The Power of Honor - Day 3: Pastor Kerry Shook
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“But I will honor those who honor Me, and I will despise those who think lightly of Me.”
1 Samuel 2:30b (NLT)
Did you know that something as simple as “honor” sets in motion the blessings of God in your life? There is power in honor to unlock or block the blessings of God. In Mark 6:1-5 we read about the time Jesus visited His hometown of Nazareth. His disciples were with Him. As He began to teach in His hometown synagogue the locals recognized Him, but not as the Son of God. They said, “‘Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren’t His sisters here with us?’ And they took offense at Him.” Mark 6:3 (NIV) In response, Jesus said to them in verse 4. “a prophet is not without honor except in his own town, among his relatives and in his own home.” Rather than honoring Jesus as the Son of God, they dishonored Him. In effect, they were saying, “Who do you think you are? We know you. You’re the guy who worked on our house. You built our table. You’re just a carpenter. We grew up with you and your brothers and sisters. You’re nothing special.” As a result of their dishonor, Mark says in verse 5, “(Jesus) could not do any miracles there, except lay His hands on a few sick people and heal them.” Wow! How amazing is that? If honor unlocks the blessings of God in our lives, dishonor blocks those blessings and forfeits the work that God may have wanted to do!
So, what is honor anyway? The Hebrew word for honor is “kabad” and it means weighty or heavy. It can also be translated in English as glory or glorify or glorious. When we honor God, we are giving weight and substance; importance and value to Him. When we dishonor Him, we fail to value Him in our lives and treat Him with disrespect and disregard. In this series of blogs, we are going to examine the power of honor to unlock the blessings of God in our lives, the kind of honor that respects God and values Him, aligning our lives to His will. We’ll also see the power of honor in our relationships that will take them to a whole new level.
One of the most practical ways we honor God is with our time. Our time represents our life. Whatever you spend your time on, you’re giving your life too. Time is a unique commodity. Unlike money that you can make, spend, or lose and make more of, time can never be reproduced. Once it’s spent, it’s gone. You can never get time back again. That alone can stress you out if you’re anything like me. Maybe you never seem to have enough time to get done all you need to do. Kevin Kruse, a Time Management Researcher who has interviewed over 200 billionaires, Olympic athletes, and high achievers asked them to share their secret for time management. He said none of them even mentioned a “To-Do” list! I found that surprising! He discovered that ultra-productive people don’t work from a “To-Do” list. They work from a calendar where they calendar in their priorities. The better list to make, then, is a priority list. Have you ever done that? What are the priorities that you would put on your calendar? In what ways can you honor God with your calendar? The truth is if we don’t honor God with our time, we’re not honoring Him with our lives. If you want to honor God with your time, give Him the first part of your day in personal worship. Treat that time as a Divine Appointment that you value. A priority is determined by what it takes to bump it. We all have busy schedules and the thought of adding something more can overload us. But remember, there is power in honor. When we honor God in our schedule and make Him our first priority, He manages our lives to make us even more productive and fulfilled! Proverbs 10:27 (TLB) says, “Reverence for God adds hours to each day.”
Let’s begin this series then by honoring God with our time and spending these closing moments drawing close to Him in prayer. Raise the value of the time you spend with Him. Hold it in high regard. You are speaking to the King one on one! He’s listening because He loves to spend time with you!