The first tenet of the seventeenth centuryWestminster Shorter Catechism(WSC) declares a principle with which King David would surely agree: “The chief end of man is to glorify God.” In fact, the composers of the WSC cited passages from Psalms to support this fundamental assertion, an assertion that’s still accepted in Christian doctrine.

But what does it meanto glorify God? How does the imperfect, inadequate, uncertain humanme(or you!) have the capacity to do anything that glorifies almighty God? In exploring answers to that question, I came across aCrosswalkdevotional from December 2018 that arrested my attention:

“Bringing glory to God . . . means that we are doingsupernaturalthings that can only be attributed to Him.”

At first, this explanation turned me off. The wordsupernatural. . . , Well, that just sounds a little much on the holiness side! But I read on for clarity and found it. Here are three common examples of practical,supernaturalbehaviors that we, the faithful, enact to the glory of God.

• The very act of faith, trusting Christ for salvation, depends on believing everything supernatural about the Cross. God is glorified!
• Praying to God for our needs and for the needs of others shows dependence on the supernatural. God is glorified!
• Praising God in worship for who He is and for what he does expresses the supernatural. God is glorified!

So we easily see what David means when he writes about glorifying God. It’s not as complicated as my rational mind wanted to make it!

For sure, we don’t have to enroll in a seminary course to grasp it.

We don’t have to fall out trembling in an out-of-body trance to prove it.

We aren’t required to recite pious phrases or religious incantations to declare it.

We don’t need to perform monastic rituals of humility or self-deprivation to dramatize it.

Nope, glorifying God is very basic. Jesus truly simplifies the matter in Matthew 22, where he reminds us of the two greatest commandments: We should love the Lord with all our heart, soul, and mind, all the while loving our neighbors as ourselves. If we will live out our lives in faithful and conscientious obedience to these commands, God will receive glory!

And we will be blessed in living out the purpose for which we were created.