As Christians, one thing that we really need to be careful of is that it’s very easy for us to fall into the trap of trying to put ourselves ahead of God in the context of driving people’s attention to ourselves when doing the work of the Lord. The point is that the Christian life is a form of selfless life that’s rested upon glorifying God through Christ. Oftentimes, we’re trying to do the will of God while the intent of our hearts is set on trying to give impression to others with our performance. One thing we may not realize is that this type of mindset causes God to be taken out of the picture due to the fact that it becomes totally about us trying to do our best within our own human ability in order to get people’s attention.

Let’s me tell you what I’ve learned regarding that issue. To be honest with you, it’s an issue that I’m struggling and guilty of as someone who’s currently playing piano in my local church. Oftentimes, when playing the piano, I’ve found myself totally disconnected with God as a result of my mind and heart not being set on Him. The main reason has to do with the fact that I’ve found myself a lot more concerned about how people will perceive my performance.

At the end of the service, I’m expecting for some people to come around and congratulate me. As I was pondering on my responsibilities toward God, one thing that came into my mind is that glorifying God has absolutely nothing to do with being concerned with regard to how people will react as a result of what I’ve done for God. Glorifying God is centered upon how God sees me in relation to which priority I give Him while carrying out His tasks.

Bear in mind, no matter how hard we may try in our human ability, we’ll never be able to satisfy everybody. In that case, our goal must be aimed at ensuring that God is the One who is both pleased and glorified by dedicating ourselves to Him through the means of setting our minds and hearts totally on Him. When we act in such fashion, we allow God to use our performance and turn it into a blessing to others. So, let’s try to meditate on Christ’s own viewpoint regarding the issue of glorifying God.

Jesus replied, “If I glorify Myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the One who glorifies Me (John 8:54).

Humility is the essence of glorifying God. We don’t look at it in the sense of what we can do in order to get some sort of attention that will serve us absolutely no purpose, but we look at it in the context of making sure that God is the One who gets all the glory and attention. Since it’s not about us, we must take ourselves completely out of the picture, so that God can have His ways.

In short, we’re God’s own instrument; thus, our responsibility is to let God to make use of us however He likes by laying aside our own selfish agenda. When we conduct ourselves in such manner, God is glorified because it becomes all about Him instead of us. Let’s follow the selfless life that Jesus lived that was based wholly on bringing glory to God the Father.