Living for Christ

In John 12: 23-24 Jesus said, “…The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified...” When He went on to explain how the glory would come. He said, “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.” In other words, “My time of glory has come but this is the way to it, I must first of all fall to the ground as a grain of corn and die.” So, the way to glorification is self denial. Except you die to self you cannot live a life that glorifies God. Glorifying God often entails counting yourself as a nonentity; disregarding yourself. Self abandonment is the route to glorifying God. You can't glorify yourself and at the same time glorify God. Jesus said, “If anybody would come after me, let him deny himself; let him count himself as a nonentity, let him take up his cross through the city for all to mock him, and let him follow me” (Matt. 16:24

Living your life to glorify God is the only guarantee for your own glory. As long as you are seeking God's glory, you can't loose your own. It is when you stop seeking His glory that you begin to drop in glory. When Nebuchadnezzar stopped giving glory to God, he dropped from His glory. Outside of God's glory you have no glory. No wonder Jesus kept saying, “I seek not my own glory but the glory of Him who sent me.” And as a result, God gave Him His own glory, He gave Him a name that is above all names. What is the route to God's glory?

 In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed that the cup should be removed from Him, but when He remembered that He must live to glorify God, He said, “Not my will but thy will be done” (Matt. 26:42). Your greatest enemy in spiritual adventure is self.

 1 Corinthians 10:31 says, “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” Always seek the glory of God in your life and in all that you do. Remember that the ass was honoured and respected only as long as Jesus sat on it's back. The moment Jesus got off, nobody made reference to the ass again. So, only those who make their backs available to God to ride upon will be glorified. The glory of any branch is to remain connected to the tree. When the branch is tired of showing forth the glory of the tree by bearing the leaves and the fruit, it will be cut off. So, when your life stops glorifying God He cuts you off.

The greatest yearning of every believer must be to glorify God. If you want to remain a reference point, keep making reference to God. You can't give glory to God and miss your own glory. You know why the name of Paul the Apostle has refused to die? It is because he lived to glorify God. His greatest aspiration and ambition was that Christ may be glorified, whether it be through his life or death. That was all he lived for. May you begin to live your life to glorify Him.