Glory Thieves

“So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31, ESV).

In his book, Point Man: How a Man Can Lead His Family, Steve Farrar relates the following quote from the late Dr. Edwin Louis Cole, who loved to tell the story about the momentous day that the Lord Jesus entered Jerusalem riding on an ass. The crowds were massive, and the people were waving palm branches and crying out, “Hosanna, hosanna!” 

“Wouldn’t it be something,” Dr. Cole said, “if that donkey thought all that applause was for him?”

So it is for us when the Lord Jesus stoops to use our gifts for His Father’s glory and we think it’s all about us. In reality, it’s all about Him. Pride has this effect upon us all; it turns us into glory thieves. Rather than directing all the glory to God, we bleed part of it off for ourselves.

Are you a glory thief? How might one know?

Glory thieves tend to obsess about themselves. They worry incessantly about what other people are thinking about them. They crave and seek the attention and adulation of others. These glory thieves hate doing good deeds if only to find out later that nobody noticed them. As a result, they are much more faithful when people are around than they are when the only witnesses are God and their own consciences. Glory thieves also tend to be hyper-sensitive to criticism and feel the need to jump to their own defense the moment that anyone sends a critical word their way. Additionally, they tend to view the successes of others from a self-centered perspective. So rather than thinking, “Praise the Lord for the glory the Lord received through that individual,” they think instead, “It’s not fair! Why do they get the opportunity to do all those great things for God, and not I?”

The answer to the glory thief is not less glory; it is more. We need to see the glory of Jesus Christ and be enthralled with Him. In reality, this is the best and the only way to lose sight of ourselves. For our best efforts pale in comparison next to Christ, the Son of righteousness, who rises with healing upon His wings.

Are you seeing that glory? Have you ever seen it? Have you lost sight of it? This always happens when we spend too much time looking away from heaven to the things of earth. We become sleepy, myopic, and confused. At such times, God’s Word comes with ever- increasing relevancy and power, “Therefore it says, ‘Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you’ “ (Ephesians 5:14, ESV). So call upon God to pour upon you a Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the true knowledge of Christ. For has He not promised, “No good thing will I withhold from him who walks uprightly”? I can’t think of another prayer that God delights in answering more! May it be so in your experience as you lean into the weekend. To God be the glory!