Honoring God

A few days ago, it dawned on me that I had not been spending as much time thinking about what I can do to honor the Lord. I wonder just how often we ignore or forget about doing things to honor God because of how busy we are or how involved we are in the cares and worries of the world. Does it hit us to even think about doing things for God at all? We certainly owe Him, don't we? Or do we?

There are people who would question whether we owe Him anything or not. After all, it is not our fault we were born, right? The world has gone crazy, is certainly difficult to live in, is completely corrupt and in lots of cases unlivable. Yet, according to the Bible, He is our Creator. For that alone, we should owe Him. Well, I don't know. He made the earth and look at it. How did all that happen?

Yes, God did make the world and everything in it was clean and pure. But something happened. Sin entered in due to a human. Then, when things got really tense because Adam gave away his gift from the Lord, the world, God provided a way out by sacrificing His Son on the cross so that we would not have to bear the burdens of our sins, sickness and disease. Jesus took on all of the hurts, pain, sins, illness, corruption Himself by dying for us. When He did that, we became free of all those things, if we only knew it. God freely gives us the gift of life through Jesus Christ, His Son. All we must do is ask for the gift of Jesus Christ living inside us, be sorry for the things we have done and enjoy the Lord living within us.

So, yes, we owe Him. But can we ever repay Him? No, but we can honor Him with what we do and how we do it. We can honor Him in how we think. If we do things to honor God regardless of what it is, then we will always be obligated to do those things to the best of our abilities. If we don't, we dishonor what Jesus has done for us. We can no more "just do enough to get by" like we did as kids. The child grows up and learns that nothing less than "to the best of my ability" is acceptable. Only then, do we truly honor God with our attitude and actions.

But what can I do to honor God? He is perfection. I am not. How can I honor God? Nothing I can do is acceptable. The scripture says everything is like filthy rags, right?

Isaiah 64:6, "But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away."

Says it all, right? Sure it does. We are all unclean....until God gets ahold of us, until Jesus died on that cross to give us the gift of His life for ours. No more can we be unclean unless we allow it. Then, we still have a way out. Ask forgiveness!! Have we settled this? Good.

Now, how can we honor God?

1 Corinthians 6:19-20, "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's."

These verses say clearly that we must honor God with our bodies. It means that whatever we do, we do to it all to honor our Father. If you clean a room, do that to the best of your ability so that you will honor your Lord. At your job, work honorably, in truth, doing all that you are able. Do not take that extra couple of minutes on a break or sneak away early because you don't punch a timeclock. Do all that the employer asks and do more than that to honor your Father. Are you a student? Tests and homework can be done to honor the Lord. Raising children or teaching them? Shine the Light of God in your life by teaching them who their Savior is and how to live for Him. In places where it is unacceptable to talk about Jesus, show the Lord through your actions and attitude.

We can honor God through all we do if only the thought comes to do so. Have you read your Bible today? That honors the Lord. Do you pray? That honors our Father. Is studying the Bible part of your life? You honor the Savior that way. Are you having a closer relationship, fellowship with the Lord? You honor Him in doing so. God is looking for people who are willing to get to know Him better. He wants an extremely close encounter with you on a daily basis. Did you know that? That, too, honors Him.

Take the time today to think about how you can honor the Lord with your life. Be diligent in all you do for Him. Make it a habit to live your life to shine the Light of God in all the faces you see. What an honor to Him for what He has done for you!! You always honor your Lord when you are a blessing to someone. Be one today!

Honoring God

Do We?

by Lura Langenback