THE GOD OF ALL HONOR, GLORY, AND PRAISE

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Lord our God, other lords besides You have ruled over us, but Your name alone do we honor. They are now dead, they live no more; their spirits do not rise. You punished them and brought them to ruin; You wiped out all memory of them. You have enlarged the nation, Lord; You have enlarged the nation. You have gained glory for Yourself; You have extended all the borders of the land.

Isaiah 26:13-15

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Question: Who do you give your honor, glory, and praise to?

Do you pay homage to yourself, to all you are and all you’ve done?

Do you give the majority of credit to other people, people who have helped you or maybe people you have come to idolize?

It’s easy to get caught up in giving our fullest respect and admiration to the wrong places, if we’re not careful. Anyone can fall into the trap, even those who profess to be followers of Jesus Christ (aka Christians).

How can you be sure that you are misdirecting your honor, glory, and praise to the wrong places?

The answer is actually very simple.

For if the answer to your question is to anyone outside of the Lord God Almighty, then your adoration is misdirected. He and He alone is to be the object of all our honor, glory, and praise. Period. There are no exceptions to this rule.

I say this because everything originates with the Lord. He provides us the gifts, talents, and opportunities that we in turn convert into praiseworthy accomplishments. If it weren’t first for the Lord ordaining those moments, then there would be no occurrence of anything commendable.

The song of the righteous which will be sung at the time when Jesus returns, affirms the attitude all people are to have toward the Lord, granting Him the prestige and tribute that He deserves. Look again at these words from that song:

Lord our God, other lords besides You have ruled over us, but Your name alone do we honor. They are now dead, they live no more; their spirits do not rise. You punished them and brought them to ruin; You wiped out all memory of them. You have enlarged the nation, Lord; You have enlarged the nation. You have gained glory for Yourself; You have extended all the borders of the land. vv. 13-15

Note here that the righteous acknowledge times when other lords ruled over them. They had been subject to captivity by nations who worshipped false gods and idols. They had also allowed themselves to lapse in their faith toward God and sinned by falling into false worship practices, lapses that brought God’s judgment on them. They had failed at times to give the Lord God Almighty the honor, glory, and praise He deserved so He took matters into His hands, bringing all false gods and idols to ruin to show His people that there was only one true God. The end result was that the people of God honored His name and His name alone.

Today, I’m afraid we too have fallen aside in many ways from giving the Lord God Almighty all of our honor, glory, and praise. Perhaps that’s why our world is in the state it’s in. We’re glorifying all the wrong things and as a result, we’re not experiencing the richness of the Lord’s favor and blessing. Worship the idols of life like money or sex or success or any other multitude of vices life offers us to fall into, and you will quickly find yourself slipping down the slippery slope of failure and dissatisfaction in life and the object of your praise and attention is in all the wrong places.

Friends, as we enter this new year, these verses from Isaiah, Chapter 26 are timely as we need to be focused on the right things if we have any hope of having a year that will be blessed. To that end, let’s all commit today, tomorrow, and forever, to give the Lord God Almighty, the Maker and Creator of all things, our fullest honor, praise, and glory for He and He alone is worthy of receiving it.  

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.

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