The Glory of God

If you browse through enough church, mission, or Christian nonprofit websites today, you might notice a pattern in their “About Us” profiles. Almost every one of them will state in their mission statement that their purpose as an organization, as a ministry, is to bring glory to God. How often to you think this is really true? How often can it be true?  In fact, now that we’re discussing it, what does this even mean?

The opportunities we have to be in ministry; the opportunities we have to serve others; the opportunities we are given to do something meaningful; these are all linked back to the privilege we are given, as Christians, through Christ’s redemption. Not only does He save us, but he then includes us in the work that He is doing to redeem this lost world, His lost world. In His work of bringing his lost children back to Himself. Any perspective on ministry that loses track of this big idea has lost track of the essence of ministry and of the glory of God. Sadly, it’s easy to lose track of the glory of God through the redemption of His people in the daily grind of life and ministry. In the grind of the details. Not only this, but we can forget the big picture in ourselves. Our glowing pride in our work, in our abilities, can blind us to the work God is doing around us or even despite us. We lose track of the fact that our abilities come from God and this is a fast pathway to claiming that we serve for the glory of God, while only serving our own pride.

There are many ways to lose track of the glory of God. We can get so consumed with the details that we forget the big picture, forget what the glory of God even looks like. He is lost in our stress and anxieties, our plans and plots. We can become consumed with ourselves, so that while we claim to look for God, we only see our own reflections. We are infatuated with our own works and accomplishments, the abilities that God gives us, and so forget to look beyond our own esteem. Unfortunately for our egos, the glory of God is not about us or our plans. I think the glory of God can be found best in the fact that He so loved this world, that He gave His only begotten Son for it, so that whoever would believe in Him could live forever, never perishing. God’s love is His glory.