How many times have you been in church or around Christian friends and heard talk of glorifying God? I know I have heard it more times than I can count, but it wasn’t until recently that I realized I had never really sat down to think about what it really means. Let’s dive in.
To start, what does GLORIFY mean?
A quick Google search tells me that synonyms of glorify include praise, exalt, worship, and revere. Of those I think my favorite is revere. When you have reverence for something you treat it with the utmost respect. As we read in 1 Peter 2:17, we have been asked to “Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor.”
So, how do we do it?
To me, glorifying God doesn’t have to be a grand gesture. It can mean praying for the ability to represent Jesus in every action you take. Everybody is capable of glorifying God, from a little child to the wealthiest men and women in the world. Glorifying takes faith and dedication to the word of the Lord, and understanding that “Every good and perfect gift is from above” (John 1:17).
One of our Facebook followers summed up glorifying God beautifully:
When we glorify God, we exalt Him as He should the most high in the beauty of His holiness. We honor Him while every other word, thought, desire, etc. fades into the background.