I am a man of means. I have the ability to help myself and do things to improve the way of life for my family.

“²⁵The Lord tears down the house of the proud but maintains the widow’s boundaries.” – Proverbs 15:25 (ESV)

I have pride in having the ability to help myself. God is not interested in whether or not I can help myself. I should be reaching to him for help and care just as the widow. She is in a position where she must rely on others for help with things; protection and care.

Shouldn’t we all be in that position with God? He is our ultimate protection and caregiver. We should be reaching out to Him when we find ourselves in need. Yes, I still have the ability to care for and protect myself and my family, however I should not be relying on myself and should instead be allowing God to do His part and I should be simply following His lead and yield to His teachings and control.

“³³The fear of the Lord is instruction in wisdom, and humility comes before honor.” – Proverbs 15:33 (ESV)

We may have means to take care of things, however it is not up to us to take into our own hands. By thinking and working as though we are in control, we are dishonoring God by “running the show” and not allowing Him to work. Shouldn’t we be in a position of humility to allow God to give us direction and provide for our needs?

Think of the widow from above. She needs assistance with certain things and by humbly approaching God, He provides the necessary resources for that assistance. Whether it is in the form of finances to pay for assistance, or friends and family that may come to her aid, or maybe a church family that comes by on a regular basis to simply love her and provide encouragement and fellowship. God takes care of all of her needs.

Why wouldn’t we have the same approach? We should be humble before God allowing Him to do His work in our lives and the lives of others. Isn’t that the greatest honor we can give, allow someone, in this case God, to do the work they are to do and help those in need?

Will you allow God to do his work? Will you humble yourself before God and trust in His ability to provide for your needs? Will you honor God as those little in means?

I was recently speaking with a colleague at the office and we were discussing finances and they mentioned to me about taking rent money immediately from their pay to be sure that was paid above all else. As I read this morning of honoring God, I was brought back to this discussion to apply the same principle to my giving to God.

“⁹Honor the Lord with you wealth and with the firstfruits of all you produce; ¹⁰then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine.” – Proverbs 3:9-10 (ESV)

How often do we find ourselves scrambling to cover a financial need in our lives because we have nothing left after “feeding” our desires? I know that I have gotten myself into that position and then wondering why I did not have enough to cover what needed to be covered.

God provides everything we need and it is up to us to give to Him first. Like my colleague, shouldn’t we take out God’s portion first?

Look to verse 10 above and follow along with me. The first thing I see is that the verse implies that we should give to God first so that He will give us more, and that makes sense as God will provide.

But, we have to look closer at our heart as we give. Are we giving for selfish gain; i.e. to get something more? We honor God by giving to Him first! What He gives us in return may or may not be simply stores of tangible items to fill the coffers. Remember the first miracle of Jesus, turning water into wine. The blessing that was poured out was timed perfectly. And what did Jesus do, the wine was better than what was served to begin.

We find ourselves in difficult positions when it comes to honoring God. As man, we know that we have needs and we have to do the work to meet those needs. We also have to remember that God will provide for those needs. When we honor God first, He will provide for our needs when the time is right, and when that time is right He will give back more than we could have expected.

Are you honoring God with your “firstfruits”? What about your heart, where is your heart in the giving process? Are you willingly and purposefully giving to God first?

Win the game, get pizza. Have award ceremony, get a great meal and give gifts. Have a wedding and the grand reception to honor the bride and groom.

“²⁹Why then to you scorn my sacrifices and my offerings that I commanded, and honor your sons above me by fattening yourselves on the choicest parts of every offering of my people Israel?” – 1 Samuel 2:29 (ESV)

Hold on, I want to be clear that celebration is not wrong. What I study here is that putting the celebration and honor of the event or people is wrong as we should be honoring God.

We should be looking at things from the context of how does this play out as we honor God. I know I have found myself in the position of not focusing on God and His will carried out in my life. Obedience to God and His commandments is where our focus should be.

“³⁰Therefore the Lord, the God of Israel, declares: ‘I promised that your house and the house of your father should go in and out before me forever,’ but now the Lord declares; ‘Far be it from me, for those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed.’” – 1 Samuel 2:30 (ESV)

God can rescind His promises just as He did to the house of Eli. Does He want to take away His promises, NO, but we are so disobedient at times, it is the discipline needed to get us back on the path to Him.

Our path is riddled with difficulty and adversity and joy and greatness. We have to be careful to honor God in all of those times and not just when it suits us.

Have you caught yourself honoring the event or the people when you should be honoring God? How can you turn that honor to God? Will you be careful to honor God instead of yourself as you move forward?

“³⁵…It is more blessed to give than receive” – Acts 20:35 (ESV)

Are we living it?

A verse that we probably have heard many times (probably attributed to monetary or tangible gifts). I want to discuss the giving of all as our reward is greater than the gift we give.

“¹²Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.” – Exodus 20:12 (ESV)

Notice the reward for giving honor to our parents? This verse, one of the Ten Commandments, is the only one of which that has, as my commentary puts it, a promise attached to it. When we are giving of what we have, we are given great reward.

Giving honor and respect go a long way to demonstrating Christ’s Love. And our reward, honor and respect for us as we grow older. Isn’t this the much greater reward for the work we have done?

