On the night that our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ was born, shepherds were staying in the fields nearby doing what shepherds do. An angel suddenly appeared among them, and Luke 2:9 tells us that the radiance of God’s glory surrounded them. If this happened to a group of us, we’d probably faint. They might have fainted too, but the angel told them not to be afraid. He said in Luke 2:10-11(NLT), “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. 11 The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David!” The angel was then joined by a huge heavenly host and verse 14 tells us they all said, “Glory to God in highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.” This record of our Savior’s birth is extraordinarily precious, and for many of us, it was our first acquaintance with learning about God’s glory.
Anyone that is glorious deserves glory. The Most High God is glorious beyond comprehension, and He deserves to be glorified continuously. When we think of this word, ‘glory’, high praise and honor come to mind. There is none more glorious than our Heavenly Father, and again, no one is more deserving of praise than He is. The record of our Savior’s birth is beyond wonderful, yet humble, and we should keep it in our hearts and minds always. It connects God’s glory with extraordinary demonstrations of His power and love, but we must understand that His glory is exceedingly more than a radiant light.
We owe Him
In Luke 17, ten lepers asked Jesus Christ to have mercy on them, and he healed them. He then instructed them to follow the law and show themselves to the priests. Luke 17:15-18(NKJV) tells us, “15 And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, 16 and fell down on [his] face at His feet, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan. 17 So Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where [are] the nine? 18 Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?” Those of us that have given our lives to God through the Lord Jesus Christ have been redeemed from the curse of the law. We have been freed from the bondage of death, darkness, and destruction, yet, like the nine Samaritan foreigners in the record of Luke 17, many of us have not given God glory for all that He’s done for us.
He commands us in 1Corinthians 10:31(NLT), “So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” Some people have assumed this means that they can do anything and everything, and that it will be acceptable towards God’s glory. This is not true. Glory means honor, magnificence, splendor, and excellent reputation. These are exceptionally extraordinary words, and even they are lacking when it comes to expressing the brilliant essence of our Heavenly Father’s glory. 2Peter 1:3(NLT) says, “By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence.” A Godly life pleases God, and everything and anything that we do to please Him by imitating His exceptionally excellent character and nature will bring Him glory.
Romans 12:1(NLT) tells us, “And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.” God lovingly begs us to give our bodies and all they contain to Him because this is the very least we can do for all He has done for us. We owe God beyond what we will ever be able to repay. The very least that we can do is to live in a way that gives Him glory and honor every day of our lives. This is the greatest privilege and the greatest accomplishment any of us could ever hope to achieve.
2Corinthians 4:17-18(NLT) declares, “For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! 18 So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.” The weight of God’s glory is significant, like everything else that He does. It would crush us were it not for His amazing grace and mercy. When we understand this, we can also have a greater understanding of His sovereignty, power, and nature. We can begin to shape and mold our expectations about what God has planned for us.
1Peter 5:10 tells us that through His kindness, He has called us to share in His glory by Jesus Christ. 1Thessalonians 2:14(NLT) says, “We pleaded with you, encouraged you, and urged you to live your lives in a way that God would consider worthy. For he called you to share in his Kingdom and glory.” Everything that we do, from the smallest to the greatest detail, is only possible because of God’s grace. There’s nothing that we can take credit for. God has called and equipped us to share in His glory! We should do everything within our power to live and love through Jesus Christ so that anything and everything we do brings our Heavenly Father the glory and praise from us that He so richly deserves.■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
“Live to Give God Glory”, written for Springfield Fellowship © 2023. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.