Our glory is rooted in God's delight of us!

Defining appropriate glory for the human heart: Why are we wired to seek glory for ourselves? Stephanie suggests to you that we are wired by God Himself to seek glory because this reveals our deep longing for identity. And we will find and keep our identity when we make God’s opinion of us, namely His delight in us, the deepest root cause of our identity and glory.

We all seek our worth – our weight, our glory – in the eyes of another. We are born looking for someone looking for us, as we have seen with our recent guests Curt Thompson and James Bryan Smith. We seek to be safe, seen, soothed and secure. Only God is SAFE when it comes to placing our glory within His hands. Only God is the rational logical choice – why seek your identity in the mirror-eyes of others when His eyes are available? Only God can soothe/satisfy our longing for glory eternally. His opinion beats all others in quality, accuracy, depth, and power to transform. Why settle for less?

So, next time we are tempted to find glory (it can look like a search and a hunger for meaning, identity, fame, approval, love…) let's not go to our usual escape mechanisms, our indulgences of choice: social media, food, drink, shopping, addictions of any kind like porn or alcohol or drugs or gaming; let's not go first to our wife or husband or children or best friends. Go to God and wrestle through the unbelief until you remember the extent of the delight God takes in you. Say this to your heart: “God’s delight of me is the source of my glory.”

"Yahweh your God is among you, a warrior who saves. He will rejoice over you with gladness. He will bring you quietness with His love. He will delight in you with shouts of joy.” (Zephaniah 3:17, HCSB) Rejoicing. Gladness. Quietness. Love. Delight. Joy. That is literally how God feels about you. who are you to disagree with Him? If God doesn’t constantly think negative thoughts about you, why then should you?

Stephanie offers practical questions to assess our hearts when we receive glory from another: does it please my Father? Is it in accord with my identity in Christ? Does it glorify God ultimately? What does it do to my heart and my intimacy with Jesus? Does it draw me closer from Him or further away? Finally, is this glory measured in the Kingdom of God, or in the world of man?

Our legitimate, safe, appropriate glory is found in the delight God takes in us.