Want to honor the Lord
in your living? The Lord gives us three
things to do here that will honor Him.
We are to be just and fair. This
reminds us that how we treat others does matter. Being just means that we don’t treat people
in ways they don’t deserve to be treated.
We honor the Lord’s admonition to be loving and gracious. When it becomes necessary to punish someone
for the wrongs they have done, we don’t cower away from it. It is only fair that people be punished for
the wrongs they do, but when we do it, we do it out of love and not
vengeance. The goal should always be to
motivate others to repent and change their ways, to restore them to good
standing before God and man.
It also honors the
Lord when we honor the Lord’s Day. Now I
know that there is a tremendous amount of disagreement in the Church over what
this means in practical terms and I don’t want to upset anyone or stir up a
debate. What I do want to do is to
challenge you to think about what the Lord’s Day is designed to do for us. Scripture says that when God had finished His
labors of creation, He rested on the seventh day. I don’t believe it was because He was tired,
but it was because He had completed His work, it was good, and there was
nothing else for Him to do to make it better.
He wants us to take the time to reflect on the works He has done, to
appreciate them and to understand that what He did and continues to do is for
our good and His glory.
He admonishes us to
rest from our labors one day a week because He knows that we are not Him; we
need the rest. We get weary from our
labors physically, mentally and emotionally and it affects our souls. God knows that when man is always working, he
is not paying attention to his soul like he needs to. Whatever you do on the Lord’s Day, take the
time to refresh your soul, to be holy before God. You need the Lord more than anything your
labors on earth may accomplish for you.
It also honors the
Lord when we keep ourselves from doing wrong.
What we do does matter to God.
Sin affects our relationship with God.
It keeps God at arm’s length in our souls. We can never be right with God as long as we
allow ourselves to sin against God. It
is never okay with God when we wander into sin.
When God’s children sin, it insults God.
It brings shame not only upon us, but it dishonors His holy name. Sin in our hearts keeps God’s blessings at bay in our lives. We must heed the admonition of God to be
holy, even as He is holy.
In what ways are you honoring the Lord in
your life? Do you treat others the way
you should? Do you honor the Lord’s Day
in the way you should? Do you keep
yourself from sinning before God? Blessed
are those who honor the Lord in all things.
No comments:
Post a Comment