Day 161: How Can We Honor God?

Today’s Scripture: 1 Kings 5:1-6:38

Central Thought: We honor God when we give Him our thinking, our personalities, our time, our talents, our money, and our lives.

Honor seems to be a word for another time, another culture. God blessed Solomon with riches and honor. In a sermon about honor, my pastor, Jack Groblewski, defined honor as a way to make someone more conspicuous by actively recognizing their value and worth, usually by giving them something.

What do we learn about honor when we look at Solomon’s actions as king? After Solomon succeeded his father King David, he immediately set about to honor his father and the Lord by building the temple. He honored his father’s wishes and used his father’s plans for the temple. Solomon honored his father’s past relationships by hiring and trading with Hiram, king of Tyre, to secure the wood. Solomon honored Hiram in the manner in which he made his request for help: ‘You know that there is no one among us who knows how to cut timber like the Sidonians” (1 Kings 5:6).

Solomon gave honor and received it, even in the way he treated the hired help. The Bible says that Solomon used his laborers in such a way as to honor their worth by giving them time off. It says he sent them off to Lebanon in shifts of ten thousand a month, so that they spent one month in Lebanon and two months at home.

Are there lessons here? How can we honor God? We honor God by worshipping Him for providing our salvation, but we also honor God when we give him what already His. We honor God when we give Him our thinking, our personalities, our time, our talents, our money, and our lives. Solomon knew that honoring God meant sacrificially giving God what belonged to Him. In giving Jesus to the world, God rendered unto us the ultimate honor. We have but to acknowledge the gift and give it back to the world.

Devotional prayer: Dear Lord, help us to honor You and give You the first fruits of every day. Help us to commit our time to You and seek Your direction each day. Keep our motives pure and help us to remember that a way that seems right to a man may not be Your way. Help us to rightly honor You with all You have given us: our personalities, our time, our money, our talents, and our lives.

Today’s Bible Reading: 1 Kings 5:1-6:38; Acts 7:1-29; Psalm 127:1-5; Proverbs 16:28-30