Giving God Glory

on Aug 21 in Everyday Life, Faith, Worship

I struggle with the concept of giving God glory.

Whenever I lead music in a church setting, I always pray prayers that say, “God.¬† We give you all the glory.¬† We don’t want to take any of the glory for ourselves.¬† You’re the only One in the room who deserves glory.”¬† The problem with prayers like that is that I’m not exactly sure what I’m saying.

At the most basic level, I think I’m admiting that all of us have the tendency to look on a stage – especially to look at musicians on a stage – and say “Wow!”¬† But when that takes the place of looking at God and saying “Wow!”, then something’s wrong.

Then, there are streams of theology that claim that the reason for everything is to give God glory.¬† And I’m fine with that.¬† For the most part.

Here’s the danger in all this, though.¬† If we’re not extremely careful, we can create an insecure god who sits in heaven, somehow needing us to validate him by giving him constant praise, constant worship, constant attention, and constant glory.

God is not an insecure teenager who just got braces.

Jesus talked about giving God glory.¬† And interestingly, He didn’t mention much I’ve talked about thus far.¬† In His final prayer before His death (John 17:1ff), Jesus said:

“Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son so he can give glory back to you. 2 For you have given him authority over everyone. He gives eternal life to each one you have given him. 3 And this is the way to have eternal life‚Äîto know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth. 4 I brought glory to you here on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.

God gave Jesus “work” to do.¬† And the accomplishing of that “work” gave God glory.

God has given us all certain “work” to do.¬† I argue that this “work” should be redemptive in nature.¬† And in Jesus’ mind, the redemptive work we’re called to is to “know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth.”

Our job is to figure out our own unique way to put flesh and blood to that redemptive message.

Today.

Tomorrow.

The next day.

And when we do that, we’ll truly be giving God glory.¬† Because in God’s world, glory does not equal attention.¬† In God’s world, glory equals relationship.

A relationship bought back with blood.