Reverence

Reverence for our God

It started out as any day does in this crazy, loud, vibrant household. I did, surprisingly, rise early as I have been trying so very hard to do for weeks now, and spent much needed time in prayer. It didn’t take long though for the lions to wake and begin prowling around the house….and so the chaos began.

The fighting and the bickering between the kids started almost instantaneously. The quarreling over toys is like second nature to these beautiful children of ours and it makes me a very mean mommy. I pray so often for these moments to end, truly to not even begin. Our new rule in the house is if there is something that creates discontent within us, it must go—thus the toy must go. This new rule however does not create contentment within me when the anger they exhibit turns on me as the mom; when they so easily reply with a whining, crying “NO”.

My sweet two year old replies so very often with no and it made me see tonight that she in no way reveres me; she doesn’t place me in a place of high respect. At the moment that the toy is her focus, her blinders are on. She cannot see anything else.

I realized as the fire within me sparked this morning amongst the screaming toy ]mania that we often do this as His children. We often forget to place Him in the highest of high and give him the reverent respect that He so richly deserves.

Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you. ~ Hebrews 13:17

This is something that is taught, something that is learned, something that does not come naturally because of our very sinful nature. We must learn to have reverence for Him and place Him in the respectful position that He deserves. I do not mean to say that we must do anything in particular to be reverent to Him, simple respect and honor is all that we can do.

We are sinners, sinners who were separated from Him from the moment of our birth. We have been since Adam and Eve. But, once we are called out of the darkness and into the light, once we see that He isn’t just a make believe “puppet master” but the Almighty God of the Universe, giving Him the respect He deserves should truly be a focus of our life. Loving Him is easy, as is evident in our own children loving us. But, respecting Him, revering Him because of His glory and His honor, now that is a little harder.

But you know the beautiful thing….His grace is sufficient for even us wretched sinners. Even those of us who lived so long in the dark and are just now coming to the light, or the ones that have been walking with Him their whole life and have fallen as any human does, His grace is sufficient. He who started a good work in us shall finish that work in a mighty way.

“Being confident of this very thing, that He which has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” ~Philippians 1:6

And, we must remember this when we are struggling with our very own children. Those same children who are struggling with being respectful to us, those children who so easily and quickly say “no” are US. We say no to Him each and every day. When we put our Bible down to watch tv, when we snap at our husband because the trash needs to be taken out, when we teach our child the lyrics to a popular worldly song as opposed to a hymn or scripture—each of these is our “no” to Him and we must not do these. We must love Him, respect what He calls of us and we must obey.

We can be thankful at every moment for His grace when we fail, and we most certainly will fail, but that should not negate our effort. We must press on for the goal which his ahead.

“Press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” ~Philippians 3:14