As He prayed the high priestly prayer, Jesus told God in John 17:4, “I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.”

The word “glorified” comes from a Greek word which means to make one renown, to show or demonstrate one’s honor, basically to promote and show the value of one.

When Jesus said that He glorified God on the earth, He was saying that He showed the world how great God is, how gracious God is, how loving God is, how powerful God is, how good God is, and every other positive attribute that you can ascribe to God, Jesus demonstrated it in His life and ministry.

Like Jesus, we too should glorify God.

This sounds like a big task. How much effort and Spirituality it must take to glorify God!

But in all reality, glorifying God is not that much different than glorifying our favorite brands. Ask any Apple or iPhone user, and they will extol the virtues, features, vision and mission of Apple products. They will tell you how much they identify with their devices, or how much their devices seem to enable them to do what they do.

The same is true for Samsung users, PC users, and fans of Adobe or Office.

In Texas, we love our brands. If a brand has successfully identified itself with the Lone Star State, we offer it undying loyalty whether it’s a superior product or not. Such is the case with Wolf Brand Chili. Go to any championship chili cookoff, and you will not find a chili similar to Wolf Brand anywhere near the top of the field. However, we buy Wolf Brand by the case, and we love it.

“Texan? When’s the last time you’ve had a bowl of Wolf Brand Chili… oh that’s too long.”

However, Blue Bell Ice Cream truly is a superior brand, and it’s Texan, so Texans will not so much as entertain the notion of buying anything else.

We fall in love with brands, and we tell each other why we love these brands. Why we find them to be better than other brands. Whether it’s quality or identity, we gravitate toward them and tell others about them.

We glorify them. We cause them to become renown. To be valued. To be adored.

Same way with Christians. We love our Christian brands… Chick-Fil-A, Hobby Lobby, and In-N-Out Burger. We promote them, stand with them during PR crises, and back their efforts wholeheartedly.

However, when it comes to God, suddenly we don’t know what to say.

What if we identified ourselves with God as strongly as we identify ourselves with our cell phones, computers, food brands, favorite restaurants and retailers? What if we could extol His virtues and benefits the way we can extol the virtues and benefits of the latest car we drive, or TV we’ve purchased.

The reason we fail to do this is possibly because we fail to truly realize the blessings He has given us.

Jesus glorified God by showing through His life and ministry Who God is. In His death on the cross, we see the righteousness of God, the grace and mercy of God, and the desire of God to redeem His people. We see God’s passion. We see His love.

In the resurrection of Jesus, we see God’s power. In the teachings of Jesus, we see God’s truth. In the miracles of Jesus, we see His compassion and power. Jesus truly glorified God on this earth.

We have the same ability to glorify God, albeit we will do it a little differently.

We glorify God when we believe the Gospel. We show His glory when we follow the Lord in Baptism. We show His death and our redemption when we observe the Lord’s supper. We show His power and His character by living in obedience to Him, demonstrating His transformation on our lives.

And we extol Him by telling others about Him and discussing our faith, with the same passion, attention to detail, and drive that we have in discussing our favorite brands.

But to do that, we have to truly believe. If we do it out of obligation, we will fail.

So reflect on what God has done for you, then show that glory to others.