Monday
Reverence
Read Proverbs 22:4; 15:32, Isaiah 11:2-3
Seed Thought: The Bible tells us that the fear of the Lord brings honor. One of the Spiritual attributes of Jesus was the fear of the Lord. This is not being afraid of God but a living in awe of whom and what He is. If we don’t’ have a reverence for something we cannot honor it in our life. A Reverence of God should mark our life. If we don’t have reverence for God and His law then it is useless to us. We cannot benefit from it and they do not have a positive effect in our lives. If we don’t honor the awesomeness of God then everything becomes common and valueless to us. We need to honor God by being in awe of whom and what He is in our world and our life. It is the foundation of our walk with Him and the cornerstone of a society. We have lost our foundation in this nation. We need to come back to an awe of the creator of the universe. The Creator of the Universe is Almighty and awesome. Scripture says that Our Lord's blessings, goodness and even forgiveness are also reasons to "fear" Him! God's wonderful love and goodness should inspire awe and worship in our hearts. Such reverence does not conflict with an intimate communion with God, but it does conflict with flippancy, which is disrespectful. God is exalted above creation, yet "in Him we live and move and have our being". He knows us completely, loves us infinitely and is with us always. God's Majesty does not keep us from Him because He willingly humbles Himself to fellowship with us. His holiness does not bar us from His Presence because we have become the righteousness of God in Jesus. His attributes such as Power, Majesty, Justice, and Holiness should inspire awe and reverence in His creatures.
Action Plan: Ask yourself what type of fear do you have when you view God, is reverential fear, which acknowledges all of the awesome attributes of God or is it a fear of a frightful mean God, which is not Gods nature? If it is the latter ask the Holy Spirit to open the eyes of your heart to the loving, gentle, merciful God that He is. Spend time today in worship.
Declaration: My God is a loving and gentle God, He wants the best for me.
Tuesday
Righteousness
Read Proverbs 21:21; Romans 12:9-10
Righteous is what God is, and all of His acts are righteous because they have their source in His continuous righteous character. That God is immutably holy is what assures us that His actions are always absolutely correct and upright. If God acts in a certain way, then we can know with certainty that this particular action is a righteous one simply because it is what God did, for any thought or action that come from our God comes from the one-and-only morally perfect being, which exists Himself as the perfect standard of righteousness. Honor comes when we have and live up to the standards of God in our life. If we have no code of honor then we can’t measure honor. We are considered honorable when we have a God standard and we walk in such a way so others recognize that standard in our life. Right living brings honor to God, honor to the church and honor to us.
Action Plan: Do you live by a code of honor? List the ways or things you do that exemplify honor and righteousness that is considered God Standard.
Declaration: With Jesus as my example I will live an honorable life that is pleasing to my Heavenly Father.
Wednesday
Respect
Read 1 Peter 2:17
Respect denotes both a positive feeling of esteem for a person or other entity (such as a nation or a religion), and also specific actions and conduct representative of that esteem. Respect can be a specific feeling of regard for the actual qualities of the one respected.
One of the foundational things missing in our society is respect. People don’t give it, receive it or value it but it is the one of the things we need most in our homes, churches, schools and government. If we don’t have respect for people or boundaries then we live in the mist of chaos. It used to be that respect is one of the things we believed in and taught but it has gone by the wayside of individual rights but without respect we lose our rights. Without respect we have no honor and without honor we can have no self-respect and without self-respect we have no honor or respect for others.
Action Plan: What does respect mean to you? How do you show respect to others? Remind someone that you esteem and respect today what they have meant to you.
Declaration: I will treat everyone I meet with dignity and respect, I will love my spiritual family, revere God, and pray for my country.
