How can I glorify Jesus Christ today? As I sat down to write my weekly column and was contemplating what to write about, that question popped in my head. Glorifying Jesus is worth pondering, so I decided to ask some more probing questions.
What can I do to help people experience Jesus today? What can I say that will display the goodness and grace of Christ to everyone I encounter? How can I make everything in this day about Jesus? What is God asking me to do today that I’m reluctant to do? Who is hurting or in some special need that God wants me to be His agent to comfort today? Am I available to God to be His answer to someone else’s prayers? Is my love for Jesus obvious enough that people want to know what is different about me? Are my plans aligned with God’s good and gracious will for my life today? What am I willing to sacrifice for Jesus today? Is there anyone I need to forgive?
Glorifying Christ is best done by being winsome and approachable. Sure, there are times when evil needs to be challenged and, in those times, we must take a stand, but most of the time we are to glorify Jesus by sharing the good news of hope, salvation, and eternal life. All the time we are called to radiate our love for God by the way we love our neighbors.
What does it mean to glorify Christ? Synonyms for glorify are venerate, worship and revere. In simple parlance, to glorify Christ is to live in such a way that our lifestyle, our words, our witness, our influence, and our chief aim is to display His transforming power by the way we love with the kind of love and mercy that God embodies. We are to be characterized by a choreography of praise as we order our steps to declare the exalted worthiness of God.
We glorify Christ by weeping with those who weep, mourning with those who mourn, and rejoicing with those who rejoice. Further, we esteem Him as we look with compassion on others seeing their great intrinsic worth to God and loving them in real and practical ways. But we also show how greatly we value Jesus when we admit our wrongs and seek forgiveness, when we bless and do not curse, and when we suffer but do not complain. Turning the other cheek, giving your shirt and your cloak, going the second mile, and giving to others without hope of return are all powerful ways Jesus instructed us to deploy in living a holy life.
To answer my opening question, it seems that we must consider how we live. Ephesians 5:15-20 (Berean Study Bible) says: “15Pay careful attention, then, to how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, 16redeeming the time, because the days are evil. 17Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. 18Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to reckless indiscretion. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.
19Speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your hearts to the Lord, 20always giving thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
May we each put these things into practice and glorify Jesus today!
Contact Pastor Lamb at icumc@yahoo.com.
