Monday, April 27, 2009

...across the room to honor Him....

The strength of a horse does not impress Him; how puny in His sight is the strength of man. Rather, the Lord's delight is in those who HONOR Him, those who put their hope in His unfailing love.  Ps. 147:10-11 NLT

WOW!  Did that verse ever catch my attention today!  Sooooo, how should I honor God?  I realized today that I have not been honoring God in a specific area of my life.  I finally realized that by holding on to a certain right I thought I had, I was really telling God that what He did in this situation was wrong.  If I really believe that He has absolute control over everything in heaven and on earth then I must let go of this belief, or "right" and acknowledge His sovereignty in this situation too.  Why is that so hard to do?  It means that suddenly this issue is not about me.  I relinquish my right to the feelings I want to feel because they feed something in me.  This "right" focuses on me instead of God.  And I give up any control over this situation that I've felt like I've had quite a bit of control over.  It means I will trust God in this situation to do whatever He wants to do.  Ouch!  This is rather bitter sweet!  On the one hand I want to stay in control (intellectually I'm quite aware that I control nothing really, other than my freedom to choose!) and yet to give over to God an area of your life you know you are trying to control is to be set free!  I know that when I wake up in the morning and think about this I will feel a great sense of relief and freedom knowing that this is all in God's hands...not mine!

"Forgive me Lord, and help me to honor and please You in everything I do." 


5 comments:

Jobina said...

Last night when I was trying to fall asleep I just had so much on my mind. I felt so tortured by it all and just couldn't sort through it. Then I prayed to God and just gave it all to Him and I had the beautiful visual of all my concerns in a box floating up into the sky (like it was filled with helium) and disappearing in the clouds. I felt so light after! Now I just have to remember this morning to keep doing that and not "borrow" my concerns back!

Anonymous said...

Elayne.....I love it! Thank you for sharing this new (but VERY old!) truth. "Honor" is a word that's not often part of our language ... probably because it's difficult to define. Wrapped up in "honor" are the words love, trust and obedience (all huge in themselves as well!).
Renita

Elayne said...

Yes Jobina, I think honoring means not taking back what you've given to Him because as Renita says, included in honoring is trust. When we give "it" up it means we have to trust Him with "it". Control freaks like me have some issues with that sometimes:)

Anonymous said...

I know a thing or two about control freakishness (I don't know if that's really a word but I like it so I'll keep it!). Glad that you were able to give up control Mom...I can relate to how hard it is to do that. I can also relate to how awesome it feels when you are able to really do it!

Love you!!!
Michele

Elayne said...

I have to say that from when I wrote that post I have experienced a sense of peace about this that overshadows all re-occuring bouts of control, anxiety and concern I may want to re-claim in my times of "weakness". It is truly a delicious place to be. Even when my mouth may say something contrary, my heart knows where I really stand...in the presence of my almighty God to whom I belong!!