Thursday
Responsibility
Read 1 Corinthians 6:19-20
Without being and expecting responsibility we have no measuring line for honor. When we take responsibility for our relationship with God and what is required of us in life we have no honor. We are called to give honor by being and taking responsibility. If you want to be honored then take responsibility. Responsibility starts with being responsible for us. Many times we want to do what we do with no concern for others or the effect that it has on our family, our friends, neighbors, even in our government our leaders are concerned for themselves. It is time that we realize that if we want things to change, the change begins with us! It begins with a heart change; it begins with our accepting responsibility for who we are and what we have done. We cannot expect others to be responsible when we are being irresponsible. Our country is plagued with children and teens that have no reverence, no respect, no righteousness, few healthy relationships and no responsibility, but the problem is not with them, but with adults. How do they know what each of these are if they are taught? In many, many regards the adults around children and teens show no reverence, no respect, no righteousness, no healthy relationships and no responsibilities. As parents, teachers, leaders, government leaders it is our responsibility to teach our children and teen’s responsibility. When we are responsible our children learn to be responsible.
Action Plan: Do you take responsibility for your actions? Are there some things you have hidden or even covered up that you need to take responsibility for? Ask God to show and to show you how to resolve the issue.
Declaration: Through God I have strength to be responsible for my actions and live an honorable life.
Friday
Relationship
Read 1 Corinthians 16:15-18; 1Timothy 5:17-19; John 5:41-44
We honor God with our living, giving and serving. We honor God by honoring those who serve God and by giving them proper recognition. One of the key ways God has shown me to look for those who are to be our leaders is by judging people in the light of (1 Corinthians 16:15-18) Paul says men like this deserve honor and to be recognized as our leaders. One of the things I see in the lives of people in the church when it comes to honoring Godly leaders is that they judge them by their own standards, knowledge, and expectations for those leaders. What happens is you are judging them from your test paper, but, it is not your test they are taking it is God’s. They have not been called to do what you want but what He wants. We have to realize we don’t know everything, it is not our requirements they are trying to meet and that they are not called to live up to our expectations but to His. We need to give honor to the men and women of God who serve God and us. If we do not honor them we can’t benefit from them. Some of the greatest men and women of God I have known have been misunderstood by those they have tried to serve. They did not receive honor from many that they served but they sought the honor of the one who really counts. Remember this when you are serving people and they don’t appreciate it. It’s God’s honor and the relationship that they have with Him that counts.
Action Plan: Are you living, giving and serving in the Kingdom? List some the ways that you are doing this. What are other ways that you can do this? Do you honor the men and women who serve God?
Declaration: I will honor the men and women of God and God will honor me!
The Weekender
Looking Back
Today is the day that we take time to look back on what we have learned this past week. To reflect on what the Holy Spirit has highlighted in our lives and how we can implement the changes needed in our lives to be fully all we can be.
Father, we ask that you bring back remembrance of changes and what we need to do to change in our life to be fully who and what you have purposed us to be in your kingdom, Father thank you for being at work in our lives, in Jesus’ name, Amen
Take a few moments and Journal what the Father is speaking to you:
September 12, 2011
The Daily Compass August 29- September 3, 2011
Monday
What Is Honor?
Read Isaiah 3:5; Romans 13:7; Philippians 2:3
Seed Thought: According to the thesaurus, honor has these synonyms: "esteem, respect, pay homage to, assigning value to." The Greek word translated "honor" in our English Bibles, timao, means "to prize, i.e. fix a valuation upon; by implication, to revere" (Strong's Concordance). Showing honor means treating another respectfully because we value them highly.
We live in a culture and age of dishonor. This is a time when political cartoons and editorials routinely lampoon our leaders. Turn on the radio, T.V., Internet—or maybe we should not!—and we find them filled with talk shows from all political stripes. Their theme seems to be discussing whose reputation they wish to destroy today. Their cruelty and bitterness soon infects even our attitude. Even conservative talk-show hosts are not God's messengers, but reflect the thinking of a segment of this world. Even children's cartoons often reflect Satan's anger, his fighting, and his insulting of any and all around. If we are not careful, we can begin to think and talk the same dishonoring way. Nobody is safe from attack or being dishonored. Not the presidency, not members of congress, not school teachers or law enforcement officers. This is an irreverent and disrespectful age. It is time to see what God says about honoring others—something very different from what the world teaches us.
