Glorifying God

After reading Richard Chung's Blog (ricardochungo.blogspot.com), it made me think about what it really means to "glorify" God. We use that word so much, but what does it actually mean? Richard wrote:

Our ultimate goal is not to get to Heaven,

but it is to glorify God. This is where

our greatest joy should come from.

So what does it mean to "glorify"? According to Tim Keller, to glorify something or someone is to praise, enjoy, and delight in them. He says that when something is useful, you are attracted to it for what it can bring you or do for you. However, if he/she or it is beautiful, then you enjoy it simply for what it is. Just being in its presence is its own reward. To glorify someone means to serve them. Rather than sacrificing their interests to make yourself happy, you sacrifice your interests to make them happy. Why? Your ultimate joy is to see them in joy.

What's interesting is that a lot of people tend to think that God is so selfish for commanding everyone to glorify Him. However, God is not selfish (even though He deserves to be). Jonathan Edwards says that God is infinitely happy because within God is a community of persons glorifying each other. It's interesting because he goes onto say that this is basically what heaven is. Heaven is being in a community where we glorify each other; we don't seek for our own glory but the glory of others--but of course God is the center of all of this glory.

But anyway, now going back to the definition of what it means to "glorify". If you really think about it, God glorified us so freaking hard that it's incomprehensible. God doesn't need us. The three persons in the Trinity glorify each other, and that glory is sufficient. Yet, He CHOSE to sacrifice everything and didn't seek his own glory, but the glory of others. Christ came to serve, not to be served. He praised us, delighted in us, and loved us. He glorified us.

Now tying this all in with glorification and heaven, God just wants us to reciprocate the glory because that's what heaven is. Heaven isn't one-sided. God simply wants us to glorify Him because He glorified us. I mean, in the end, that's pretty much what an intimate relationship is, right? Isn't that perfectly depicted through marriage? That is why heaven and marriage are synonymous. Our relationship with God only works if we are mutually glorifying (praising, enjoying, and delighting) each other.

-Simon