For His Glory
Have you considered lately what it is you were put on this planet to do? Have you thought recently about why you’re here? The Bible says that we were made to glorify God. This truth is stated quite clearly by God when he describes his children as, “Everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made” (Isaiah 43:7). We were made for his glory. And it doesn’t matter where we live or what our circumstances might be, our raison d’être is to glorify God.
What this means is that each moment of each day, therefore, becomes an opportunity to glorify God or not. The apostle Paul put it like this in 1 Corinthians 10:31 – “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” In other words, whether it’s in the normal routine things of life—eating, drinking, or working—or in the day-to-day decisions, “whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”
Sadly, this truth is so far removed from our culture’s raison d’être which is happiness. Our culture says, “If it makes you happy, go ahead and do it.” But the problem is, what makes you happy may not really bring glory to God. It might make you happy to rip someone off. But that won’t glorify God. It might make you happy to cheat on your taxes, but that won’t glorify God. It might make you happy to satisfy your flesh, but that won’t glorify God. It might make you happy to repay evil for evil, but that won’t glorify God.
And the thing is, when the pursuit of happiness is elevated higher than the pursuit of God’s glory, we sin. The Bible actually defines sin as not glorifying God: Romans 3:23 says, “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” When we sin, what we are doing is pursing something else (for example happiness) over our pursuit of God’s glory. And so we can elevate health, or money, or power, or popularity over God in the hope that it will make us happy. But what happens is that in the end we will never be happy pursuing those things because true happiness—which the Bible calls contentment—is dependent on God. That’s why the apostle Paul could say that he had learned the “secret of being content” (Philippians 4:12) which was through his relationship with Jesus Christ.
It’s putting God first that matters. It’s obeying him that matters. It’s pursuing him above all other pursuits that matters. And as we do that, we can glorify him. The circumstances of life may be difficult, but we can still glorify him. We can glorify him when we’re sick. We can glorify him when we’re suffering. We can glorify God when we’re lonely. At the most difficult hour of Jesus’ life, just prior to his crucifixion, he actually said that God would be “glorified” (John 13:31) through his upcoming suffering on the cross.
From the example of Christ, we can see that it is possible to glorify God in whatever the circumstances of life. Are you sick? You can glorify God in the midst of your sickness. Are you single? You can glorify God in your singleness. Jesus suffered and died. He didn’t have a long life by our standards. He wasn’t wealthy by any means. He never got married. But, he did glorify God with his life. Jesus of course did that perfectly. And we are always falling short. But nevertheless, God’s purpose is clear: We were made for his glory.
