"Glory to God"

saying it vs. doing it

This advice helped me how to deal with compliments and give God the glory.

It all started one day I was in a mini-van having a conversation with very influential leaders. The fact of them traveling with me in a mini-van like we were besties had me dumbfounded, and their humility was something that I admired.

One conversation led to the other, and we ended up talking about meekness, how to spot pride disguised as false humility, and how to deal with it as a young minister.

That day, I felt convicted and gained better insight into what “Glory to God” should look like, and the difference between a phrase and a posture.

Picture this.

You’re preaching one of the best sermons of your life, the Holy Spirit is moving, the church is clapping, crying, getting convicted, coming to the altar, and then it ends.

People begin to approach you and say… “Wow, that was so good!”

Your response:

Let’s be honest, giving compliments is awesome but being on the receiving end tends to be super awkward. As believers, we’ve built this language known as “Christianese” that allows us to respond to uncomfortable situations with phrases or sayings that sound good and appropriate but aren’t communicating much necessarily.

Here are some examples:

“If it’s God’s will” 🤷‍♂️
Translation - Eh I’m not confident God will answer this one

“I don’t feel led.” ❌
Translation - Yea, I'm not doing that (I don't agree)

“The Lord works in mysterious ways.” 🧐
Translation - bro I am clueless

“I’ll be praying for you.” 🙏🏼
Translation - I might remember this convo later today

"I'm in a season of..." 😭
Translation - HELP!!!  I'm really going through it 

"God told me" 💁‍♂️
Translation - I really feel like I'm right 

or has somebody ever asked you for advice, and after you gave them your opinion you said: “idk though, pray about it” at the very end, just in case your advice happens to ruin their entire life? exactly.

Ok, you get the gist of it, this is funny because as Christians we have definitely used at least one of them before and we know exactly what we meant when we said it.

“GLORY TO GOD!”

Many of us have probably used this phrase before but I wonder how many times we stop to think about what we are saying, if we mean it, and if we are actually doing it.

Whether is receiving nice comments after preaching or compliments on an achievement or good deeds, we pull the good ol… “Hey, glory to God”

This was the advice that challenged me:

JD, when you say “Glory to God” are you giving the glory to God?

WHAT? THAT’S IT? thought it was gonna be something super profound.

Believe me, I thought the same thing until I realized what they meant. This made me reflect on every situation in which I received compliments, flattery, praise, or glory, and my response was a mindless and automated “thanks, amen glory to God”

Can we get real? this response saves us from receiving attention, we can change the topic, appear humble, and make us feel less awkward about receiving compliments. Hear me out, there’s no problem with accepting compliments, it’s okay to admit that God uses you, that He gave you a gift, or talent and you have a calling over your life.

But these leaders taught me to be more conscious and intentional with my words.

What’s a practical way I can intentionally give God glory?

Romans 10:9 the confession of our mouth comes from a belief in the heart.

I heard this commentator once, who said that professing that Jesus is Lord and worshiping Him with our mouth is like putting “flesh to our words” in simple terms, to demonstrate with our actions that which we believe in the heart.

When you receive ANY type of praise, glory, comment, admiration, or compliment, you can respond with “Thank you” [acknowledge the person] and even say “Glory to God” but at the end of the day, make time to gather all those “good words” (glory) that you received and in prayer actually GIVE all glory to God.

• Wow, such a good word, It impacted me!

• You’re one of the most humble people I know!

• That was so kind, thank you!

• You’re such a man/woman of God!

Those are good compliments that people might give you, and it’s really encouraging words to hear, but how beautiful it is to grab all those words, compliments, achievements, flattery, and at the end of the day lift our eyes to the one who deserves it all and say “God, I give YOU all the glory, all the honor, and all the praise.”

“All those things that were said to me, I give them to you, because it’s all about YOU.”

This practice made me realize I was losing opportunities to glorify Him even more, to keep my heart in check, and helped me to put into action the phrase “glory to God.”

“We owe Him every honor that it is in our power to give Him. Our everlasting grief lies in giving Him anything less.” — A. W. Tozer