Word of Encouragement (11/20/2020)
The R.C. Sproul quote we are meditating on is: “We do not segment our lives, giving some time to God, some to our business or schooling, while keeping parts to ourselves. The idea is to live all of our lives in the presence of God, under the authority of God, and for the honor and glory of God. That is what the Christian life is all about.” Today, we will think about the last of the three aspects of the Christian life: to live “for the honor and glory of God.”
You are all familiar with this idea. Our Westminster Shorter Catechism starts with, “The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.” The ultimate goal, for which we live and do all that we do, should be to glorify God.
What does it mean to glorify God? It doesn’t mean that we make God glorious. We may be prolific idol-makers but we are not God-makers. A true God cannot be made. And we cannot make God (more) glorious because He is already all-glorious. To glorify God is not so much making God more glorious than He is as acknowledging the infinite glory of God in our thoughts, words, and actions. John Piper gives a helpful analogy: to glorify God is like drinking water from a fountain—better yet, from an oasis—and saying how good it is and telling others all about it, not adding more water to the fountain/oasis!
Isn’t that wonderful? God is not like a small-time gangster, who enriches himself by forcing homeless children with threats and violence to beg on the street and taking everything they make. God is like a fountain of the freshest and living-giving water, which never runs dry. He doesn’t need anything from us. What can we give Him, which He does not already possess? All that we are and have are all from Him. All that we need to do is to drink deep from the fountain of His goodness—to taste and see how good He is—and share that with others by letting them know how wonderful He is! Piper rightly says that God is most glorified when we are most satisfied in Him.
As we do so, we also have to remember that the biblical idea of “glory” has this element of “weightiness” or “importance.” To glorify God also entails recognizing God’s (supreme) importance in our lives: it is to show in our thoughts, words, and actions how important God is to us. When someone is important to us, what do we do? We think about him a lot. We pay close attention to him—what he likes and dislikes, how he feels, what he desires, etc.—and we do everything possible to please him. This can be problematic when we are dealing with a sinner. What he wants and what makes him happy may not be a good thing. We don’t have to worry about that with God, do we? When we pay close attention to Him and do what He desires, it makes us virtuous and noble in His likeness! What a blessing it is to have Someone worthy of our attention and work and even sacrifice!
As we begin each day, let us commit ourselves to live for God’s honor and glory in all that we do. Christian life is not limited to the “religious” sphere but encompasses every arena of our lives. Let us taste and see how good God is through our communion with Him and through all His abundant and manifold blessings in our lives. And let us strive to show how weighty/important God is in our lives in all that we do and in the way we do it—by paying attention to God and His will for our lives and doing all things to please Him above all things. We know how difficult—impossible, in fact—it is on our own. This will drive us to the throne of His grace and ask for His mercy and strength, which will help us taste and see His goodness all the more! “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31).