Four Ways to Glorify God

Please note: I must give Stephen Venable credit for the initial inspiration of this idea

The book of Isaiah prophesies of an incredible time in the future, called the day of the Lord, when God will be exclusively glorified across the earth.

The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. Isaiah 2:11

This is stunning! What will it actually look like for God alone to be exalted and glorified? What will all the people actually be doing that will be giving Him alone glory? Believe it or not, it is not as mysterious or ambiguous as you may think.

There are four simple ways that humanity glorifies God. God is glorified when we give Him our:

  1. Attention – our time, our thoughts
  2. Allegiance – our obedience & surrender
  3. Affection – our love and emotions
  4. Adoration – our words, the fruit of our lips

Imagine a world where every person is giving God these things! The day is coming – He alone will be exalted! His glory will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.

1. Attention

God is glorified when we give him attention. This may mean practicing the presence of God throughout our day, always keeping our mind aware of God. But it most certainly means dedicating time where we give God our full attention – times of devotion, in His word, in prayer, in worship, in silence & meditation. God receives glory in this because it shows that He is the most important thing in the world. All the other things, as important as they are, pale in comparison to His worth. So we give Him our attention.

2. Allegiance

God is glorified when we give him allegiance. Our allegiance is our full surrender to His will. This manifests itself in obedience to His word. A hyper-grace theology may not emphasize the need for obedience, but the Bible does. When we pledge our allegiance to Jesus not just as our Savior, but as our King and Lord, we glorify the wisdom of His leadership. He alone is worthy of unconditional allegiance, submission and obedience.

3. Affection

God is glorified when we give him our affection. The Lord is not just wanting slaves to obey Him and serve Him, but hearts that love and enjoy Him. This is not quite as tangible or measurable, but it certainly manifests itself in time. One’s life is lived differently in light of the focus of your affection. God gave us a soul and emotions, and we glorify Him by enjoying Him deeply and emotionally.

4. Adoration

God is glorified when we give Him our adoration. We were made to praise and worship. Humans naturally praise what they enjoy. And as we praise something, we glorify it. When we make much of something, others give that thing their attention. So shifting our adoration to Jesus gives God glory. The words of our mouth are powerful and reflect what is in our hearts. God deserves the adoration of our lips and the songs of the nations!

Making It Practical

We can use this simple and practical list to examine our own hearts and lives. Are we like those who honor God with our lips (adoration), but our hearts are far from Him (affection)? Or do we spend time with Him in prayer and the Word (attention), but fail to surrender the decisions of our life to His will (allegiance)?

Christians leaders should also examine our leadership approach in light of this. Are we leading people to glorify God in all of these areas? Are we emphasizing one over another? Or perhaps forgetting one entirely? How we do embody these four expressions in our times together as the Church?

I did a short talk about this topic a few years ago, and I recently posted the old video clip on Youtube. You can check it out below if you want to go deeper on this topic.