Glorifying God

One of the major themes in the kids' sunday school lessons is that man was made to glorify God, to show the world how special He is. I've been thinking a lot about this lately. Some people will tell you that God is only glorified when we are prosperous, but that's not always true. Prosperity can turn a man from God just as much as proverty can tempt a man to steal and therefore defame God.

John Piper spoke at WABC today. One point really caught my attention. God can be glorified by what He gives a man and by what He doesn't. If one is capable of glorifying God without wealth or even such basic things as food and clothing, than the Lord might choose to give this man poverty. But to the one who is not capable of being hungry without defaming God, He must give him food. That sounds wrong, but it helps us to better understand what Jesus meant in the following verses:

Matthew 6:25-34
25"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

28"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Some will read this and think that thefore, if we have faith, we will be prosperous. But really God has only promised to give us what we need, what we need in order to glorify Him, as little or as much as that might be. It reminds me of one of my favorite verses in Proverbs:

Provebs 30:7-9
7Two things I ask of you;
deny them not to me before I die:
8Remove far from me falsehood and lying;
give me neither poverty nor riches;
feed me with the food that is needful for me,
9lest I be full and deny you
and say, "Who is the LORD?"
or lest I be poor and steal
and profane the name of my God.

I've been reading Money, Possessions and Eternity and the more I read it, the less I want and the more dependant I want to be on the Lord for my daily bread and the more I see just how temporal earthly treasures are.