So is honor due anyone? Should we put value on any man or woman, or should we honor God alone? What does the Bible say? A study with a concordance reveals just how much God has to say about honoring others. He does not limit it to honoring our parents. There are scriptures after scriptures that speak of honoring each other. To honor others we must have an attitude of meekness. Truthfully without it we will never sincerely, respect, prize, value and honor anyone until we do.
Action Plan: Define the word meekness, think about it and then ask yourself this, Does your attitude reflect meekness? If your attitude doesn’t; then ask the Holy Spirit to show you, how to change that aspect about yourself.
Tuesday
Honoring God
Read Luke 6:45, 46; Matthew 15:7-9
Seed Thought: God desires far more than lip service. He wants a relationship with us that stems from the heart. Jesus tells us, "A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil, For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks"[Luke 6:45]. In the end, it is not enough just to avoid misusing God's name. God wants us to love and respect Him. Honoring Him begins in our thoughts. We must know who and what He is. We must know what He requires of us and why. We should admire His wisdom, love, fairness and justice. We need to stand in awe of His power and recognize that our existence depends on His goodness. Then we should talk to Him in prayer- every day. He wants to hear from us. We should follow the admonitions in the Psalms to give Him thanks and praise Him. Openly expressing our appreciation for all that He gives us. We should acknowledge His greatness. We should ask Him to create in us His way of thinking and character. We should request the power of His Spirit to enable us to wholeheartedly obey and serve Him. We honor God most of all by loving Him so much that we desire above all things to be like Him and to accurately represent Him to everyone who sees or knows us.
Action Plan: What flows from your heart? Listen to the words that flow from inside you if they are not wholesome and uplifting ask God to give you the mind of Christ.
Wednesday
How Do We Honor God?
Read each scripture with each step for honoring God
Seed Thought:
1. Honor God in church.
We value honoring God even above our relationships.
2. Honor God in the Family. Ephesians 5:25-26.
3. Honor God in work. Colossians 3:23.
4. Honor God in our finances/wealth. Proverbs 3:9.
We honor God with our wealth through giving and in stewardship. Proverbs 13:22.
5. Honor God by honoring our parents. Exodus 20:12.
WE HONOR GOD IN EVERYTHING WE DO.
We are all called by God to honor him. He is pleased when our only desire is to honor Him.
Action Plan: You just finished reading ways that we honor God “Were there some ways mentioned that you do not honor God? List other ways besides the list above that you can honor God!
Thursday
Do You Make God Smile?
Read Matthew 22:37-40; Psalm 145:3; Psalm 99:5; Matthew 15:8; Malachi 2:2
Seed Thought: Values dictate our behavior. Every family has a set of values they live by. Every church has their own set of values. Where do we get these values? Why do we honor God? We honor God because He is worthy! What does it mean to honor God? God first loved us, we should practice love and tolerance to one another, when we do this it reflects God’s love for us. To honor God is more than just a lip service; it is more than just coming to church and doing religious routines. Honoring God is a heart issue in other words it is out of a deep reverence and love for God. It is when you serve with a sincere heart, that it honors God. When we honor God it makes Him smile. Why do you want to make God smile? It’s the same way you want to make your Dad smile. You want to make him smile because he loves you and cares for you, so you want to reciprocate that love in some way. When that reciprocation is successfully carried out, a smile is usually the easiest, most recognizable way to know that it is a success. To make God smile, it is the same. We want to honor God because God loves us, and we want to reciprocate that love in a way that we are good at, and in a way that will make God smile.
