Skip to main content

Honor God

             you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies. (I Corinthians 6:20)

Honor (Biblical definition) Showing esteem for one deserving of respect, attention, or obedience.

Let’s skip the “God” part for just a moment. Do you honor yourself with your body? Do you treat it with respect and attention, or do you stagger drunkenly among ignoring it, caving to its every whim, and making the Nazis seem lax in their discipline? I am one of the “drunks.” No one would look at me and recognize that I do a good job of respecting myself. And, I suffer as a result because I’m not able to do things I want to do.

Now, let’s bring God back into it. Some might begin by saying that honoring God with our bodies means not sinning, and they’d start their list of sins with extramarital sex, revealing clothing, and the use of drugs (including alcohol.) Eventually, they’d probably get to gluttony and maybe to high stress, abuse, and lack of sleep.  Ultimate, honoring God involves not making anything else more important than God. It doesn’t include making nothing else important, just not more important than God.

Part of the problem is that respecting ourselves and respecting God isn’t easy. They involve making choices we aren’t used to making. They involve denying ourselves, which often feels as if we aren’t respecting or honoring ourselves. After all, when we honor someone, don’t we usually give them what they want or what we value? They may involve learning to do new things. It can be overwhelming, so I return to an old guideline – do what’s obvious. Do what is in front of you. Help the person you trip over as you cross the room. If it’s a problem now, deal with it now. If it’s not, let it go. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Saved?

  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:28-30) “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ ” (Matthew 7:21-23) Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.” (Romans 3:4)   What conclusion do you draw when someone who was raised in a Christian family and church, perhaps even playing a significant role in a chur...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Shepherd!

                 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep . (John 10:14) God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” (Genesis 3:14) The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths     for his name’s sake. Even though I walk     through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil,     for you are with me; your rod and your staff,     they comfort me. (Psalm 23:1-4) For the Jews, it was politically incorrect to make claims about yourself as a teacher (or possibly as anything else.) Teachers were expected to take pride in the...
Post a Comment
Read more