Seeing the Glory of God

I often talk about "seeing the glory of God," so I'd like to provide some clarification for what this means. First, the best definition I've ever heard for what the "glory" of God is comes from Pastor John Piper. In one of his sermons, Dr. Piper defined the "glory" of God as "the manifest beauty of His holiness." Since the word "holiness" means "set apart," we can define "seeing the glory of God" as "seeing how amazingly beautiful and superior God is to anyone else, whether it be His power, His wisdom, or especially His moral character and His love."

Although we can definitely see God's glory in His creation (i.e. sunsets, rainbows), I think we can better see His glory through reading about Him in His Word, drawing near to Him in prayer, and seeing Him work in people's lives. Thus, when I talk about "seeing the glory of God," I am generally referring to one of these things, rather than looking at sunsets and rainbows.

I'd like to close by sharing a passage from John Piper's book "A Godward Life," in which Pastor John describes an experience through which he really saw God's amazing glory -

Sometimes in the midst of discipline, unexpected power will spring forth, and the line between spontaneity and discipline disappears. Early one Sunday morning my discipline was taking me through Luke 18. It was one of those times when God came near with unusual force. Christ stood out from the pages as irresistibly compelling. Every paragraph made my soul yearn to be radically obedient to Jesus. I felt that no one ever spoke like this man. No one ever lived free like this man. No one ever demanded what he demanded and gave what he gave.