GIVING GOD ALL THE GLORY

Imagine you are the head of an organisation and one of the employees comes to you to beg you for a favour, he needs to pay his child’s school fees but cannot afford it at the moment. You feel compassion for him and you offer to bear the full cost of the fees for free. He is so over joyed he thanks you profusely, you are also happy because you are very glad you were able to solve the employee’s problem. One day you over hear a conversation going on between two people outside, it was the employee whose child’s school fees you paid and someone else and you hear the employee say ‘Thank God I have savings oh, imagine if I didn’t, how would I have paid my child’s school fees? It’s good to save oh even though it’s very tough to save in this Nigeria’. You will probably be shocked and disappointed to hear that, next time you may not help him because he is obviously a liar. This is how we are many times, when we fail to give God the glory for the things which he has given to us and done for us.

Acts3: 12,16 ² so when Peter saw it, he responded to the people: “Men of Israel, why do you marvel at this? Or why look so intently at us, as though by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? 16.  And His name, through faith in His name, has made this man strong, whom you see and know. Yes, the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. Peter and John had just healed a man who was lame and they knew that it wasn’t because they had power or were holy that they were able to help the lame man walk. It reminds me of Daniels answer to King Nebuchadnezzar after he was able to tell him his dream and interpret it, that it is not because he is better than anyone else that God has revealed the secret in a dream to him. Daniel 2; 30.

They knew that to carry the power of God they had to be holy quite all right because God says we should be holy for he is holy, but it wasn’t the holiness that guaranteed that the lame will walk, it was the name of Jesus. We must be careful to always give God the glory for all he does in our lives, for the miracles, healings, provision, etc. because the world is very quick at attributing the glory to us. The people started following Peter and John as though they were gods and looking at them in awe, but Peter and John observing this quickly stopped them and told them it had nothing to do with their power or godliness but everything to do with the name of Jesus. Are we quick to correct people too when people praise us for a particular deed? Knowing that it is only God who deserves all the glory. We must be very careful not to forget ourselves when the world starts to ask us how we dealt with a particular problem and we feel the need to tell them a story of how we handled it just because we don’t want to look so religious or spiritual thereby taking the glory away from God and to our own selves when in truth it was only because Jesus came through for us and not because we did anything, after all people in time past did the same thing but they either died or something went terribly wrong. That should tell us it wasn’t because of anything we did but because God showed mercy and came through for us. Let us be careful not to take the glory away from God because he and he alone deserves all the glory.

1 Corinthians 4; 7 ⁷ for who ^[a]makes you differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it? John 3; 27 a man can receive nothing except it has been given him from the heaven. Every blessing we have, we have it because God gave it to us not because we deserve it or it’s our legal right so let us give God the glory for everything he has given to us.

If you have not come to know the Lord Jesus as your personal Lord and Saviour you cannot bring God glory, a life of sin cannot bring God glory, a life that never acknowledges God for anything can never bring him glory. It is the glory of God that preserves us, shields us and keeps us from all evil, it is Gods glory that takes away every darkness in our lives and replaces it with his light. Moses said to the Lord GOD ‘please show me your glory’ Exodus33; 16. You can ask for this too, but first ask that God should come and be the Lord of your life and repent from all your sins, I can assure you that when his glory comes upon you your life will never be the same again.