What You Do Every Day

“You bless people,” I used to tell our son throughout his growing-up years. Matthew often responded with a quizzical smile, not rejecting what I said, yet wondering how this could be. He was an unassuming, do-the-right-thing kind of kid, and I could see genuine warmth in people’s smiles as they engaged him. Of course, he brought me pleasure, and in blessing others, even more so. As the Bible says, “The father of godly children has cause for joy.”¹ Years later and with two little blessings of his own, Matthew reflected back on our earlier conversations, now with the benefit of his own fatherly perspective: “I finally understand what you meant,” he said.

Did you know our faith actually brings glory to God? Of Abraham the patriarch, Paul wrote, “he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God.”² The apostle also explained that through Jesus—and all who trust in Him—God’s wisdom is displayed not only before the citizenry of this world, but also “to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.”³ And when we accept in faith that all of God’s promises are fulfilled in Christ, “our ‘Amen’ … ascends to God for his glory.”⁴ In Christ and through our faith in Him, God is glorified before the entirety of His creation—both that which we see and that which we don’t. Our faith shouts His glory.

How can this possibly be? To everything that exists, faith proclaims that God alone is worthy of our trust—“Even if everyone else is a liar, God is true.”⁵ Though Satan points to our troubles in plain view and tempts us to doubt God’s power and love, faith looks at the One we cannot see and declares His honor and praise. In fact, faith is in itself “proof” of the existence of what we do not see.⁶ When we help others “by the strength which God supplies,” then God is “glorified through Jesus Christ,”⁷ and when we “let [our] light shine before others, they … see [our] good deeds, and glorify [our] Father in heaven.⁸ Even in our “confession of the gospel of Christ,” and perhaps especially so, others “will glorify God for [our] obedience.”⁹

What do we do every day? We bring God glory. How humbling this honor! One day we’ll finally understand what this means; for now, we accept it in faith, and in doing so, we glorify God yet again.

To this end also we pray … that our God will … fulfill every desire for goodness and the work of faith with power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus will be glorified in [us], and [us] in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. — 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12 NASB

¹ Proverbs 23:24 NLT
² Romans 4:20 NASB
³ Ephesians 3:11-12 NASB
⁴ 2 Corinthians 1:18 NLT
⁵ Romans 3:4 NLT
⁶ Hebrews 11:1 NASB
⁷ 1 Peter 4:11 NASB
⁸ Matthew 5:16 NIV
⁹ 2 Corinthians 9:13 NASB