Action Plan: As you go about your day today, stop and think. Did what I say to my classmate/friend/neighbor just now please God, or not? Did it put a smile on His face? What can I do today to make God smile?
Friday
Honoring Our Brothers And Sisters
Read Malachi 1:6; Mark 6:4-6; Matthew 15:4-9; 1Timothy 5:17-18; Ephesians 6:3
Seed Thought: There may be as many reasons to honor special people, as there are people to honor. Yet, have you ever wondered why we honor people in the first place? Why do we pause every so often to acknowledge and honor special efforts by special people with an appreciation award or milestones in people's lives? After all, life would go on without special occasions. We'd still get up in the morning, go to work, care for our kids; they’d go to school, grow up, get their own jobs and maybe have a family of their own. Life does its thing. Perhaps we honor people with recognition programs because, sooner or later, we realize that we don't know how much time we've got here and every day becomes a little more precious. So too, the people we admire become a more appreciated. We honor those we respect, those that have been a huge presence in our lives. We honor those that have spoken words of encouragement, instruction and correction. We honor an individual for sacrificing the time and personal glory for the good of others. Romans 12:10 (The Message) says “Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle”. Here is a competition where we can rightly fight for first place in line: in honoring one another. Not just tolerating one another, but honoring one another.
Action Plan: Spend time today reflecting on your life and those who have made a difference in your life, if you can make an effort to call or see them to tell them how they impacted your life and honor them.
The Weekender
Looking Back
Today is the day that we take time to look back on what we have learned this past week. To reflect on what the Holy Spirit has highlighted in our lives and how we can implement the changes needed in our lives to be fully all we can be.
Father, we ask that you bring back remembrance of changes and what we need to do to change in our life to be fully who and what you have purposed us to be in your kingdom, Father thank you for being at work in our lives, in Jesus’ name, Amen
Take a few moments and Journal what the Father is speaking to you:
What Is Honor?
Read Isaiah 3:5; Romans 13:7; Philippians 2:3
Seed Thought: According to the thesaurus, honor has these synonyms: "esteem, respect, pay homage to, assigning value to." The Greek word translated "honor" in our English Bibles, timao, means "to prize, i.e. fix a valuation upon; by implication, to revere" (Strong's Concordance). Showing honor means treating another respectfully because we value them highly.
We live in a culture and age of dishonor. This is a time when political cartoons and editorials routinely lampoon our leaders. Turn on the radio, T.V., Internet—or maybe we should not!—and we find them filled with talk shows from all political stripes. Their theme seems to be discussing whose reputation they wish to destroy today. Their cruelty and bitterness soon infects even our attitude. Even conservative talk-show hosts are not God's messengers, but reflect the thinking of a segment of this world. Even children's cartoons often reflect Satan's anger, his fighting, and his insulting of any and all around. If we are not careful, we can begin to think and talk the same dishonoring way. Nobody is safe from attack or being dishonored. Not the presidency, not members of congress, not school teachers or law enforcement officers. This is an irreverent and disrespectful age. It is time to see what God says about honoring others—something very different from what the world teaches us.
So is honor due anyone? Should we put value on any man or woman, or should we honor God alone? What does the Bible say? A study with a concordance reveals just how much God has to say about honoring others. He does not limit it to honoring our parents. There are scriptures after scriptures that speak of honoring each other. To honor others we must have an attitude of meekness. Truthfully without it we will never sincerely, respect, prize, value and honor anyone until we do.
Action Plan: Define the word meekness, think about it and then ask yourself this, Does your attitude reflect meekness? If your attitude doesn’t; then ask the Holy Spirit to show you, how to change that aspect about yourself.
