"How to Glorify God"


HOW TO GLORIFY GOD?
          So how do we glorify God and state our opinion of His value both to Him and to others?  Let us recall “The beauty of the Lord” series thus far.  We are to seek God’s beauty, His holiness, His splendor with all of our hearts.  Our utmost desire in all of life should be for the Lord’s beauty to rest upon us. 
The first step at glorifying God, and the one most familiar to us, is to “tell Him.”  Let us continually be reminded of the goal of our worship…to bless God, not to receive a blessing from God.  We are to tell Him exactly what we think of Him.  We divulge our heartfelt opinion of Him.  We let Him know how much we value Him.  We present to Him the estimate of His worth to us.  This is how the word “doxology” became synonymous with a hymn or chorus of praise to God.  One doxology that has often been sung in traditional services is:

Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

          You want to glorify God in your life?  One way, one important way, is to tell Him what He means to you!  Let me give you an example:
                Psalm 145:8-21
            8 The Lord is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and great in faithful love.(I)
9 The Lord is good to everyone;(J)
His compassion rests on all He has made.(K)
10 All You have made will thank You, Lord;
the[e] godly will praise You.(L)
11 They will speak of the glory of Your kingdom
and will declare Your might,(M)
12 informing all people of Your mighty acts
and of the glorious splendor of Your[f] kingdom.(N)
13 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom;
Your rule is for all generations.(O)
The Lord is faithful in all His words
and gracious in all His actions.[g](P)
14 The Lord helps all who fall;
He raises up all who are oppressed.[h](Q)
15 All eyes look to You,
and You give them their food at the proper time.(R)
16 You open Your hand
and satisfy the desire of every living thing.(S)
17 The Lord is righteous in all His ways
and gracious in all His acts.(T)
18 The Lord is near all who call out to Him,
all who call out to Him with integrity.(U)
19 He fulfills the desires of those who fear Him;
He hears their cry for help and saves them.(V)
20 The Lord guards all those who love Him,
but He destroys all the wicked.(W)
21 My mouth will declare Yahweh’s praise;
let every living thing
praise His holy name forever and ever.(X)
 
That’s how it is done.  David, the psalmist, knew.  You need to tell God how you feel, what you think about Him.  This should be a natural response from a grateful, loving, respectful heart.  If you have trouble expressing your feelings to others around you (as many of us do) then begin by expressing your feelings toward God.  Your relationship with God helps in our relationships with others.  Do struggle with joining us in praise with a heartfelt passion toward God when we sing and worship Him?  It is your immense loss.  Why?  Because we are created to glorify God and fully enjoy Him forever.  You are not reaching your highest end as a human being unless you are praising God with your heart and with your words in worship of Him.

I believe many Christians would be surprised by the number of believers, children of God, disciples of Christ, who have never fully engaged with God in praise and worship…EVER!  We stand.  We listen.  We occasionally softly mouth a few words.  We, at times, “feel” a few goose bumps or what I call “Spirit bumps.” 
But many of us who have been uniquely and marvelously created by the God of the universe and redeemed, restored, and reconciled to God by the blood of Jesus Christ and His sacrifice of death for us, have never told Him what we think about Him from our hearts.  Maybe it is because we do not esteem Him very highly.  If we do not think much of Him, we will not have much to say.  There will be no appreciation and love welling up from within our souls.  We will not have much to be thankful about.  We become “spectators of praise.”

Giving glory to God begins with actually telling Him exactly what we think of Him; informing Him how grateful we truly are; letting Him know that we fully comprehend how great and marvelous He is; specifically detailing our understanding of His guidance throughout our lives; verbalizing our awareness of His beauty, His holiness, His power, and other Divine attributes; confessing our knowledge of His grace and love for us through His Son Jesus Christ; welcoming the precious Holy Spirit in our hearts; remembering His mighty deeds on our behalf; recognizing that He alone sustains us day by day in every breath we breathe…and on and on we should be able to go…IF…IF we truly know Him as such. 

If we do not KNOW who He is or how He has transformed our lives or what He has done for us, the glory we bestow upon Him will be brief and indifferent.  We simply do not have much to say!