“So the Word became human and made His home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen His glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.” (John 1:14 NLT)
How did Jesus most effectively honor His Father in heaven? He allowed the Father to pour Himself into the infant Jesus, who would one day become the Savior of the world, sacrificing His life for ours, that the Father may be known, loved, and worshipped.
The word translated as “glory” in the above verse comes from the Greek word “doxa” from which comes our word “doxology.” It can also be translated “honor, praise, dignity, worship,” and is often used in reference to God – His magnificence, excellence, preeminence, and grace.
In John chapter 5 Jesus is speaking with some Jewish leaders and He says to them in verse 44: “No wonder you can’t believe! For you gladly honor each other, but you don’t care about the honor that comes from the one who alone is God.” What is He implying? Essentially, that the very ones for whom Jesus was sent to earth failed to recognize that Jesus came from God. They were actually giving glory, honor, and recognition to one another that rightfully belonged to Jesus.
Their honor was misplaced, as, I suspect, is too often the case in our lives. It’s ironic on some levels that the longer I walk with Jesus, the more knowledgeable, committed, devoted, and desirous I become to do His will instead of my own, the more quickly I am to assume I know what He would want for me in any given situation.
So, rather than spending time in worship, seeking His opinion, His direction, His wisdom, I’m in such a hurry to believe I know best when the opposite too often proves true. How often the Lord puts my spirit in check, even as I write these posts. I may have a “great” idea that I don’t take the time or make the effort to allow Him to sift through the attitude of my heart, correcting, not necessarily the words, but my heart and mind.
Our goal as a Jesus follower is to honor the Lord in every avenue and dimension of our being. We want what He wants, right? We want our lives to be a doxology of praise, adoration, and worship. Yet, the devil is in the proverbial details! So, if in our haste to be all He wants us to be, we miss an opportunity to be kind, caring, understanding, affirming, or a thousand other seeming small expressions of His love to others, the bigness of our overwhelming love for God gets lost in our lack of attention to the needs of others.
Jesus’ goal was to give expression – visibility – to His Father in every detail of His life. And what is His will for us? To be so filled with Jesus that in our every word, literally – our every breath – we give those in our spheres of influence visibility, insight, understanding as to who He is and what He desires to do in their lives.
While speaking with a neighbor recently about who God is and why Jesus came to earth, he asked me: “But how can you believe? Isn’t God invisible?” I explained that God reveals Himself in what He has created – the sun, moon, stars, all of nature, especially through His followers, and in a thousand other ways.
If our goal is to honor God and exalt Jesus as Lord in and through our lives, the best, most appropriate, and most powerful way we can do that is to let Him live His live out through us – guiding our thoughts, giving us insights to share with those we know need Jesus, allowing us to be His hands and feet as we seek to love others to Him.
Food for thought.
Blessings, Ed 😊
Walking With Jesus 