I was recently reflecting upon why we have to give glory to God. We often pray the Glory Be. The prayer opens with, "Glory Be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit." In the Our Father, part of it proclaims, "for Thine is the Kingdom, the Power, and the glory."
A speaker in a recent conference said that, "We give glory to God because we can't handle the glory." Glory is rightfully God's, but another reason is that claiming the glory for ourselves will only nurture our pride. And we know that pride is Satan's favorite weapon against us. We do not have the capacity to absorb the glory that the world impresses on us. We have to dispose of it immediately to God.
It is tempting to attribute our accomplishments to our hard work and dedication. We want to insist that we "earned it." It is easy to forget that it is God that we have to thank and that it is God that made our life's victories possible. It is convenient to remember God in our need, but it is a struggle to attribute our success to Him. We are tempted to save some for ourselves. In our solitude we savor some glory and linger in it. Some of us can't get over the glory of our past achievements and endlessly rant about our present situation. Let us take Paul's advice, "Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead (Phil 3:13)."
May we unburden ourselves of the heavy weight that glory brings and let us get on with the next command that God will give to us as His servants.
A speaker in a recent conference said that, "We give glory to God because we can't handle the glory." Glory is rightfully God's, but another reason is that claiming the glory for ourselves will only nurture our pride. And we know that pride is Satan's favorite weapon against us. We do not have the capacity to absorb the glory that the world impresses on us. We have to dispose of it immediately to God.
It is tempting to attribute our accomplishments to our hard work and dedication. We want to insist that we "earned it." It is easy to forget that it is God that we have to thank and that it is God that made our life's victories possible. It is convenient to remember God in our need, but it is a struggle to attribute our success to Him. We are tempted to save some for ourselves. In our solitude we savor some glory and linger in it. Some of us can't get over the glory of our past achievements and endlessly rant about our present situation. Let us take Paul's advice, "Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead (Phil 3:13)."
May we unburden ourselves of the heavy weight that glory brings and let us get on with the next command that God will give to us as His servants.
0 comments:
Post a Comment