C. S. Lewis once amusingly said: “A man can no more diminish God’s glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word ‘darkness’ on the walls of his cell.”1 God glory is not dependent on us giving Him worship since His majesty and glory are inherent in who He is, and not in how we view Him. I like how Kevin DeYoung puts it: “If we do not worship God, God will not be the lesser for it. But we will.”2
We know from yesterday’s devotion that: “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” (Psalm 19:1). My friends all of creation is testimony to the awesome majesty and glory of God. As DeYoung rightly points out if we fail to worship and glorify God for who He is this will not diminish His glory one bit since His glory is part of His nature. We, however, will be the lesser for it and miss out on the incredible privilege of doing what we were created to do – and that is to glorify God! Not only that but we will miss out on the incredible joy that comes from praising our heavenly Father knowing that we are created for this.
In (Luke 19:37-40) we read what happens when we are silent on praising and glorifying Jesus: “When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen: “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!” “I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”
While all of creation is created by God to reflect His glory, mankind sometimes fails to do this. But as DeYoung astutely points out, when this doesn’t happen God is not the lesser for it – but we are!
As Christians we are given this great privilege to worship and glorify Jesus through our words and deeds. So let’s not miss out and glorify Jesus whenever we are given the chance to praise and thank Him for who He is and for what He has done in our lives. For He indeed is worthy!
1 Quote by C.S. Lewis: “A man can no more diminish God’s glory by refus…” (goodreads.com)
2 Kevin DeYoung Quote: “If we do not worship God, God will not be the lesser for it. But we will.” (quotefancy.com)