The Glory Shall Be A Defense

¹“And the Lord will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory shall be a defence.” (Isaiah 4:5). We are meant to do all that we can to increase the glory of God, and not our own glory. There is an important, even self-interested reason for doing this. When we seek to puff ourselves up or add to our own glory, we open ourselves up to ridicule, resentment, and envy. At best, we look like self-aggrandizing fools who are more concerned about our own egos than about trying to genuinely help others. At worst, we begin to treat others as mere objects in the way of increasing our glory and will either walk all over them or callously use them for our own ends, never mind how they might feel about it. Trying to hold onto our own glory makes us paranoid and defensive and increasingly desperate to stop anyone or anything that threatens us. But when we are motivated only by love for our Heavenly Father and His children and are only concerned about helping to add to God's kingdom and glory, then that glory becomes for us a defense rather than a weakness. When we are about our Father's work we are cloaked in His power and glory. Since this glory does not belong to us, we do not need to feel insecure about how brightly or dimly it shines. If people try to attack or criticize us, we can simply give no heed to their opinions, because we know that this is God's glory and He can back it up. Our own personal glory becomes superfluous in the presence of God's glory. If our own glory is a candle, then God's glory is a giant, heavenly spotlight. What does it matter if our little candle is more or less fancy when we could be walking around with the light of the sun instead? I know that when we forget ourselves and focus on God's glory, we will be defended both from inner pride and outer ridicule.