How Do I Glorify God?

Similarly, you can live any way you want, but until you follow Christ and use your heart, mind, and soul for your God-designed purpose, you’ll never operate to your maximum capacity and know true fulfillment. In other words, understanding why God made you and how you are supposed to live is a big deal.

As an image bearer of God (Genesis 1:27), you were created to glorify your Maker and enjoy him forever (Romans 11:36). The million-dollar question is, “How on earth do we do that?”

The Hebrew word for glory means heaviness or weightiness. Specifically, it is a word used to describe one’s value or greatness. To bring God glory is to make known how wonderful he is. This is the reason the entire universe (including you) exists: to make known God’s invisible attributes in tangible and visible ways (Psalm 19:1–3). There are four ways you can do this.

1. You Glorify God by Your Very Existence

Stars, planets, animals, and plants are good creations, but only after God made humans did he declare his creation very good (Genesis 1:31). Though all of creation brings the Creator glory (Isaiah 6:3), God’s supreme creation, human beings, have a unique means of giving glory to God because we are made in his image. Just like a blooming flower that nobody ever sees brings its Designer glory (Psalm 19:3), you bring God glory simply by being a supreme member of his creation.

2. You Glorify God by Repenting and Getting Saved

God created the world to put his holiness on display (Leviticus 10:3), and he does that supremely through the redemptive work of Jesus Christ. You need a Savior because of your sinful actions and the sinful nature inherited from Adam. When you repent and place your faith in God’s beloved Son, you bring him great glory by being God’s special possession, a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation (1 Peter 2:9).

3. You Glorify God by Enjoying Him

Imagine seeing the Australian-born Ken Ham (the founder of Answers in Genesis) at a banquet that has every culinary delight imaginable. When you look at Ken’s plate, you notice he has only one item: a Vegemite sandwich. What does that tell you about Ken? He esteems this Australian food spread to be the best food in the world. Similarly, when you and I find our pleasure, hope, delight, and satisfaction in the Lord, we tell the world that God is the most valuable entity in the universe (Psalm 16:5–11).

4. You Glorify God by Obeying Him

You are on an airplane seated in 16B. In 15B, a well-behaved four-year-old sits obediently in his chair, doesn’t whine, and obeys his parents when they tell him to buckle up and eat his stale airplane cookies. In 17B is a child we will call “555”—this kid isn’t the antichrist, but close. Little 555 refuses to buckle up, throws cookies at the back of your head, and screams the entire flight. Which child is a better reflection on his parents? Clearly, the obedient child tells the world that he has great parents. When you and I obey God (1 John 5:2), we tell the world that we have a wonderful Father who is a delight to obey.

When you battle sin, pray, read your Bible, serve, suffer well, evangelize, and sing his praises, you glorify God (1 Corinthians 10:31) and find your greatest joy (John 15:10–11). You are doing the very thing you were created to do.

The Right Motivation

The correct impetus for glorifying God is a joyous response to the knowledge that Jesus died for you while you were yet sinning (1 John 4:10). If that is not the rocket fuel that ignites your obedience, you will act more like a Pharisee than a Christian, doing good works for others to see.

Instead, remember that you are bought with a price, then glorify God (1 Corinthians 6:20). Study Jesus, know him, and you will bring glory to the one who is the most glorious (2 Corinthians 3:18). And when you die, he will bring you fully into his glory where you will enjoy God and glorify him forever.