Don't overlook God's glory in your 2023 faith journey

A few months ago I had a dream in which I mistook a friend whose name is Glaura for another friend of mine whose name is Annette. The dream stuck with me, and, as I often do, I sought God’s wisdom in how to interpret it. He led me to research the meanings of the names of these friends. 

Interestingly, "Annette" means, "grace/favor," while the root name of "Glaura" means, "glory." I contemplated what God could be trying to communicate through this dream–one in which a personification of "glory" had been mistaken for one of "grace/favor." 

After further prayer and meditation, I felt God was revealing an important reminder for me and other believers: while it’s essential that we have a solid understanding (and gratitude) of God’s grace and favor in our lives, we also must not fail to appreciate another equally important facet of His character: His glory. 

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This leads us to consider, "What is God’s glory?"  Zondervan’s Amplified Study Bible defines it as "the grandeur and majesty of God." However, I’ve found that Scripture passages illustrating it express its fullness more robustly. 

In Isaiah 6, God’s throne room is reported to be filled with heavenly beings who continuously call out to one another saying, "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts; The whole earth is filled with His glory." 

In Revelation 4, Christ gives the Apostle John a similar vision in which four living creatures were gathered around God’s throne "and day and night they never stop saying, ‘Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God, THE ALMIGHTY, WHO WAS AND WHO IS AND WHO IS TO COME’." 

A mentor of mine and my husband’s relayed a beautiful interpretation of these scriptures, sharing that although these heavenly beings exist to worship God continuously, they never tire of it because God’s glory is incomprehensibly infinite and can be observed for eternity without losing its wonder.

My favorite depiction of God’s glory and majesty, however, comes from His own mouth in the book of Job (38:35), where He responds to Job’s doubts about His divine understanding and sovereignty over all created things, rhetorically asking Job, "Do you send the lightning bolts on their way? Do they report to you, 'Here we are?"

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Wow. To consider that not one bolt of lightning strikes without first reporting to God for duty conveys the awesome magnitude of His sovereignty over every aspect, every atom of his creation–not just our individual lives and problems. 

Sometimes Christians shy away from searching out verses describing God’s awesomeness because they are often tied to His many judgments, and we prefer to focus on His boundless grace and ignore those passages in which He exacts His judgment against sin. However, every parent knows that a child cannot be raised to be a person of integrity unless they are corrected when they misbehave. 

Proverbs 18:19 soberingly states, "Discipline your children while there is hope. Otherwise you will ruin their lives." Most of us inherently accept this as truth when it comes to raising children, but we must remember that the same principle applies in our relationship to our Heavenly Father, as the Bible is clear that God disciplines the ones He loves (Hebrews 12:6), and that this in no way diminishes the boundless grace He provides through the sacrificial death of His only Son, Jesus Christ.

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Yes, there is grace to cover all sin (Romans 5:20), but if we do not also have a true understanding of God’s glory and reverently awe Him, we will not experience the fullness of an abiding relationship with Him. 

The Zondervan Amplified Study Bible sums up the importance of grasping God’s glory and holiness in relation to Isaiah’s vision of God’s throne room (described above), declaring, "There is little appreciation or understanding of the sacred ‘otherness’ of God. We have too often reduced Him to only friend and advisor. We do so at our own peril; for it is that sacred ‘otherness’ that brings us to our knees. That is where the relationship needs to begin." 

The key takeaway I find here is that God desires for His children to perceive His glory not to puff Himself up, but because He knows we cannot begin to have a meaningful relationship with Him unless we understand Him for ALL that He is; not only a Sacrificial Lamb, but the King over all creation. 

Look no further than every single Biblical character who had a true and personal friendship with God. 

Moses, David, Solomon, Paul and many others received a revelation of God’s glory, and their resulting admiration and awe drove them into the arms of God and led to fruitful relationships with Him. 

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My prayer for 2023 is for God’s Church to have a fresh revelation of God’s glory, to experience His wonder in new ways, and for this to lead to miraculous breakthroughs in hearts and lives all over the world. 

I urge you to join me in this prayer.

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