Three words. The whole point of everything.
Glory to God.
Not just words we sing on Sunday. Not a closing line on a prayer. Not a phrase we append to our plans to make them sound spiritual. A declaration of God's worthiness — and a surrender of our own glory in favor of His. The most countercultural statement a person can make in a world that has made the self the center of everything.
What Glory Actually Is
The Hebrew word is kabod — literally "weight" or "heaviness." In a culture where honor was measured by social standing, kabod described the kind of person whose presence filled a room, whose reputation preceded them, whose word carried weight. To give someone kabod was to acknowledge that they mattered — that their significance was real and deserved recognition.
God's glory is the infinite, uncreated version of that. It's the weighty significance of His presence, the manifest display of His character, the radiant beauty of who He is in Himself. It's not something He performs or projects. It's what He is.
When Moses asked to see God's glory, God responded not with a light show but by proclaiming His name: "The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness." (Exodus 34:6) God's glory is His character on full display. The blazing holiness, the inexhaustible mercy, the perfect justice, the covenant faithfulness — all of it together, all of it at once, without contradiction or compromise. That's the glory we're called to ascribe to Him.
Why God Seeking His Own Glory Isn't Narcissism
Here's a question worth sitting with: if it's wrong for humans to seek their own glory, why is it right for God to seek His?
The answer is that the wrongness of human self-glorification is not in the seeking of glory per se — it's in the misdirection of it. When a human being seeks glory for themselves, they are claiming a significance they don't actually possess in themselves. They are taking credit for gifts they received, achievements that depended on circumstances they didn't control, and a very existence they didn't author. Human self-glorification is a lie about reality.
But when God seeks His own glory, He is simply being honest about what is true. He is the source of all things. He is the sustainer of all things. He is the goal of all things. His glory is not a claim He makes over against reality — it is reality. For God to seek anything other than His own glory would be for Him to direct worship toward something less than the highest good. And the highest good is God Himself.
C.S. Lewis put it this way: God is the only being for whom self-exaltation is not a sin, because He is the only being whose self is actually worth exalting. When He commands us to glorify Him, He is not being self-serving. He is pointing us toward the only thing that will actually satisfy us — because we were made for Him, and we find our deepest joy in Him.
Why He Deserves It
God doesn't need our glory — He's infinitely glorious in Himself, and our praise adds nothing to what He already is. But He deserves it because of who He is and what He has done.
"Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created." (Revelation 4:11)
He created everything. He sustains everything. He redeemed everything that was broken — at the cost of His own Son. "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!" (Revelation 5:12)
The cross alone is reason enough to spend eternity giving Him glory. The fact that the eternal Son of God entered His own creation, lived the life we failed to live, died the death we deserved to die, and rose to secure a future we could never have earned — that is the supreme display of glory in the history of the universe. And it demands a response.
The Command Is Clear
"Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness." (Psalm 29:2)
Not suggested. Not optional. Commanded. We are to ascribe — to attribute, to declare, to give — to God the glory that is due His name. The Psalms repeat this call again and again because we need the reminder again and again. We are forgetful creatures, prone to drift toward self-glorification the moment we stop deliberately orienting ourselves toward Him.
And it's not limited to Sunday. "Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." (1 Corinthians 10:31) Every moment is an act of worship — or an act of self-worship. There is no neutral ground. The question is not whether you will glorify something. The question is what you will glorify.
How We Give It
Through worship — not just the songs we sing, but the posture of a life that acknowledges God's worth in every context. "The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me." (Psalm 50:23) Gratitude is one of the most powerful acts of worship available to us, because it is the explicit acknowledgment that what we have, we received — and from whom we received it.
Through obedience — "By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples." (John 15:8) A life that looks like Jesus is a life that glorifies God. Not because obedience earns anything, but because it displays the character of the One we belong to. When you love your enemy, forgive the person who wronged you, serve without recognition, and tell the truth when lying would be easier — you are making God visible in the world.
Through proclamation — "Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples!" (Psalm 96:3) Every time you tell someone what God has done — in history, in Scripture, in your own life — you give Him glory. The testimony of a changed life is one of the most powerful arguments for the reality of God that exists.
Through suffering — which is perhaps the most unexpected entry on this list. Peter says that when you suffer for doing good and endure it, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. (1 Peter 2:20) When you trust God in the darkness, when you hold onto hope when circumstances give you no reason to, when you refuse to curse God in the middle of your worst season — you glorify Him in a way that prosperity never could.
The Warning
Herod accepted worship that belonged to God alone. An angel struck him down immediately. "Because he did not give God the glory." (Acts 12:23)
We may not be as blatant as Herod. But the temptation is the same — to take credit for what God has done, to build our own reputation on the platform He gave us, to seek praise for ourselves while using His name as the backdrop. God is not subtle about this: "My glory I give to no other." (Isaiah 42:8)
The danger is not usually dramatic self-promotion. It's the quiet drift toward living for the approval of people rather than the glory of God. It's the sermon preached to impress rather than to serve. The generosity performed where it can be seen. The theological precision deployed as a weapon rather than offered as a gift. The ministry built around a personality rather than around a Person.
The antidote is not self-deprecation. It's God-exaltation. The goal is not to think less of yourself — it's to think of yourself less, and of Him more.
Where History Is Headed
One day, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:10–11) Not as a reluctant concession, but as the inevitable recognition of what has always been true. The new creation will need no sun — "the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb." (Revelation 21:23)
The angels never stop. Day and night, without exhaustion, without repetition becoming rote: "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!" (Revelation 4:8) They are not performing. They are responding to what they see — and what they see is inexhaustible.
That's where history is headed. That's what everything is building toward. The question is not whether God will receive glory — He will, from every creature, in every corner of creation, forever. The question is whether you'll join the chorus now, freely and joyfully, or wait until you have no choice.
Glory to God in the highest. All honor, praise, and worship belong to Him alone. Now and forever.
- Todd Wallace, 4HG
Go Deeper
- Paul says "whatever you do, do all to the glory of God" — including eating and drinking. What ordinary, mundane part of your day are you least likely to think of as an act of worship? What would it look like to offer that specific thing to God deliberately?
- God seeking His own glory is not narcissism — it's honesty about what is true. How does understanding that change the way you think about the command to glorify God? Does it feel like a burden or a liberation?
- The warning about Herod is dramatic, but the drift toward self-glorification is usually quiet. Where in your life are you most tempted to take credit for what God has done, or to seek human approval over His?
If giving God the glory He deserves is the posture you want to live from, the Soli Deo Gloria Collection is a daily declaration that the glory belongs to Him — not to you, not to anyone else. To Him alone.
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