John 5:44 “How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek glory from God only?
This is an amazing verse. To live for God’s glory involves giving Him all the honor in everything, but it also means to live for His affirmation and praise alone, over your life and actions. To sense his approval and honor: to have His praise is so awesome.
I love to praise those under my care. It empowers them to believe and to explore. Our Heavenly Father loves to praise us and affirm us, and even if the whole world is rejecting us, His praise is enough to keep us moving forward in joy and risk.
On the other hand, if you live for the glory of men; if their honor and affirmation is your goal, then you will walk in deeply restricted faith, because you will always be concerned with what they think, or how you appear to them. You won’t risk, out of fear of disapproval, ridicule, and rejection.
If we are living for His glory, (His approval and praise alone over our lives, and for His name alone to be exalted) then your motives will stay pure. Even if, by faith, you risk and seem to fail, and it feels like His name wasn’t exalted in the situation, you will still have His praise because your heart was pure, living for His glory.
By the way, don’t always determine whether it was a failure based on the immediate outcome, for the pure in heart live blessed lives and they will see God tangibly at work in their lives and ministries. Only those who live for His glory, walk in extravagant faith, and see the extravagant works of God released in their lives.