We All Struggle With Wanting Praise, So What Does It Mean to Seek God’s Glory and Not Your Own?

This past weekend I preached a sermon from John 5:30-47. The message peaked in 5:44 where Jesus firmly warned his listeners, “How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?” (John 5:44).

A brief point I made was that Jesus chose this as the root issue for why people do not genuinely come to him. It isn’t a lack of evidence or proof (or “witnesses,” as he speaks about in 5:30-47); it’s that people want to mainly receive their own glory. They want to live for the glory they can get, and not God’s.

I tried an illustration to explain this. I said Jesus is teaching that each of us has a “glory-compass.” For those who don’t genuinely receive Jesus, they don’t do so because their glory-compass is pointing and guiding them mainly toward themselves. No matter what it looks like on the outside (they may be “God-worshipers” like the people Jesus was talking to), if they’re honest with themselves they’d see that they’re mainly about themselves and their “glory” that they can attain (whatever that might mean for them).

On the other hand, the genuine Christian’s glory-compass (miraculously through the new birth) is pointed to and guiding towards God’s glory. They live life and genuinely do not do it for their own glory but rather “seek” God’s glory (as Jesus says in John 5:44).

But What Does This Look Like?

That I hope was a major take away from my message. And I still hold that it’s what Jesus was getting at in John 5:44.

But then after the service I had a congregant approach me asking what this actually means, what it looks like. She appreciated the sermon, and she genuinely does love and desire Jesus, but she was asking how this glory-compass worked since we all struggle with wanting praise, honor, glory, esteem—even genuine Christians.

And her question is spot-on. It’s something I had thought about a bit too but hadn’t had time in my message to dwell on. (Looking back, I wonder if I should’ve made time for it however.) Essentially, the question is:

What does it mean that a Christian is someone who (according to Jesus in John 5:44) genuinely “seeks” God’s glory and isn’t all about their own glory? How does this work since we all, even Christians, still struggle with wanting praise and honor and esteem from others?

What does it mean to be a born-again person who has a glory-compass which is truly pointed towards God’s glory and not your own, even as you still struggle with wanting the praise of man?

Two Personal Examples of the Question

Two quick personal examples from my life can be given to illustrate the issue—both which even apply directly to me writing this post.

First, as I was preparing for my sermon I was struck by this exact problem. I don’t preach much at my church and so when I do I want my message to be as good as possible. And as I want this, I also honestly struggle with the simple human desire to have people like it—to like me. To see me as a good preacher and Bible teacher. And this time I was hit even more with this reality as I was preaching on John 5, focusing on 5:44!

So the question is: How can I believe that God genuinely has saved me by grace and has made me someone mainly about his glory, while I know know that I’m struggling with a desire for people to really like me and my message? How can I preach that Jesus taught that the Christian’s glory-compass is divinely altered to seek God’s glory and not their own, when I’m honestly struggling with wanting some “glory” myself?

A second example is this blog. This site, yes, but even this post. I’m writing right now about how the Christian is someone who genuinely and mainly wants God’s glory and not their own, and yet in the back (and nearing the front as I type!) of my mind is the reality that I want people to like this. I want you, reader, to like this. To like me. I’m struggling with the desire for you to even praise, commend, honor, “glorify” this site and me.

So again, how can I write this, struggle with wanting people to like my post and my site, and still believe I’m in on the saved side of John 5:44?

Reasons and Root

The answer to this glory-seeking problem we all have can be found by looking at the reasons and roots in our hearts.

What Are The Reasons?

First, we need to genuinely dig into the reasons we do the things we do. This applies to anything, but even and especially “spiritual, God-honoring” things and to genuinely people-loving actions.

The honest question we must all seriously ask is why.

What motivates you? What pushes you forward? What successes excite you the most? What bothers you when you don’t succeed and why? And if you could have it go exactly as you wanted, what would the outcome be?

These are all penetrating questions. Questions only God and each of us know the real answer to (and only God fully). They reveal the motives, reasons, and goals of actions. And in doing so, they can help reveal the direction of our compass.

