There are always going to be days when you just don’t feel like glorifying God. You wake up with a sore throat, the coffee pot is empty, your little siblings are screaming, and you just realized that you have extra schoolwork to do today. Every day seems to be the same thing over and over again, differing only in the little details. And glorifying God in the day-to-day can seem nearly impossible.
Moreover, what we find in the Bible can even be discouraging at times. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). How can we truly glorify God when this world is so fallen and sinful?
In a passage in 1 Corinthians, Paul calls us to glorify God in “whatever we do.” This implies that we can glorify God in our daily lives. We are not perfect, and just as we sin in other ways, we will continue to “fall short” in glorifying God. But this doesn’t mean that we should simply stop glorifying him. In Psalm 115:1, we read, “Not to us, Lord, not to us, but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness.” We, as God’s people, are called to glorify and honor God. “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it to the glory of God” (1. Corinthians 10:31).
Showing God glory can look like many different things. A large one is thankfulness; when we thank God for the things that he has given us, acknowledging that the gifts he has given us are undeserved blessings, we show glory and honor to his name.
You might be surprised at how little it actually takes to glorify God. While his glorification is a large responsibility for his people, we don’t actually have to do big, hard things for his glory to be shown. As a response to the good things that he has given us, we can show him praise by serving him. Service to God isn’t limited to preaching, teaching, or being a missionary. God loves it when his people serve him in their daily lives just by doing everything for him.
Some of the biggest times we can serve God aren’t in large acts of service that everyone can see but in the small, hidden things. Even shoveling the sidewalk for your neighbor or doing dishes so your mom doesn’t have to are ways you can serve the Lord! Jesus highlights this in Matthew 6:4, saying, “Your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” Doing the small things might not get you a lot of credit or appreciation here on earth, but we can be assured that God has seen and will reward even the small things that we do to glorify him.
In the same chapter from Matthew, Jesus warns against doing things for show. As the Pharisees stand on the street corner to pray, pretending to glorify God but really glorifying themselves through human praise, Jesus says, “Be careful not to do your acts of righteousness before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven” (Matthew 6:1). So the best way to glorify God is actually not limited to the big, important things. It includes glorifying him quietly in every part of life. And when we truly do these things in secret, our reward will be found in heaven.
Our God is worthy of glory, honor, and praise. He has done great things for us and will continue to do them for eternity. And so we, in response, should glorify and serve him with our whole hearts. Praise be to God!
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