Soli Deo Gloria

To the Glory of God Alone

All glory on heaven and earth belongs to God alone. Living to the glory of God alone takes humbleness, commitment, and most importantly, faith. This way of living is truly admirable and wonderful. As mentioned in an earlier post, faith is an assurance and hope in things unseen. Allowing God to take control and accepting that his will be done is not an easy task. In Luther's Bondage of the Will, he reiterates that God necessitates and wills all things and compares the power of God's will to our own. He also references 1 Corinthians 12:6 in this reflection:

"For if I am ignorant of the nature, extent, and limits, of what I can and must do with reference to God, I shall be equally ignorant and uncertain of the nature, extent, and limits of what God can do and will do in me - though God, in fact, works all in all" (Luther, Bondage of the Will, p. 179).

We cannot limit God, and, therefore, are able to do all things through faith in him according to his love for us. In the grand scheme of things, we are simply vessels for God's glory. He is able to use us in more ways than we could ever imagine according to his power at work in us. 

"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us" (Ephesians 3:20). 

We cannot limit God or what God can do. Not only this, but God lives in us through the Holy Spirit. Therefore, our bodies are living temples of the Holy Spirit living in us. In his book, Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis describes that everything we have comes from God.

“Every faculty you have, your power of thinking or of moving your limbs from moment to moment, is given you by God. If you devoted every moment of your whole life exclusively to His service you could not give Him anything that was not in a sense his own already ... It is like a small child going to its father and saying, 'Daddy, give me sixpence to buy you a birthday present.' It is all very nice and proper, but only an idiot would think that the father is sixpence to the good on the transaction" (Lewis, Mere Christianity). 

We are not our own; we were bought at a price, the price of Jesus on the cross, so we ought to honor God in our bodies (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). Our bodies and our entire beings belong to God, because he has given us life, therefore everything we have, say, and get to do in life belongs to the glory of God. As Christians, may we live out this calling in all that we think, say, and do, so that when others see us, they see Christ. 

Let us pray:

Dear Lord, thank you for dwelling in, with, and among us. May our manners of life be worthy of our calling as your dear children. Point us ever towards you so that we may glorify you in all that we think, say, and do by your grace, through faith, according to Scripture, in Christ, and to your glory alone. In Jesus' name, Amen.