For His Glory...by Susan Paradise

 

To Him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.  1 Peter 4:11b

 

At first glance, this sounds so sweet and benign. Far from it. This passage is crammed full of juicy meat. So, what is glory, how does God receive glory, and how can we give Him the glory?

 

What is glory?  The Hebrew word for glory is "doxa" and can mean honor, praise, and worship. Glory embodies the ultimate of these. Adding "zo" to "doxa" gives us the Hebrew word for glorify. It means to render glorious...to ascribe honor to Him, acknowledging Him as to His being, attributes and acts.

 

How does God receive glory?  All creation shouts of His glory. (see Romans 1:20) Though God created the world long ago, His glory continues to be seen!

 

Ever gaze at the ocean's rhythmic waves or stars in a cloudless sky?

Mountains rising along the horizon or a field of wild flowers nearby?

A deer running free alone through the wood or a sleeping baby's sigh?

All creation that has been and ever will be, "To Him be the glory!" they cry.¹

 

God also receives glory from His written word, the Bible. The fact that the Bible was written by so many different authors over so many years---without contradiction---absolutely screams His glory even today despite countless attempts to destroy it both physically and spiritually.

 

How do we give Him the glory?  We give God the glory in our love for one another. As we use our Spiritual Gifts for the Body of Christ (described in 1 Peter 4:8-11), we give Him the glory by acknowledging the source of those gifts. When someone compliments us for our hospitality, service, or whatever, we point the glory not to ourselves, but to God for giving us His gift to use for His Kingdom.

 

And we give God the glory by sharing with others our personal experiences with Him. Sure David, the disciples, and Paul proclaimed all He had done in their lives. But we are also His disciples and He wants us to continue telling of His greatness. Each of us has had at least one experience with God and the longer we walk with Him, the more experiences we will have.

 

What type of experiences? All of them. How we came to know Him. Our struggles and failures. Surviving trials or a terrible past. Following God and building a future. They all bring Him glory. Our walk with God has taught us all kinds of lessons which have strengthened us and given us hope. What a shame if we hide those experiences under a basket instead of letting them shine forth His glory!

 

Peter was imploring his readers to do all this when he wrote, "To Him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen!" Changes the way we look at it, huh?

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