How I Want To Honor God

OH Gosh.

A few Sundays ago in church we sang Amazing Love as our Call To Worship. I came completely undone when I sang the words,

“Amazing love, how can it be?

That you, my King, would die for me.

Amazing love, I know it’s true

It’s my joy to honor You.

Amazing love, how can it be?

That my King would die for me

Amazing love, I know it true

It’s my joy to honor You.

In all I do, I honor You.” (You Are My King, Amazing Love, lyrics written by Billy James Foote/Performed By The Newsboys)

I was so unglued that my friend standing beside me put a comforting arm around my shoulders while another friend behind me passed a tissue. Spontaneously, without thinking, I blurted out loud, OH Gosh! Sobs were welling up so thick in my throat they threatened to cut off my airway. I had to swallow repeatedly to keep my composure.

I don’t know, I guess I got hung up on the words “it‘s my joy to honor You, in all I do I honor You.” 

I couldn’t help but wonder…do I have joy in my heart when I honor my King? Do I honor Him in all I do? Do I have joy in all the ways I honor Jesus?

Let’s face it, we’re going to honor most what we value most in life. Sometimes that honor is misplaced or misdirected and, in all honesty, we all have hearts that are easily led astray and attitudes that quickly run wild. I didn’t even mention wayward tongues. Oops. I just did.

God grace me. Please.

Oh, how I want to honor Jesus. Not just with words and deeds, but in attitudes of my heart and actions of my flesh…in those places where I seemingly put value on worthless things, meaningless stuff, and fruitless labor. When I think of what I set my heart on sometimes I admit…I am guilty of failing the honor test.

My girlfriend and I are doing a Bible study together, No Other Gods by Kelly Minter. It’s about…you guessed it…idols, personal pharaohs, functional gods…the kind of stuff nobody wants to talk about. I won’t scare you off with the details, but I will share this from page 13:

“Most of us think of an idol as a statue of wood, stone, or metal worshiped by pagan people…In biblical terms, it is something other than God that we set our heart on (Luke 12:29; 1 Cor. 10:19), that motivates us (1 Cor. 4:5), that masters and rules us (Ps. 119:133; Eph. 5:5), or that we trust, fear, or serve (Isa. 42:17; Matt 6:24; Luke 12:4-5)….” {Ken Sande, The Peacemaker, Revised and Updated (Grand Rapids; Baker Book House, 2006), 104.}

I actually wrote in the margin…Lord, have mercy. Seriously, I’m thinking outside the box as I address this issue of “no other gods.” I really want to get to the heart of the matter. I can’t just honor God outwardly…I have to honor Him inwardly, too. That’s where a lot of us get hung up.

And this is why I got hung up on the phrase “it’s my joy to honor You, in all I do I honor You,” as I sang Amazing Love in church that Sunday. I know I have attitude issues. I know I have flesh issues. I know I have heart issues. Kelly Minter roped me in when she shared a Scripture from 2 Kings 17:33 & 41,

“They worshiped the Lord, but they also served their own gods…Even while these people were worshiping the Lord, they were serving their idols.”

See, I really want to honor God in all that I do because, after all, He gave His all for me…He gave His Son who gave His life and I just want Him to know I’m so very grateful. So–o-o-o, when I think about all of this and ponder all of that and meditate on what this means for me, my spirit really wants to honor God with as much of me as I can give Him. As Kelly says, the whole purpose of getting rid of idols is to make more room for Jesus. (If you read my last blog post, When I Am Distracted, you’ll know this is what I want.)

I’ve come to this place in my life where I want so much to honor God. And if that means I’ve got to give up more of myself and more of my wants and more of my attitudes and….and…more of the stuff in my heart that isn’t necessary, then that’s what I want to do. Some might call this a quest for personal holiness or sanctification, but I won’t scare you off with any of that, either. All I know is I need to tear down some idols. And I’m not talking about wood, stone, or metal. I might even have to grind some to powder and burn them.

But, OH Gosh! This is so-o-o-o-o hard. Yet, I have this feeling that the more of me I give up, the more of this honor I desperately want to give God will actually be the joy of my heart.

Who said this faith journey would be easy? Not God.

“So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised. For in just a very little while,

‘He who is coming will come and will not delay. But my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him.’

But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.” Hebrews 10:35-39

But, who said it would be worth it? He did.

“The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.

The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple.

The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart.

The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes.

The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever.

The ordinances of the Lord are sure and altogether righteous.

They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb.

By them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.” Psalm 19:7-11

And that is enough for me.