Every morning as part of my daily prayer, I ask God to help me to honour Him with the words I speak, by my deeds, with my thoughts and my attitudes.
I love my God, and appreciate everything He has done for me, and the way in which He continues to bless me and prosper me in what I do. I don’t say that arrogantly but with a humble, thankful heart. And I want to honour Him in every day life.
There was a song years ago that went:
Count your blessings name the one by one;
Count your blessings, see what God has done…”
It’s easy to let life pass by without recognising the blessings that our Heavenly Father pours out into our lives constantly. We take for granted the things that Christ has sacrificed His life for. He went to the cross and gave all He had so that we might live. Jesus said:
I come to give you life in abundance.
John 10:10
God wants us to enjoy His generosity, His life, His gifts, this abundant life. I believe our part is to live a life of gratitude. Do you want more out of life? Get to know the life-giver. Be in relationship with Him, the One who can make a difference. And when you know him more, you will trust him more; and when you trust him more, it becomes easier to see how he moves in your life – guiding, protecting, opening doors and closing others. And why? Because you serve a Heavenly Father who is infinitely interested in who you are and everything you do.
And that brings me back to my prayer. I pray, most days, that my last waking thought for the night and my first the next morning would be of Him. It has taken me 50 years to learn just how dependent I am on Him in every part of my life. From the moment I am awake to the moment I fall asleep, I want to be conscious of Him. Not in some super-spiritual, of no practical use to this world way; but in a way that leads me to live my life in honour to Him: by my words and my deeds, with my thoughts and my attitudes. Why? Because of how he loves me, and because of how he blesses me.
When we honour God and put Him first in our lives, He honours us. He is faithful to his word, and faithful to His promise. James 4:8 says to:
Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.
He longs to have fellowship with his people.
I was asked the other day to describe worship. I explained it as the most intimate thing we can do with God. I went on to draw a parallel to the act of kissing. When I kiss my wife, I close my eyes and my entire being becomes focussed on my love for her. At that point I am not aware of anything else in my surroundings; my worries disappear, my fears, and the rest of my being follows into the “worship” of my wife.
God loves you so much, and the act of bringing honour to Him, is no less than an act of reciprocal love. He thinks about us all the time, and He longs for us to have the best in life. I can honour Him with my words and worship. I can honour him with my thoughts, my deeds, my attitudes, my trust.
When my father passed away wen I was in my early twenties, I remember crying out to God and asking him “Why??” His answer to me was a question: “Son, will you trust Me?”
God places no demands on us for obedience or difficult tasks to earn our salvation. He simply asks: Will you trust Me? This becomes relational. We trust what (or who) we know. And this trust will never be misplaced when we place it in Him.
Nothing can separate us from God’s love. Romans 8 is very clear on God’s commitment to us:
What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else? Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one - for God himself has given us right standing with himself. Then who will condemn us? No one – for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honour at God’s right hand, pleading for us.
Can anything every separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecute, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? (As the Scriptures say, “For your own sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”) No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.
And I am convinced that nothing can every separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow – not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the Earth below – indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:31-39
Isn’t that alone worthy of our honour?
Have a great week!
Erick.
