Glorifying God makes us holy and happy

The Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt was considered one of the Seven Wonders of the World in ancient times because of its massive size. It is believed to be the largest structure ever made by the people on Earth. It is more than 480 feet tall. Its base covers about 13 acres of land. We “glorify” its makers.

To glorify someone means to bestow honour, praise or admiration on them. The Bible portrays that God created all things, visible and invisible (Psalm 19:1). 

He is worthy of all glory. The problem is that we often exchange the glory of the incorruptible and immortal God for the glory of corruptible and mortal man (Romans 1:22–23).

Just as the heavens created by God declare His glory, so must we, human beings created by God, declare His glory. God equips each of us with spiritual gifts, talents, and skills. Sometimes, we think our talents are small, but truly, discovering our gifts and using them are part of how we participate in declaring the glory of God.

 Whatever we do, we do for the Lord. For some, sports, dancing, singing, and worshipping are how they glorify the Lord. 

All the works of art, drawings, paintings, or performances that are grander than we could have imagined, draw us to the Lord; knowing that He inspired it all.

When we worship together, when we fellowship with one another, when we lift each other up in times of troubles, our beings are declaring the glory of God. 

Our goodness points to His existence. Whether using the hands or the heart, we can glorify the Lord boldly in what we do as stewards of our gifts, talents and skills, the words we say, and how we live our lives.

However, we must not imagine that God needs to be glorified by us. His glory belongs to Him and we cannot add anything to it. It is for our good that He commands us to glorify Him, for it is only by living to glorify Him that we can be truly holy and happy.

The life of the creature has meaning in reference to its Creator. The creature simply cannot live its life to the fullest without revealing its Maker. The lives of the early Christians made Jesus so visible that the people of Antioch could see Jesus in the lives of the disciples; in their preaching, in their community life, in their prayers, and in their performance of miracles (Acts 11:26). Therefore, our purpose as Christians is to reflect the Lord, not ourselves.

Although the world in all its beauty points to its Creator and thereby magnifies Him, and although the very existence of living plants and animals are a testimony of the eternal wisdom of the Creator, these created things do so without will or choice. Humans, and humans alone, in the temporal order, are called to magnify the Lord with their will and choices.

The glory of God is the very identity of God, and Jesus has fully revealed to humanity the character and identity of God. “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14). We must glorify God by believing that Jesus Christ is the Messiah and by studying and obeying everything He has commanded us to do.

God counts Himself glorified when He is extravagantly loved (Deuteronomy 6:5). We give God the best of our love, the cream of it. The fruits of our love must reflect in our good works (Matthew 5:16). We glorify God through martyrdom. Jesus predicted Peter would die as a martyr and “would glorify God” in his death (John 21:19). 

“Praising God is one of the highest and purest acts of religion. In prayer we act like men; in praise we act like angels” (Thomas Watson). The goal of worship is to honour God, not for our enjoyment. Worship may include repentance of sins in an effort to give honour and glory to the Lord. 

God will be fully glorified if we offer to Him the same sacrifice, which Jesus offered for the salvation of all, on the Cross of Calvary. With the command "Do this in remembrance of me", Jesus assures the presence of his Easter glory in all the Eucharistic celebrations which will mark the flow of human history (Luke 22:19).