Seeking Glory

Verse of the Week:

Proverbs 3:34   He has no use for conceited people, but shows favor to those who are humble.

Seeking Glory

I loved my Mama's roses.  She used to grow hybrid tea roses, and for as long as I can remember, they bloomed all sorts of beautiful colors.  Pink, maroon, white, and yellow roses graced her flower garden.  Their beauty, scents, and colors would leave me standing there admiring them every time I came for a visit.  I loved Mama's roses! They stood tall and beautiful, and their glory was shown throughout the garden. 

Suppose Mama's roses were left alone for a long period of time. Weeds would eventually grow in the garden and overtake the roses.  The roses' glory would disappear as weeds grew in numbers and invaded the roses.  Eventually, you wouldn't see roses, but a mass ugly clump of weeds in their place.

Pride is just like a clump of weeds.  You see, God uses the humble because He knows that the humble will ALWAYS give Him the glory. For those that don't know what glory means, it means fame.  The prideful have a different motivation: bringing themselves glory.  Just like the clump of weeds hide the glory and beauty of those beautiful roses, the prideful keep the beautiful things of God hidden from the world, and give themselves all the glory.  

Proverbs 3:34 says, 

He has no use for conceited people, but shows favor to those who are humble.

God has no use for those that are prideful because they are stuck on themselves and not on Him. In the end, they focus on glory for themselves, and we know that God does not want to share His glory.  In Isaiah 42:8, He makes that abundantly clear, I am the Lord, that is My name; And My glory I will not give to another.

The Bible itself has shown God using humble people for His mighty plans. Moses, who was given the task of leading the Israelites from Egypt and introducing the Covenant between God and the Israelites, was considered the most humble man on the face of the earth during his time. Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth. (Numbers 12:3) He was used by God because he knew it was all about God, not about him. In his lifetime, God used him to turn a river into blood, to turn his staff into a snake, to divide the Red sea, and to make water run out of a rock. He could have used God's power displayed through him to bring himself glory, or even more than that! He could have made himself a god to be worshiped and adored, but instead, he used the gifts given to him to show the Israelites and the world the one and true God of the universe. 

When living life and making choices, do you make the choices for your own fame or for God's fame?  Whose glory do you seek  in your daily actions? Whose glory do you strive for when you do important tasks that turn people's eyes upon you? Do you point to your Creator? Examine your heart.

People with prideful hearts and humble hearts have completely different approaches to everyday decisions in life. A prideful person's focus is on what makes them look best.  A humble person's focus is on how to make God look best. For example, a prideful person might purposely slander a person's name to make themselves look good. However, if a person's heart is humble, they see things through God's eyes, and realize that putting a person down will only hurt that person's reputation.  It will not bring God glory, only pain to that person.  A prideful person sees the world through selfish eyes; a humble person sees the world through God's eyes.

Billy Graham is one of the most influential evangelist of our time.  More than 3.2 million people responded to his call to receive Christ as their Savior.  He once was asked what he would ask God when he went to heaven.  He said he would ask, "Why me?"  Why did he choose me for such a task? Such humbleness. He could have used his fame as an evangelist to bring himself glory, but instead he chose to point to the God of the universe in all He did.

For whom do you seek glory for?