What does it mean to glorify God? When I think about this, I almost always think first of my worship to God, and I almost always think next of my actions. When we think of these two things, we are actually combining two different ways in which we glorify God. First is communal glorification and the second is individual glorification. It is important to glorify God through our worship and actions, but do those two things cover the entire aspect of what it means to glorify God? I think we must first get down to what it really means to glorify God if we want to understand where and how it is done.

The word ‘glorify’ means to invest with dignity, make one important, and cause honor by putting one into an honorable position. Simply put, we glorify God when we make the choice to make Him important and honor Him over everything else. That means work, hobbies, relationships, and ourselves as individuals are second next to God. Like so many other things God challenges us with, here is another challenge to choose and the choice is to choose how important He is and it is not always easy to make that choice. This is why the word is based in choice. One cannot give glory by accident.

On the communal scale, we glorify God when we honor Him with proper worship and seek the lost, pointing them to Jesus. Jesus also says we glorify Him and the Father when we love one another -John 13:35. Individually, we glorify God when we make the conscious effort to place Him as the number one priority in things like our families, friends, co-workers, speech, thoughts, and behavior toward others. Honestly, I’ve discovered that one can glorify God in almost any circumstance. Again, these are all conscious examples, one cannot give God glory by accident.

This moment, many around the world have Jesus’ name on their lips. People who are not Christians are evaluating themselves based on what they know inwardly to be right even if they don’t realize that the morality they are thinking about and changing toward was established by God. I would say even this glorifies God because the level of His importance has risen in their lives. How much honor are we choosing to give Him as we enter the community during this season? I challenge us this season to be intentional in our glorification of God while the world seems to have Him and His son on their minds. Find and take advantage of Godly opportunities and be the light that points to Jesus. By doing so we not only bring glory to God, but we might bring Him a soul.

Revelation 1:5b-6, “To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”