sun set while you’re angry at somebody for doing you wrong. You’re abiding in Christ and you love everybody with no strings attached.
More than that, your feelings of love for God are also increasing. There are inner feelings of intimacy for Him that were not there before. Along with that comes a deep desire to express that love. Praise and worship pour out of you like a never-ending river of love and compassion. You now have an increasing desire to obey Him and do what He tells you to do. His will becomes your will. No longer do you obey Him because you’re afraid not to nor because of the consequences you believe disobedience brings. No, you obey Him for who He is. You obey Him because of your deep love for Him and His deep love for you. Your faith is also increasing.
As you use your faith against the trials and challenges of life, it gets stretched little by little and slowly but surely begins to grow. The more of life’s hardships you face and overcome, the greater your faith will be. And the more you’re able to overcome, the more things God can trust you with. By standing in faith you’re showing God you won’t quit when the pressure is on. You won’t walk away but will stand strong and fight the good fight of faith.
Philippians 3:10 is the verse that will launch you into a transformed life. The Amplified Bible says, “And this, so that I may know Him experientially, becoming more thoroughly acquainted with Him, understanding the remarkable wonders of His person more completely and in that same way experience the power of His resurrection which overflows and is active in believers, and that I may share the fellowship of His sufferings, by being continually conformed inwardly into His likeness even to His death, dying as He did.”
Paul is giving you the foundation on which spiritual growth is built on. That foundation is a progressive and passionate commitment to know Christ intimately. As you know Him more and more you will begin to be transformed into His image. That’s the blessing that comes when you abide in Christ. After telling you to abide in Him, Jesus said in John 15:11, “These things I have spoken to you that My joy may be in you and that your joy may be full.” Jesus is not talking about your circumstances here, He’s talking about fixing your heart “for out of it spring the issues of life” (Pro. 4:23).
Paul then says in verse 11, “If, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.” He is not talking here about what happens after you die. The Amplified Bible gives more understanding to what Paul is saying, “That if possible I may attain to the spiritual and moral resurrection that lifts me out from among the dead even while in the body.” This verse is talking about being raised from the deadness of this life and living a life of spiritual growth and maturity.
Ephesians 2:1 says, “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins.” Romans 6:11 says, “Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” To be alive with the divine life of God is the goal for which every believer should be striving for. That’s the goal of spiritual growth. Verse 12 says, “I press on” to lay hold of the new resurrected life. Get up every morning committed and determined to live the divine life Jesus has called you to live. Press on to possess the perfection and maturity with which Jesus first possessed you.
No longer live life nonchalantly. Press on to know Christ better. Put to death that old life and walk in the new resurrected life. It’s the pressing in that’s your part. It’s what you must do morning, noon, and night. It’s a choice you must make every single day of your life. Verse 14,15 says, “I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you.” The Message Bible says, “I’m off and running, and I’m not turning back.” Paul says you need to focus on one thing. You need to forget the past and look forward to what lies ahead.
You’ve been forgiven so don’t let the past pull you down and prevent you from looking to what God has planned for you. Paul is saying he will press on and not give up. That’s his part and that is your part also. If you want true transformation in your life then this is the commitment you must make. Press on and never give up.###
Randall J . Brewer has been faithfully serving the Lord since 1974. He has been involved with various forms of ministry, including children’s, street, prison, singles, cell group, radio, writing, and personal evangelism. He and his wife live in northern Illinois. His email address is: ar917eph320@aol.com.
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