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“God
is most glorified in me when I am most satisfied in Him."
~ John Piper, Desiring
God , p.10.
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His Glory
We need to
break the mirror and see more of God than ourselves. Even while we
speak of Him we may stare at ourselves, concerned that other people
consider us eloquent, accurate, or compelling.
It’s so
easy to elevate our greatness, to hunger for our glory, and to seek
applause for our efforts. We expect and honor narcissism rather than
hold it in disdain.
Even church
worship services can devolve into discussions of our felt needs,
battles over our
musical preferences, sermons that dispense advice to improve our
relationships, humor that distracts us from our boredom or pain, or slick
performances that satisfy us
... all of which does little or nothing to glorify God.
Yet, the
apostle Paul writes that God predestined us for this very purpose ...
“to be to the praise of His glory” (Ephesians 1:12). Indeed, Paul uses
the phrase three times in his opening salvo to the Ephesians – 1:6, 12,
14.
It matters.
When we
live “to the praise of His glory” we don’t need to embrace a false
humility, refusing to accept compliment or gratitude. But we won’t seek
such things. Indeed, we’ll consider ourselves to have failed if people
speak more of our abilities than the Father’s grace. We’ll be grieved
if others speak of our biblical soundness but have no deeper hunger for
the One to Whom all Scripture points us. We'll measure our life's
"success" by whether we've effectively pointed people to Him,
not attracted people to ourselves.
Biblical
processes always begin with God, not us. He was “in the beginning.” We
came along later. He is the Creator. We were created. He deserves all
glory, honor, and majesty. And our grasping for awards, recognition,
prominence, power, appreciation, or applause reflects the distorted and
misdirected lives we live.
The world
has little vision of the Father because He must constantly abide in our
shadows. What if we resolved to live in His shadow, instead?
We will
only live faithful to Christ and embrace “every spiritual blessing”
once we determine to spend our lives “to the praise of His glory.”
Let’s break a few mirrors and look beyond ourselves a little more
today. And perhaps others will begin to see Him rather than us. That
can only be good.
In
HOPE –
David
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