GLORIFY GOD

Pastor Jack Davis

As we face the new year, we would be wise to purpose in our hearts to go according to God’s will. We know it would please Him. When we make such a choice, let us look to Him for wisdom, guidance, and divine enablement. He is ready, willing and able to produce in us, as yielded vessels, that which will highly, eternally glorify Him.

“What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s” – I Cor. 6:19-20.

If we would glorify God, He first asks from us a willing heart. We need to be willing to have Him make us willing, for His perfect will. When king David had gathered the material for the building of the temple, and the people had given so freely, abundantly, David rejoiced greatly for the people’s willingness. What he said in his prayer of praise touches our hearts.

I Chron. 29:11-18, “Thine, O LORD, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O LORD, and thou art exalted as head above all. Both riches and honour come of thee, and thou reignest over all; and in thine hand… is to make great, and to give strength unto all… we thank thee, and praise thy glorious name. But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly…for all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee. For we are strangers before thee, and sojourners…our days on the earth are as a shadow…O LORD our God, all this store that we have prepared…cometh of thine hand, and is all thine own. I know also, my God, that thou triest the heart, and hast pleasure in uprightness. As for me, in the uprightness of mine heart I have willingly offered…and now have I seen with joy thy people, which…offer willingly unto thee. O LORD God…keep this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of thy people, and prepare their heart unto thee:”

IN PRAISE: To glorify God, is to ascribe honor to Him in praise, to extol, to magnify. We do this as we acknowledge His acts and His attributes. It is certainly precious reality that we can be used in our lives to reveal what He is in all His goodness, greatness and grandeur. “Call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me: – Psalm 50:15,23.

WHY? Why shouldn’t we? This is part of the reason we were created and redeemed. “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created” – Rev. 4:11. The saints are heard saying in heaven with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing” – Rev. 5:12. Praise God for divine ownership. We are not our own, but are bought with a price. Oh, to realize the blessedness of belonging to God, our loving Father. The amplified version reads thus: “You are purchased with a preciousness, made His own.” Oh, what a great debt of love we owe! We were sold under sin; now we’ve been purchased out of sin’s slave market. We are now love slaves. Oh yes, we have the right, the freedom, privilege, even the responsibility to bring honour, glory and praise to His Holy name. We are free to let our lives radiate His glory, as we, by love, serve one another.

“UNTO HIMSELF:” the apostle Paul reminds us, repeatedly, all that the Lord has done to bring us unto Himself, Col. 1:20-22; Rom. 5:10. In Phil 3:21 we read of Him subduing all things unto Himself. Titus 2:14 speaks to us of Jesus purifying us unto Himself, a people for His own possession. Then in Eph. 5:27, we are made to realize that one day soon He will present to Himself a GLORIOUS CHURCH.

THIS IS OUR CALLING AS HIS VESSELS: “When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe…in that day. Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power: That the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and ye in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ” – II Thess. 1:10-12. “But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonor. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work” – II Tim. 2:20-21. “Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: and that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?” Rom. 9:21-24.

What a marvelous work God is able to perform, in taking us, who of the old creation were children of wrath, fit only for destruction, and by his mercy and grace, prepare us unto glory! “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us” – II Cor. 4:6-7.

IN GOOD WORKS: We glorify God by walking in the good works which He has ordained – Eph 2:10. “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” – Mt. 5:16. As we give living service to others through the life of Christ, by God-given ability, there is no room for boasting of the flesh, but “that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ” – I Peter 4:11. The apostle Paul admonished: “Whatso- ever ye do, do all to the glory of God” – I Cor. 10:31. Consider Col. 3:17,23-24. Lord, help us do whatsoever we do in thanksgiving to you.

IN FRUITFULNESS: “I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit” – Jn. 15:5,7-8. Let us not try to conduct our lives outside the sweet will of God. As we constantly live in dependence upon our Lord, by faith in his Word, we are to go to Him with our needs and the needs of others. Thus God is glorified in His Son – Jn. 14:12-13.

IN DIVINE HEALING: In Matthew 15:30-31, we read that Jesus healed the lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others; and they glorified the God of Israel. In Acts 4:21-22, we read “…for all men glorified God for that which was done. For the man was above forty years old on whom this miracle of healing was shewed.” I fully believe that the major reason for divine healing is the glory of God. This is why I ask and expect Him to heal.

IN SPIRITUAL UNITY: “Now the God of patience and of consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus: That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God” – Rom. 15:5-7.

By obedience, from the heart, to God’s Word we are made to glorify God. This in not easy nor in harmony with the flesh, but it is necessary for us to be full overcomers. This could be translated: welcome, embrace each other in promotion of God’s glory.
Jack Davis