Last week I wrote about perspective and how important it is to value God’s presence. It’s in God’s presence that our perspective is aligned with His. I’d like to take this thought a little further this week by tying in the value of honoring God’s presence.
According to the thesaurus, honor has these synonyms: "esteem, respect, pay homage to, assigning value to." The Greek word translated "honor" in our English Bibles, timao, means "to prize, i.e. fix a valuation upon; by implication, to revere" (Strong's Concordance).
Showing honor, then, means treating another respectfully because we value them highly.
“Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king.”
God asks a very valid question in Malachi 1:6.
“A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am the Father, where is My honor? And if I am a Master, where is My reverence? Says the Lord of hosts to you priests who despise My name. Yet you say, ‘In what way have we despised Your name?"
The Lord is pointing out that the actions are there, but “where is the honor?”
Honor flows from the heart into action.
The opposite of honor is dishonor. To dishonor means to treat as common or ordinary. We appropriate dishonor with blatant disrespect. In Malachi they are not dishonoring with blatant acts of disrespect, however their hearts were not in it. They lost sight of how valuable God really is and the sacrifice that He deserves.
As a young man my dad served in the Air Force. He left a box in his parent’s basement. The box looked ordinary on the outside therefore it was treated as ordinary and was thrown away while my dad was away. You’re probably wondering what was in the box, right? Neatly organized within the box were mint condition baseball cards signed by the likes of Mickey Mantle, Babe Ruth and many of the other “greats”. Ouch! Familiarity breads dishonor.
When you value something you are able to see the extraordinary within the ordinary.
Oftentimes familiarity is the number one killer of honor. Familiarity can cause us to treat as ordinary, which is the definition of dis-honor. It doesn’t have to be that way. Dishonor doesn’t always mean cussing someone out or rolling your eyes. It could be just as much about what you don’t do or don’t say. Honor elevates. The level of honor you give is determined by the amount of value you perceive.
Honoring the Presence of God should be top priority.
“And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. 31 And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
Worship is one way that we show honor to the Lord. Worship comes from worth-ship. To place worth is to honor.
Worship is bowing not just on the outside, but inwardly our hearts before the Lord.
When we worship we are showing affection and we are showing honor. I am an affectionate person by nature. When my daughters come to me with arms open wide, jump in my arms and give me a huge bear hug, it melts my heart. They definitely use this “trick” when they think they are in trouble! Even so, I will never turn away the love and affection of my daughters.
Our worth-ship upon God blesses Him. So, why do we place such value and honor on Him? Why do we think on things that are true, noble, pure and right when there are so many difficult things going on in life? Because, despite it all, God is good! He is worthy of ALL praise, ALL the glory, and ALL the honor!
In honor of Him,
Scott