One word frequently used to describe us as a group of people from an economic perspective is consumers.  We consume food, drinks, cars, movies, clothes and a myriad of other things.  The word is used so frequently that it makes consumption appear to be our primary function in life.  However, if you trace the word back to its roots it originally had a negative denotation as ‘one who squanders or wastes’.  The image that comes to mind is a swarm of insects ravaging a field of corn.

Yet, should one of the primary words that we use to capture our essence define us by our appetites?  Our appetites or the sinful desires of our heart deflect our attention from our primary purpose in life – having everything we do glorify God; even to the point of what we eat and drink (1 Corinthians 10:31).  Instead of describing ourselves as consumers, the word that we should use to describe our reborn nature is glorifiers.  We are not here to consume the creation, but to glorify the Creator.  We are to glorify God in all facets of life – large and small (Luke 16:10).  Nothing is exempt.

Now, admittedly, calling each other glorifiers sounds a little ethereal and may bring to mind an caricature of a brightly lit angelic being floating around heaven singing praises to God.  It also sounds a little cultish; maybe with the ring of Scientology.  However, if we can overcome these negative pictures and replace them with an image of us as people whose thoughts, words and deeds (Luke 10:27) are captive to God in such a way that each and every action is motivated by showing God’s glory to the world, we would begin to see ourselves as differently.  We would better internalize that we are those who bring attention, praise, exultation, worship to Another.  We would be like telescopes that magnify the unimaginably glorious, so that His majesty may be more clearly seen through us (Matthew 5:16).

Take a minute and begin to think of yourself as a glorifier.  Begin to reframe your identity around the idea that your mission during your brief time (James 4:14) here is to do all for the glory of God by living for Him and not yourself (Romans 12:1).  Resist the idea that glorifying is limited to singing and consider how your nature as a glorifier should direct all of your relationships and activities – family and friends, vocation and avocation.  As a glorifier, how does this recast identity change your actions and interactions?  Ask yourself whether they honor God and show His glory to the world.