Honoring the One Most Deserving

The Bible tells us to "ascribe" to the Lord various components of His nature, and in Psalm 29 we see some of His attributes which we can honor: 1 Ascribe to the LORD, O mighty ones, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength. 2 Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness. 3 The voice of the LORD is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the LORD thunders over the mighty waters...  10 The LORD sits enthroned over the flood; the LORD is enthroned as King forever. 11 The LORD gives strength to his people; the LORD blesses his people with peace.  We honor the Lord because of who He is - His nature and character; He is full of glory and majesty and He is love, full of lovingkindness toward us.   He is totally faithful, and we can trust Him with our very lives because He knows what is best for us.  And, we honor Him because of His deeds - because of who He is, He does marvelous things, and we can single those out and give Him the glory.   1st Corinthians 6 reminds us that since we belong to God and are the temple of His Spirit, we are called to honor Him:19 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.  Yesterday in Washington, President Obama presented 13 recipients with the Presidential Medal of Honor, which is designed to be given to those who have made major contributions to the security of the UnitedUnited States, or world peace, or culture or who have undertaken “other significant public or private endeavors.”  It's the nation's highest civilian honor.
  Some of the award winners were, as you might say, a "slam dunk".  How about John Glenn, the first American to orbit the earth?   Check.   There's long-time Tennessee women's basketball coach Pat Summitt.  Check.  And, former Secretary of State Madeline Albright and former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens - yes, politically and ideologically aligned with the President, but still worthy recipients.  You have others that may be lesser known or who you might not think of - such as Delores Huerta, who founded the United Farm Workers and is an honorary chair of the Democratic Socialists of America.   There's Girl Scouts founder Juliette Low - what took so long?  Then, you have novelist Toni Morrison, former Department of Justice civil rights lawyer John Doar, epidemiologist William Foege, Gordon Hirabayashi, who fought against the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II; Jan Karski, an officer in the Polish Underground in the war; and Israeli President Shimon Peres, who didn't attend yesterday's ceremony, but will receive his award later this year.    And, there is the prolific and even prophetic singer-songwriter Bob Dylan.

I began to think about honoring God and how we do that.   Just as these recipients, I believe, to a certain extent, had something in their nature or identity that propelled them to create, to achieve, and to excel.   We honor Him because of WHO He is AND for His achievements - what He has done in our lives.  

I believe we do this by our verbal recognition, as we come before Him, we enter His courts with praise.   And, we also honor Him in the way we live our lives.   If we are children of the King and we love and are devoted to Him, then our lives will reflect that we are serving Him.   As we recognize that our bodies are the temple, the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, then we honor God by surrendering to His Spirit and allowing Him to give us life.   We seek to allow the desires of the Lord to become our own, so that we are One with Him.   And, where the Spirit of the Lord is in complete control, we experience true freedom from the power of sin.   He is worthy and deserving of all of our praise!