Thoughts on...Giving God the Glory

The phrase "Glory to God" or "Give God the glory" is often used as a way to acknowledge the rightful place of God's involvement in something we have just experienced. For instance, you may hear, "The worship service was powerful"..."Give God the glory" is the response. It's a way to praise God for revealing Himself to us in such a way. But it's not the only way to give God the glory. Acknowledgement that God should get the glory for something He has done, while important, has long been used as a way to sound spiritual in front of others or as a way to impress God. While it might convince others that it is used in earnest, God will not be mocked and cannot be fooled. I wonder what God thinks of a person who proclaims all glory to God with the mouth but not with the lifestyle? It defeats the purpose of giving God the glory for some great experience being witnessed when there is lack of trust in God's glory to be revealed through obedience.
Obedience is the key ingredient to bring glory to God! Since the beginning of time, God has been glorified through the obedience of His creation, human beings. And since the beginning of time human beings have struggled to give God the glory with an obedient lifestyle. The very reason we exist is because God designed our relationship with Him to bring Him glory. If our God-assigned purpose for living on Earth is to bring Him glory then we must recognize living a life NOT glorifying to Him is a disobedient life. If we are living in disobedience to God, we cannot bring Him glory even if we say it with our mouths. Saying it with the mouth is not he same as saying with our hearts. The one that says with the mouth, "Glory to God" is the one who really did not have faith in God that He could do such a thing and was simply amazed but not changed. Are you living as one amazed by God or are you living as one changed by God? The one who says with the heart, "Glory to God" is the one who has surrendered EVERYTHING to God and is changed by the glory revealed through the power of the blood shed on the cross of Jesus Christ! The death of Christ on the cross is all that God needs in order to change your life for His glory.
Anyone who lives to glorify God through an obedient lifestyle does so because of the power of God to transform their life daily into the image of God. An obedient lifestyle means living by this principle...If I am about to do something that does NOT bring glory to God, I should NOT do it. Because anything that brings God glory is obedience, and anything that does not bring God glory is disobedience. Obedience brings us close to God, and disobedience separates us from God. For example, does drinking alcohol bring glory to God? There is nothing at all that brings glory to God when a person drinks alcohol. Therefore, drinking alcohol is disobedience to God. Disobedience to God shows that a person trusts something else rather than God to sustain their life.
The only remedy for disobedience is faith and repentance in Jesus Christ. And God has a wealth of forgiveness ready to pour out on anyone who will confess and believe in giving God the glory!Are you ready to not only give God glory with your mouth but with your heart as well?

Just Some Thoughts on...."God Bless You"

I am constantly thinking about things that God has reminded me of lately. One thing is his desire to bless his children and his desire for us to want him to bless us. In the DR this summer, it was important to say "God bless you!" to the people. They wanted us to say it to them. They have a strong desire for God to bless their lives everyday. To them, it's more than just something nice to say at the end of a conversation. It shows the importance of speaking a blessing into someone's life. My friends in the DR have reminded me that no matter how much or how little you have, asking God to bless you as often as possible should rank supreme and should be all that we depend on to supply our needs. For me, I have realized that no matter how much I am able to do for myself and others, unless I truly and genuinely seek God's blessing, it will never be what it could have been without God. I might have the ablility to do many things well but I cannot afford to just operate on my own power apart from the Holy Spirit guiding all I do. When I operate outside of the Holy Spirit guiding me, two things happen. I am not nearly as affective, and secondly, it would be easy for me to take the glory for it rather than give the glory to God. We all know that God deserves all glory and honor and praise! But for some reason we have lost the willingness to verbalize it in everyday conversations. We have relied on our own power and in turn been rendered inaffective at accomplishing God's will and try to take the credit for something that is not even working...how stupid can such intelligent people be? Don't we realize how spiritually poor we have settle into being while at the mention of God's blessing, we invite the power to move mountains? We were created to give God the glory with our lives' and when our lifestyle is all for his glory, God's blessing will flow through , in and out of us witnessed by everyone who hears our heart say "God bless you"!