To God be the Glory

John 5:44 - "How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God?"

This penetrating, rhetorical question by the Lord Jesus nonetheless requires an answer by us all. How is it possible to come to Jesus on anything but His terms? There is no bargaining with God. He will either have all the glory or none. Even as Cain offered a half-hearted sacrifice, we must be careful to constantly be giving our best to Him (Hebrews 11:4). This means laying down our lives daily.

The writer of Hebrews stated that all who come to God must first believe "He is" and then that He rewards faith (Hebrews 11:6). It is impossible to come to God, in faith, if we are trying to keep back some of His glory for ourselves. We must lay our ministries, our families, our businesses, our jobs, our education, and anything else before the Lord and say, "If I am not bringing glory to you in these areas, then change it today!" Everything must be surrendered to Him before we can truly enter in by faith to God’s reward of peace of joy.