It’s undeniably a common occurrence in life that people drastically underestimate the power of God and how we glorify him. it’s far too normalized to treat him as a background character in the world(if a character at all), when in reality, He is the author of life as we know it. Don’t use God to glorify ourselves; rather we should devote ourselves, our lives, our time to glorify God. He gave us this life.
God is not merely an honorable mention in the credits of your life.
“Oh my God.”
To make it easier to understand, imagine if every single time you get frustrated, you use your father’s or mother’s name as a cuss, yelling it. It shows the little self-control you have, that I have. Imagine that every single time you are annoyed, you use your parents’ names. Imagine this name is used without meaning or with ill intent in songs, books, movies, etc. Imagine if every time there is a conversation about your parents, people talk about them as if they weren’t really the people you know them to be. Finally, imagine if it was a norm, that all the places you will be, for your entire life, people talk and use this name uselessly, they slander it, they use it in anger and frustration, but this name is much greater than you parents’ names, greater than any other idol a human could ever have, this is the character, authority, and identity which is God ( Psalm 113 is a good example), much greater than any parent. In fact, the term “oh my God” is now typically either frowned upon by Christians because of the wide and vain use, or used popularly as slang; but the ill use of “oh my God” grew immensely throughout the 20th century, and even more with the rise in texting at the beginning of the 21st century. The phrase “oh my God” while obvious and familiar to some, was really more of a way to plead to God, or to begin a prayer, not being in vain, but rather holding a great deal of meaning behind the authority and creator we know as God, we should use it that way. We can see a prayer written by David, “O my God” appears within the first two verses of this prayer in Psalm 25 , “To You, O Lord, I lift up my soul. [2] O my God, I trust in You“. Therefore, the problem is not the words themselves, but the way in which they are used.
Me,Us,We
(Jesus’ prayer the night before his crucifixion) “saying, ‘Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.‘” Luke 22:42
In our day-to-day lives, it’s not a rare occurrence for us to think that humanity has simply become too busy to fit God into our schedule, and if not forgotten, we try to throw him into the backseat and try to take the car to OUR desired destination; rather than trusting that his plan would be greater than ours. If individuals are to rightfully accept the truth that God is the omnipotent creator of the Earth in which people stand and breathe in today, then it appears to be rational to also acknowledge that an entity with so much omniscient power beyond our comprehension would also have a plan for our lives that is more elaborate than what we might have planned for our own lives. God’s will be done, not ours. It is incredibly foolish to have the thought that one won’t have enough time to spend with the creator of all things, INCLUDING TIME. If you place our faith in the all-powerful creator, God, how would it make sense to leave him out of the schedule he gave you in the first place?
Subjective truth
“you do you”, “find your inner peace”, “stay true to yourself”, “trust your gut”, “walk your own path”, or as Shakespeare said, “to thine own self be true”. Those quotes are only some of the very few that express a category of ideology, which would be the false kind. Humanity is not called to place faith in ourselves or in anything else but the one true, sovereign, triune God; God is not just for Christians, he’s not only for the people who’s lives seem easy, God is not a “feel-good” medicine, God is not a concept or an idea, he is not but the reason we are alive, the reason the we to breathe, eat, drink, love, and can have salvation through Christ. God is not exhaustively observable to us, so what kind of authority do we have to make any rash assumptions/conclusions about him? We must stop following our paths that lead to nothing good but damnation. We must stop being blinded by our pride, unbelief, and selfishness, only leading us to follow our own self-indulgent paths. God is our potter; if our lives were cars, he would be the mechanic, and if we were a garden, he is our nutrients. HUMANITY ARE COMPLETELY UNDENIABLY DEPENDENT ON GOD. We must glorify God, not because we are saved by glorifying him, not because he needs us in any capacity. We must stop using God to glorify ourselves, but use our able minds and bodies to glorify God.
Then What?
How should we be living our lives and glorifying God in a practical sense? You can be religious, you can go to church, you can do what you think to be good works, but at the core of all these things that are still important, there is something at the root of it all that can easily be ignored. We must know and continuously learn who God is, his authority, power, and character as revealed through scripture; and this is the rock-solid foundation we need in our lives, the cornerstone, and the understanding on which we should lean rather than our own. It is crucial to know who WE are and what our role is, what role does humanity play? We must learn what sin is and how it affects us in our relationship with God and in glorifying him. And lastly, learn what is at the root of our salvation, what defines someone who is saved? Scripture doesn’t leave this as some mystery for us to take wild guesses towards. If God is not a side character, not merely an honorable mention, then we are not left to assume what these truths are. In fact, the Apostle Paul writes that all scripture is profitable for training in righteousness so that we may be “thoroughly equipped for every good work” [2 Timothy 3:16–17]. In this excerpt of 2 Timothy 3 , Paul states how glorifying God isn’t easy, but we are to grow continuously wiser. I would argue that we do not achieve wisdom in something or someone that is inexhaustible. So to the fellow Christian, or maybe someone who is considering placing their faith in God, I tell you this: First, we are all sinners and will never meet the standard that God has for us, which is why every living, breathing human absolutely needs saving [Acts 4:12]. But in our devotion to God, we are never too busy to spend time with him; rest in him, and rather than “squeezing” him into that schedule, be in the word, observe how scripture may instruct you to change your prayer life, your work-life balance, and ultimately view your schedule through his instruction, be a follower who returns to scripture. Be a lamb who feeds deeply on the word rather than merely grazing or snacking on it. Prayer ought to be our first response, not only our last cry for help. If we have time to eat breakfast, then we have time to nourish our souls in scripture and fervent prayer.
Glorify God
So we know God is not futile; rather, our pretenses of him are. We must obey Christ and root ourselves in him, “ ‘Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in Me” [John 15:4-5]. Without God’s justification and sanctification in him as the source of all blessed things, we can do nothing. So we should rest in him, glorify him. We MUST give up the delusion that we are capable of generating any goodness or truth on our own. So then why do we glorify him? It isn’t because it benefits him in any way, we glorify him because he is worthy as himself, as the supreme author and creator of ALL things, he is the sovereign triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And this way, God is no longer an honorable mention; he is not the small print that we forget to read. We recognize him as the author, the director of the entire story.
All glory be to God.