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I am the Lord: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images. (Isaiah 42:8 KJV)
For mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it: for how should my name be polluted? and I will not give my glory unto another. (Isaiah 48:11 KJV)
And upon a set day Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat upon his throne, and made an oration unto them. And the people gave a shout, saying, It is the voice of a god, and not of a man. And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory: and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost. (Acts 12:21-23 KJV)
A few weeks ago, a man at our church had a devotional on this subject and I thought it was worth writing about. From the verses in Isaiah, we know that God takes His glory very seriously. If we truly had an understanding of just how much glory God has, we would better understand how blasphemous it is for us to take any of that glory for ourselves. When we are selfish and proud, focusing on ourselves (oh, how often we do this!), we are stealing God’s glory. Any time that we do not direct attention to God instead of ourselves, we are stealing God’s glory. This can happen not just through actions and words, but by the way we dress and comport ourselves. The minute that we dress to look good and gain admiring glances, we are taking glory from God and putting it onto ourselves. There is nothing wrong with looking nice and neatly put together, but we should be doing this to humbly direct attention to our Creator, not ourselves. We should measure our actions and mannerisms by the same standards. Yes, you could do something really nice for someone and it would be complete sin if done to draw attention to yourself! Harsh? No – it’s really that serious. Stealing God’s glory is not something that can be taken lightly! For a case in point, let’s look at the verses in Acts.
Josephus says that Herod’s royal robes were shining silver, and when they were struck by the light of the rising sun, the effect was stunning enough to cause the people watching to proclaim him as something more than a mortal being. Herod ate the attention up…and was punished for not transferring the glory he was being given to God. How ironic that the man who was proclaimed to be immortal died only days later.
Are you guilty of stealing God’s glory? I know I am, and unfortunately, it gets to be a habit. This week, let’s focus on being aware of this problem and strive to publicly acknowledge the glory of our God! He deserves so much more than we could ever give Him.
Sarah Brown says
Hello Briana,
I was listening to the book of Acts. I would never have thought God’s Glory can be taken away when all attention is put on oneself because of the way he or she is dressed. I had to repent. Thank you for your blog.
All Glory belongs to God!!!
Sarah,
Winter says
This subject has been heavy on my heart lately and I am starting to believe that the celebration of a birthday is self idolatry. We make the entire day about ourselves and not giving the glory to the Creator. We want everyone to surround themselves around that “special person” and spoil them with gifts and praise about getting one year older.
Elena says
The most horrible truth about stealing God’s glory is when we proclaim that the faith in God is our own, not a Gift from God nor the Fruit of His Spirit. This is going to dammn millions of so called Christians to eternal hell.
Cheryl Smith says
Wonderful words, Briana. This is SO true. OH, it burdens my heart to see all of the self-promotion that goes on in our day! Jesus is Lord, and He always will be. He deserves every bit of honor, glory, praise, worship, and adoration. We could do nothing without Him, and we live and move and have our being through Him. It is very arrogant of us to think we deserve any credit or glory…all glory belongs to Him! Thank you so much for sharing this…it is so needful and edifying. God bless you in a big way. 🙂
Sue says
Thanks Briana for bringing this to our attention. God Himself alone deserves ALL the glory we can give HIM.
Our hearts are deceitful. We can think that we are living a godly life, ticking all the boxes, only to find out that we’re not glorifying God as He prescribes in His Word. I had a wake-up call recently when I came across eternaldestinations.info site. This is strong exhortation – not for the fainthearted. Anyway, I have changed my outward dress, etc. The INWARD is still under renewal. !
Briana Thomas says
It’s definitely a continual process!