Hosanna Restoration Church

When I was growing up, I always respected my father. I cannot say I always did exactly what he said when he was not near, so perhaps that in itself was disrespect when I think of it. One thing was for certain I did not risk it when he was present!

So when I think of respecting God, I am convicted. He is always present and if I doubt, fear, fail to trust, or any of a number of a long list, I most certainly could be found guilty of not respecting Him. Dear friends, we have these promises from God. So we should make ourselves pure-free from anything that makes our body or our soul unclean. Our respect for God should make us try to be completely holy in the way we live.(2 Corinthians 7:1 ERV) Hey, we are all works in progress; the question for me is “Am I working and am I making progress.” I know I have progressed, but I also know that there is a lot of room for improvement.

To be honest, I never really looked at it from the perspective of respecting God. No one likes to be disrespected. The truth is we often want to be respected even when we are way off the mark. Respect is something that is earned, and God has certainly earned our respect. The problem is that we get caught up in the idea that God knows our heart and we think that He thinks nobody is perfect! The truth is that He knows that He perfected us in Christ and gave us the power to keep it as we yield to the Holy Spirit. We disrespect Him even more, when we excuse our disrespect because we actually put the blame on Him. It is like saying that God is not getting His part done!

I want my prayers answered and if Jesus prayers were answered because of His great respect for God, then that is what I am going to do. With the help of the Holy Spirit I am going get this done. I will respect God with the respect that He deserves.

I expected respect from my children. I believe I have kept all of my promises. I am certain that they had the ability to remove a promise if they refused to respect my wishes. Knowing this, how could I expect God to honor me if I did not respect Him?

Since we have promises from God and we really like the promises He makes, it stands to reason that we should be able to work up the respect He deserves in order to receive those promises. As I have pondered this, I have discovered that we have a multitude of opportunities daily to respect God or disrespect God. I knew growing up what my dad expected and one look at his eyes would change my direction. Since my heavenly Father is always present, it would seem to me that the key to my fulfilling this desire would be to simply always look to Him. Lord, make us aware that you are always present and grant us the willing Spirit that will cause us to always show you true respect.