House of David, Season 2: Trusting God in the Middle of the Storyಮಾದರಿ

Game of Glory

Glory. That’s a word you’re going to be reading a lot of in this plan. It can feel hard to define, but we all have a sense of what it means. We know what it looks like when someone lives for their own glory, like King Saul. It never ends well. And we’ve heard the command to live for the glory of God. But what does that actually mean?

The glory of God is the endless wonder of everything that makes Him who He is. It is His beauty, His greatness, His holiness on display in everything He does. And no one champions God’s glory more than God Himself. Not because He’s self-absorbed, but because He’s holy, set apart, utterly unique, in a class all His own. And yet this holy God, in all His glory, desires relationship with us.

This is why Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians that we cannot boast in our wisdom, strength, or accomplishments, but only in the Lord. It’s why Jeremiah warns not to glory in riches, power, or might, but in knowing God. And it’s why Isaiah records God saying, “I will not yield my glory to another.” God will share His love, His peace, even His power. But He will not share His glory.

That is where the paths of Saul and David split. Saul grasped for his own glory and lost the kingdom. David sought God’s glory and gained God’s heart. One God could use. From the other, God withdrew.

Because David remembered what he was created for: to glorify God. We were created to glorify God. And when we seek, serve, love, worship, and obey Him, we find our deepest satisfaction. To glorify God is simply to recognize Him for who He is and to reflect that truth to those around us, so that we are filled and others find what their souls are searching for.

The most loving thing God can do is uphold His glory. And the wisest thing we can do is stop chasing our own, and as Paul says, start boasting in Him.

Reflection Question: Where in your life are you tempted to chase your own glory instead of God’s, and how can you lay it down today?