Read: Genesis 41:1-16
Reflect:
Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I have heard it said of you that when you hear a dream you can interpret it.” Joseph boldly declared, “I cannot do it, but God will give Pharaoh the answer he desires.” Joseph, obviously bright and gifted, would naturally have desired to be released from prison. Surely he longed for a favourable outcome from this opportunity of interpreting Pharaoh’s dream. Yet he deliberately refused to take credit for what only God could do. Attempting to steal God’s glory is a serious matter. In Acts 12 Herod Agrippa was instantly struck down because he accepted the people’s praise and did not give glory to God. It says in Psalm 42:8 “I am the Lord, that is My name; And My glory I will not give to another.” C.S. Lewis struggled with the idea that God demands our praise and commands us to give Him glory. However, he soon realized that this “stumbling block” was due to his misconception of God and a misunderstanding of what praise really is. He noticed that people spontaneously praise whatever they value, and also urge others to join them in praising it: “Isn’t she lovely? Wasn’t it glorious? Don’t you think that magnificent?” The Psalmists, in telling everyone to praise God, are doing what all people do when they speak of what they care about. “I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed.” While God as our Creator, Sustainer, and Redeemer certainly deserves our praise, isn’t it amazing to realize His lovingkindness towards us, by commanding us to give Him praise, is offering us the supreme in joy and fullness of life? It makes you want to shout out loud and share the goodness of God with others!
Pray the following verses:
Psalm 115:1 “Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to your name goes all the glory for your unfailing love and faithfulness.” Psalm 72:18-20 “Praise the LORD God, the God of Israel, who alone does such wonderful things. Praise his glorious name forever! Let the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen and amen!”
I don’t know about you but I really do want to “do everything to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31) – my marriage, raising my children, working, spending money, housework, cooking, interacting with neighbours – all to the glory of God. I also desire to be like John the Baptist and say about Jesus, “He must increase and I must decrease” (John 3:30). But to be honest there is part of me that wants a little glory, which wants to increase a bit right along with Jesus. To think, that in light of who God is, I would ever desire people to think well of me, it makes no sense. God is the only one who is worthy of all worship and all praise and all adoration, the only one whose name ultimately matters, the only one who can save, the only one who is Lord and King overall.