God gave us commandments to follow him by, and it is our duty to do so. Giving of honor is one that may not come easy, but God has spelled out the great reward we reward we receive for obeying that commandment.

Do you have honor to give? Will you give honor and respect (it is free you know)? Are you prepared to give honor in order to receive?

I was asked recently by one of our pastors, “What do you think about God?” This question was more complicated for me that I ever thought would have been. The first thing I wrote down was “Difficult to understand”. My thoughts were around the idea that one day for me all is grand and then another moment I am encountering adversity. There is a sense of inconsistency that I get when I think this way and that drives my thinking around my attempt to “understand” God.

“¹Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. ²Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness.” – Psalm 29:1-2 (ESV)

Why do I make it “difficult to understand” God?

Ascribe: to refer to a supposed cause, source, or author: to say or think that (something) is caused by, comes from, or is associated with a particular person or thing – Merriam-Webster Online

Synonyms: accredit, attribute, chalk-up

This morning, God sent me what I needed to “understand”. When thinking about God, I should be ascribing to what He is. I should be accrediting, attributing, and chalking-up to Him “glory and strength”. I am making God “difficult to understand” by trying too hard.

When I simply stick to the basics of God, which is love, the complexity is taken out. My nature is to “understand” and sometimes I have a difficult time accepting without more information, especially when I believe something is too good to be true.

Well, Trevor, God is glory, love, truth, consistency, and truly easy to understand.

What do you think about God? Where are you looking to for the answer to that question? God equals glory, do you think that could be easy to understand?

We talk of glory and I have written to declare God’s glory, that we are crowned with glory, and the glory of the Lord gets our attention. We can do and are all of these things, but ultimately we give way to the King of glory.

“⁷Lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. ⁸Who is this King of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord, mighty in battle! ⁹Lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. ¹⁰Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory!” – Psalm 24:7-10 (ESV)

Our Lord is the King of glory! What a wonderful thing that is. He is not just some being that we look at or throw things at, he is “strong and mighty” and “mighty in battle” and “the Lord of hosts”.

Where are you in the search for the King of glory? Are you looking to our Lord and savior? Do you accept Him as our King of glory?

“¹The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. ²Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.” – Psalm 19:1-2 (ESV)

Well there you have it. The glory of God is declared all around us. From the heavens and in the day and night.

If seeing is believing, how can you not see that the universe was created by God? It has to be. The beauty of it all is awe inspiring. The complexity, yet detail is astounding. When viewed, we should be amazed and declare the glory of God.

Will you just take in the wonder of God’s creations? Will you accept the declaration of God’s glory? Will you declare His glory yourself?

This morning I am reminded of just how precious I am to God.

“³When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have se in place, ⁴what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? ⁵Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.” – Psalm 8:3-5 (ESV)

God created this world, the moon, the stars, and me. When He created me, He did so with glory. God made me, His representative on this earth.

Why would I doubt my place here? I have been given glory, and the key word there is “given”. I have not had to earn it, or sacrifice for it, God crowned me with His glory freely.

This glory does not come without responsibility, as we were given also the task of caring for the earth, which God also created. I should be conscientious with what responsibility I have and therefore look to please the Lord with all of my actions, and praise the Lord as the psalmist does in Psalm 8:1 & 9.

Are you aware of the crown of glory God has given? Are you grateful and responsible for God’s glory bestowed? Are you working to wear the crown of glory God gave to us?

How often do we really declare His glory?

“²³Sing to the Lord, all the earth! Tell of his salvation from day to day. ²⁴Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples!” – 1 Chronicles 16:23-24 (ESV)

David was always declaring the glory of the Lord. He was public with his praise. He was overt in his approach and did not hide his emotion.

Why am I not the same?

I am a different person than David of course, but shouldn’t my approach be similar. Look at the verses above and see the exclamation points. I can see the emotion in the words and can imagine the energy transfer as though at a concert with thousands of other people.

I should embrace the energy and emotion and use the same approach in my declarations of the glory of the Lord. Displaying my appreciation for our Lord and the glory He provides. And all of this done as often as possible. Even place time in my calendar to declare His glory.

I wonder, are you in a similar place that I am? Will you accept the energy and emotion from others? Will you work to find opportunities to declare His glory?

There is not much celebration when glory has disappeared. I have watched athletes compete after experiencing the loss of a loved one. They won the competition, and then wept for the loss, more that celebrating the victory.

“²¹And she named the child Ichabod, saying, ‘The glory has departed from Israel!’ because the ark of God has been capture and because of her father-in-law and her husband. ²²And she said, ‘The glory has departed from Israel, for the ark of God has been captured.” – 1 Samuel 4:21-22 (ESV)

As I have watched the athletes weep for the loss of a loved one, and compare that to the loss of the ark of God, there is no comparison. Look at the daughter-in-law of Eli as she is not even concerned at all with the birth of her son. The ark of God is so much more of a concern that the name she gives her son, Ichabod, according to my ESV commentary, means “where is the glory?”

What a perspective for us to view. Nothing is as glorious as the glory of the Lord. This world and all in it does not measure up to God. If that was noted before, why is it not noted today?

Where are we in our walk with Christ? Is the glory of the Lord as precious to us now as in Biblical Time? How much are we celebrating and is it worth it without the glory of the Lord?