How Do We Honor God?
How Do We Honor God?
“I receive not honour from men. But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you. I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive. How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only?”
John 5:41-44
Honor is defined as having high respect; showing special merit or great privilege.
The Pharisees were an elite social class in Israel that enjoyed many benefits from their position. They didn’t seek approval from God, rather they sought that men would make them the center of everything. They tried to obey God by following the law, but many failed. They tried to put themselves above men, and they failed at that. The Pharisees would hold people accountable to the law, but who held them accountable? They wanted all the honor and all the glory.
Unfortunately our lives can be quite similar, even though we refuse to admit it. We can make our careers, our money and even our family’s more important than God. We spend so much time on the things that are important to us, which honors them - instead of honoring God.
We choose what we honor. It’s a clear choice and one we make independently. We honor things with our time, talents and attention. So why do we spend more time in church than we do in our own Bible? Or we spend more time on hobbies or crafts or chores than we spend in biblical study. And we will spend more time with family and friends than we do in prayer with God.
God is not honored by vain tradition or empty words. God is honored by obedience and submission. When we sacrifice our wants and desires for God, we are honoring Him. We are also honoring God through our service, stewardship and talents. These are special merits and high privilege that we are showing God through honoring Him.
Take time throughout your day to consider how you bring honor to God. You have the ability to choose what you will honor - the things in this world, or God.
In these verses in the book of John, Jesus was speaking about how men honor themselves, and not the Father. He was simply trying to explain that if we honor anything but God, the love of the Father is not in us.
It’s not enough to have eternal salvation. We are called to do so much more. We are called to share the Good News / Gospel of Jesus Christ, to make disciples, to love our neighbors and to love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind and soul.
We should be living all of this life for God. Not some of it. It’s time to stop making excuses of why you aren’t doing more. Stop sacrificing time for your own guilty pleasures and start honoring God with it today.
So how do we honor God? We spend more time with Him and on Him. We spend more time in prayer. More time in our bibles. More time in fellowship with other believers (honoring Him), more time in ministry and in worship. We listen and watch things that honor God. We speak and show love in ways that honor God. This is how we honor God.
This devotion was written as a note to myself to read in five years. I pray that I have lived up to this expectation.
“I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”
1 John 2:14-15