Of course, many times we’ll say the “right” answer for our motive, such as “for the glory of God.” We’ll say that we’re loving that person, leading that Bible study, posting on social media, serving the needy, and more for the glory of God. Even on a larger scale, we’ll say we are pursuing this career, marrying that person, putting our children in that school all for the glory of God. But we need to search for deeper answers than just our lip-service. We need to be honest with ourselves: What are the reasons?

Now, figuring this out is no easy task. We each are multi-faceted and complex to say the least. But what I think Jesus makes clear from John 5:44 (and Paul in Romans 2:29) is that the Christian who has a glory-compass miraculously pointed to God’s glory can say with honestly and genuineness—as naked before their God—that they truly do want his glory in it all. This means that before him in prayer, and when they’re as genuine and sober-minded as possible, they can say it’s not about them, that they really do want him to be made much of.

Or even more penetratingly, they can truly feel and believe that if God’s glory means that they lose all of it, or that they aren’t recognized for any of it, or that they be even seen as a failure, then “thy will be done.”

The Root

How can the Christian be like this? Because although there are many disturbances in their heart—although they still struggle with the passions of the flesh which are waging war against their souls (Galatians 5:17; 1 Peter 2:11), passions such as seeking their own glory!—they deeply and fundamentally do want God’s glory. Their glory-compass genuinely is pointed in his direction. It truly is guiding them to his renown. All the sin and struggle are magnetic disturbances which they sometimes follow to their own folly. But when their true compass is revealed, they revel in God’s glory, not their own.

And this, then, is their root. The new birth has miraculously made them a person who looks at life—with all their goals, aspirations, relationships, and plans—and wants God’s honor and glory. The non-Christian, on the other hand, doesn’t want this above all else (Romans 1:21). Even the non-Christian church attender or “God-worshiper” doesn’t primarily want this (this was Jesus’s point to the Jews in John 5). They may say they want God’s honor, but if they analyzed their root—what really guides their lives and actions—they’d see it wasn’t God’s glory, but something else. They are mainly living for their accomplishments, recognition, and glory. Anything done “for God’s glory” would be revealed merely to be a means to their own.

Being Fully Naked and Honest with God

I think that’s a taste of the biblical answer. It’s about reasons which reveal the root of our hearts. Why do we do what we do? And are we God-glorifiers at heart or us-glorifiers, do we want to magnify Christ or ourselves?

More than ever before in my ministry, this was the call for me last week as I prepared to stand up in front of 500 people on a weekend and preach about John 5:44: I had to be fully naked and honest with God and analyze myself, my reasons and my root. I had to ask, Why am I doing this? Why do I want this to be convicting, clear, captivating? Why do I want this message to be “good”?

Those are the sort of questions Jesus presses us to ask in John 5:44 about our lives and everything we do. Every once and a while we need to check ourselves. We’re pressed to get on our knees and be fully naked and honest with God, asking him to reveal our reasons and roots. For, as he says, it is impossible to “receive glory from people and seek the glory that comes from the only God.”

Praise God for the Miracle of a Changed Glory-Compass

As for me, with God as my witness, I do want his glory. It is a miracle. Yes, as I write this I want you the reader to like it and me; I wanted people to like my message and me last week; I want my ministry to be successful; I want to be honored and known as a good husband, father, and man; and much more. But in all sincerity, when I’m sober-minded and before him—the one who sees the sick, complex, human heart perfectly (Jeremiah 17:9-10)—I can say with honesty that more importantly than all this I do want Jesus’s glory. I want him to be made much of through me, whatever that may mean, even if it means me being made much less. And because of this miraculous desire of my born-again heart, I know that those moments of seeking my glory are disturbances to my compass, not the root. His glory, his will be done is the cry of my heart, and it will be forevermore.

Praise God, through the gospel of Christ he has changed my glory-compass. I hope through Christ he has done the same for you as well.