Reflecting God In Your Life
The words “glory” and “glorify” are commonly used in the Bible but not in our day-to-day speech. If you say to someone “give glory to God” you might be met with a blank stare! Does that mean say the words “Glory to God”? Or does it mean you’re supposed to give money or something else?”
The word “glory” means splendor which is easy enough to understand. If someone were to say “The sunset last night was glorious” we would know exactly what they meant. But when you say “give glory to God” that’s when it get tricky. How do we give splendor to God?
There’s more than one way to answer this. Jesus gives us one explanation in Matthew 5:16.
In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
Jesus said we are the light of the world. Jesus is the true light John 1:9 but we have our own light, too! Think of it like this, it’s like the Father is the sun and we’re the moon. There are times when the moon shines bright and beautiful. That’s only because it’s fully reflecting the sun.
Good Works Give Glory To The Father
We shine the brightest when we do good works. Those good works give glory to the Father. That’s because He enables us to do them. When people acknowledge them it reflects well on the Father. The cool thing is they may not know that they’re giving glory to Him. God knows.
[Tweet “Your good works are as glorious as a sunset created by God.”]
Many people misunderstand good works and think good works is how to get to heaven. A good work is something that’s beneficial to others. It’s not a good work if we do it for our own good. If the main reason a man makes a charitable donation is so others know how good he is, it isn’t a good work like Jesus mentions. That good work gives glory to the man. An anonymous charitable donation would give glory to God.
Many people do good works because they think God keeps a scorecard. Do more good works and you get more points from God in your favor. There’s nothing further from the truth. Jesus says the more good works we do the more points in God’s favor. It’s God whose reputation is built up by our good works, not ours.
[Tweet “God’s reputation is built up by our good works.”]
If you do good works for selfish reasons you’re wasting your time. They may temporarily benefit your reputation but there’s no eternal benefit to them.
How Your Good Works Can Give Glory To God Today
Right now ask God to help you be beneficial to someone today. It may be a kind word or an act of kindness. It may be spending time in prayer for someone. It will cost you something, time or energy or money. As you do it, pray that it honors the Father and not you. And it will.
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