Your Name

I can’t get away from the concept of each man’s personal glory. 1 Cor. 15:41 says, “There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory.” If that is true for the stars, how much more is it true for us as human beings?

Romans 1:19 says, that “what may be known of God is manifest in them”—even in the unrighteous person. Basically in Romans 1:18, God declares that He is angry at the unrighteous person because he is hiding the very glory of God entrusted to him—a glory that should be making the goodness and life of God known to the rest of the world. Instead, the wicked man hides the very glory of God and then declares that there is no God, because God is nowhere to be found. Oh the arrogance and the foolishness of the wicked that will be obvious to all on the day of judgment!

Each man’s glory generally has a name. Abraham was a father. With Lot, with Ishmael, Abraham couldn’t help himself. He was a father. It was his nature. It was his glory. Moses was a deliverer. In the name of being a deliverer, he killed an Egyptian and then he fled to a desert where he delivered some women who were being forced to go last to water their sheep. David was a conqueror. He overcame all odds to take down a lion, a bear, Goliath … and unfortunately, Bathsheba.

Here’s the rub. No man’s glory is any good to anyone until it is fully submitted to the glory of God. With David, that is obvious. Conquering in the wrong places was not a good thing. With Abraham, Isaac had to be submitted. The purpose of our glory is to bring Him glory. Moses had to learn that. Every person who has ever done anything significant for God has had to walk that road of surrendering to his glory.

Here’s where the rub becomes a bloody nose. There is nothing more painful than failing in the area of your glory. God could have asked Abraham for just about anything and it would have hardly seemed like a test. But Isaac? Do you want to know if something is your glory? How much does it hurt when God asks you to submit it to Him? If there is not much pain, it is not your glory. Moses couldn’t stand failure as a deliverer. David hated anything but a win (except with Absalom, but that is another story).

The wicked man chooses anger at God instead of trusting God enough to submit his glory. Once a person's glory is fully submitted, it opens the door to the blessing of God. Once the blessing of God comes, almost anyone could have faith. "But without faith, it is impossible to please God" (Heb.11:6). Faith starts by believing that there is a God who created us and that each of us has a purpose that will demonstrate a part of His glory. When we walk in faith, we demonstrate the goodness of God and manifest His glory. When we choose the cowardly way out, we hide the goodness of God and defile the very glory of God. Then most add to their judgment by turning on Him and blaming Him as an unloving and uncaring God. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

What is your name? What is your glory? What part of God can you demonstrate to the myriads of creatures in the heavens that is completely unique to you? What part of your life is unbelievably painful to fully submit to God? Your glory is what you will care about more than any other thing, which means that it will be the place of your greatest pain.

Can you trust Him enough to fully give Him that place? If you do, you will never regret it! Let the sun of His glory rise in your life!