For professing Christians, our single greatest desire should be that God receives his due glory. That he be made much of. That all people would look to him with awe-struck wonder.

Sadly… this is not the reality for many Christians, present company included.

This is a concept I have been wrestling with for some time now. Logically, I recognize that my single greatest desire should be to make much of our God. Unfortunately, my reality suggests otherwise. In actuality, I don’t desire for God to receive glory nearly as much as I should.

I can say I want that.

I can believe that is the proper mindset of a Christian.

I can even write articles such as this one, imploring people to give God his rightful spot as their Lord and Savior.

But if I really look at my life under a microscope, the harsh reality is, I do a very poor job of giving God his due glory and pointing people to Him.

I suspect this is due largely in part to the self-obsessed culture that we live in.

We do not live in a culture that embraces “less of me, more of thee.”

Rather, we live in a culture that increasingly embraces “more of me, none of thee.”

This mindset has not only permeated secular culture, but Christian culture as well.

And I am not just referring to “prosperity gospel” doctrines that falsely teach that God wants us to be healthy, wealthy, and prosperous on this side of heaven.

I am referring to something more subtle, yet no-less insidious.

Indeed, even sober-minded, God-fearing Christians have fallen prey to this insidious thinking.

“Ambition”, “drive”, “success”, “hustle”… those phrases are rampant, even amongst Christians who will readily denounce prosperity gospel teachings.

And until very recently, I never really thought negatively about my own ambition and drive.

I have spent so much of my life trying to figure out where God wanted me, and what great things He had planned for me.

And I have went down so many different paths in pursuit of that.

I sought relentlessly, trying to figure out who I am. Who God made me to be. And what great purpose God created me for.

And yet... through all of my searching, striving and struggling, I came up empty time and time again.

But then… after decades of striving, even though I had heard this phrase a thousand times before, it finally took hold: “it’s not about me… it’s all about Him.”

My entire life, I had been making it about ME.

What am I supposed to do?

Who am I supposed to be?

This became especially true during a particularly stormy season of my life.

Throughout this season, my desperate prayers and pleas were constantly: “Lord… show ME what to do. Help ME through this. Give ME strength. Help ME get through this, so I can feel better.”

In my desperation to feel better… to feel safe… to feel comfort and peace… I eventually realized – I am still making this all about me.

Don't misread what I am saying. It is scripturally sound to bring all of the petitions of our hearts to the Lord. God wants us to bring everything to him. But, as we mature as Christians, the focus of those prayers should change.

I was only concerning myself with my own wants, needs and desires.

I was the center of my world, and I was praying desperately for God to restore peace to that.

But, as I would eventually discover – my prayers were backwards.

I wasn't putting God at the center.

The prayers I should have been praying were:

“God… please get glory from my suffering.”

“God… if my suffering helps to accomplish your will, I offer myself to you.”

“Lord… my sinful flesh craves peace, comfort, and restoration. Help me die to myself, and forget about my own comfort and peace, if it means you will receive glory out of it.”

Make no mistake… these are hard prayers to pray.

But, that circles back to my original point: I clearly didn't want God to be glorified nearly as much as I should. Or, if I did, I didn't want it to result in my own personal discomfort.

When you read through the New Testament, it is easy to see how the various authors truly desired that God receive the glory that He rightfully deserves. And it is a stark contrast to how most modern Christians approach the faith. Again… present company included.

So… how do we get to that point? How do we truly come to desire that God be glorified in all things, regardless of what it means for us? How do we take the focus off of ourselves? Our wants, needs, desires and ambitions? How do we get out of our own way and remove ourselves from the center of our own worlds, and put God there instead, where he rightfully belongs?

Some people think that it’s literally just proclaiming “all glory be to God” whenever they are in the spotlight.

Others have endorsed the idea that we glorify God by becoming really great at whatever gifts and talents He may have blessed us with. As Martin Luther once said: "The Christian shoemaker does his duty not by putting little crosses on the shoes, but by making good shoes, because God is interested in good craftsmanship."

And still others have concluded that we glorify God through our obedience to His word and commands.

I think all of those things are good and proper. But – I don’t think they quite get to the heart of the matter.

I think to truly desire that God receive His full glory, it has to start from a place of gratitude.

Until we fully understand the vileness of our sin, the utter depravity of our souls, and how terrible a fate that awaits the unsaved – and consequently, how much grace we’ve been given and how glorious our salvation actually is, we cannot even begin to truly desire for God to receive glory.

This is one of those times where analogy falls woefully short, but… I’ll give it a shot.

Imagine that you are homeless, living on the streets, with no friends, no family, no car, no money, and no hope. It is winter, and sub-zero temperatures are looming. And suddenly, a stranger appears, handing you the titles to a car and a beautiful house. He drives you to the house, and you find that it is warm, and the refrigerator is stocked with food. He proceeds to tell you that the house & car are completely paid for. In addition to that, he tells you that he has a job for you that you are perfectly suited for, and also welcomes you to his family, where you suddenly have friends, companionship, and laughter.

In that situation – would you not want to tell the world about your great fortune? About the amazing generosity and compassion of the stranger? Knowing how things were, would you not jump at the opportunity to help the stranger with anything he asked of you? Not out of obligation – but out of gratitude? For the rest of your life, any time somebody mentioned the strangers name, would you not sing his praises for what he did for you? If somebody were to try to slander him, would you not defend his honor? And if anybody ever asked about him, would you not gush about how he rescued you and gave you far more than you could have ever asked for?

As idealized and unrealistic as that made-up scenario seems… the reality of our salvation is even more radical than that.

I don’t think nearly enough people reflect on just how depraved we are, or how great the punishment for sin against a perfectly holy and righteous God would (and should) be. Consequently, because we don’t truly know just how terrible the punishment of hell would be, we fail to realize just how great the gift of salvation actually is.

But, until we do, we will never truly desire that God receive the honor and glory that He is due.

There are many who have heard about the horrors of hell and come to the conclusion that a truly loving God couldn’t possibly want that for His creations. And so they try to lessen the severity of hell, either by saying that we’ve misinterpreted it, or worse, saying it doesn’t exist at all!

Unfortunately, when we try to lessen the severity of hell, it also lessens the magnitude of Jesus’ sacrifice.

Lessening the magnitude of Jesus’ crucifixion, burial, and resurrection… who do you think would want that? Whose voice does that sound like?

Does it sound like the voice of a God who sacrificed everything for our behalf? Or does it sound like the voice of Satan, who desperately wants to trick people into believing that God isn’t that great, Hell isn’t that bad, and that we can be otherwise indifferent?

In a self-focused world, it can be difficult to stop focusing on our immediate wants, needs and desires for anything, much less the realities of Heaven and Hell. But, we neglect these things at our own peril.

Truly, we can never take the glory of God or the horrors of hell seriously enough. But, when we do, the natural results should be rejoicing at what God has done, obedience out of gratitude, and a desperate desire for Christ to be magnified.