Tuesday
Honoring God
Read Luke 6:45, 46; Matthew 15:7-9
Seed Thought: God desires far more than lip service. He wants a relationship with us that stems from the heart. Jesus tells us, "A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil, For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks"[Luke 6:45]. In the end, it is not enough just to avoid misusing God's name. God wants us to love and respect Him. Honoring Him begins in our thoughts. We must know who and what He is. We must know what He requires of us and why. We should admire His wisdom, love, fairness and justice. We need to stand in awe of His power and recognize that our existence depends on His goodness. Then we should talk to Him in prayer- every day. He wants to hear from us. We should follow the admonitions in the Psalms to give Him thanks and praise Him. Openly expressing our appreciation for all that He gives us. We should acknowledge His greatness. We should ask Him to create in us His way of thinking and character. We should request the power of His Spirit to enable us to wholeheartedly obey and serve Him. We honor God most of all by loving Him so much that we desire above all things to be like Him and to accurately represent Him to everyone who sees or knows us.
Action Plan: What flows from your heart? Listen to the words that flow from inside you if they are not wholesome and uplifting ask God to give you the mind of Christ.
Wednesday
How Do We Honor God?
Read each scripture with each step for honoring God
Seed Thought:
1. Honor God in church.
We value honoring God even above our relationships.
2. Honor God in the Family. Ephesians 5:25-26.
3. Honor God in work. Colossians 3:23.
4. Honor God in our finances/wealth. Proverbs 3:9.
We honor God with our wealth through giving and in stewardship. Proverbs 13:22.
5. Honor God by honoring our parents. Exodus 20:12.
WE HONOR GOD IN EVERYTHING WE DO.
We are all called by God to honor him. He is pleased when our only desire is to honor Him.
Action Plan: You just finished reading ways that we honor God “Were there some ways mentioned that you do not honor God? List other ways besides the list above that you can honor God!
Thursday
Do You Make God Smile?
Read Matthew 22:37-40; Psalm 145:3; Psalm 99:5; Matthew 15:8; Malachi 2:2
Seed Thought: Values dictate our behavior. Every family has a set of values they live by. Every church has their own set of values. Where do we get these values? Why do we honor God? We honor God because He is worthy! What does it mean to honor God? God first loved us, we should practice love and tolerance to one another, when we do this it reflects God’s love for us. To honor God is more than just a lip service; it is more than just coming to church and doing religious routines. Honoring God is a heart issue in other words it is out of a deep reverence and love for God. It is when you serve with a sincere heart, that it honors God. When we honor God it makes Him smile. Why do you want to make God smile? It’s the same way you want to make your Dad smile. You want to make him smile because he loves you and cares for you, so you want to reciprocate that love in some way. When that reciprocation is successfully carried out, a smile is usually the easiest, most recognizable way to know that it is a success. To make God smile, it is the same. We want to honor God because God loves us, and we want to reciprocate that love in a way that we are good at, and in a way that will make God smile.
Action Plan: As you go about your day today, stop and think. Did what I say to my classmate/friend/neighbor just now please God, or not? Did it put a smile on His face? What can I do today to make God smile?
Friday
Honoring Our Brothers And Sisters
Read Malachi 1:6; Mark 6:4-6; Matthew 15:4-9; 1Timothy 5:17-18; Ephesians 6:3
Seed Thought: There may be as many reasons to honor special people, as there are people to honor. Yet, have you ever wondered why we honor people in the first place? Why do we pause every so often to acknowledge and honor special efforts by special people with an appreciation award or milestones in people's lives? After all, life would go on without special occasions. We'd still get up in the morning, go to work, care for our kids; they’d go to school, grow up, get their own jobs and maybe have a family of their own. Life does its thing. Perhaps we honor people with recognition programs because, sooner or later, we realize that we don't know how much time we've got here and every day becomes a little more precious. So too, the people we admire become a more appreciated. We honor those we respect, those that have been a huge presence in our lives. We honor those that have spoken words of encouragement, instruction and correction. We honor an individual for sacrificing the time and personal glory for the good of others. Romans 12:10 (The Message) says “Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle”. Here is a competition where we can rightly fight for first place in line: in honoring one another. Not just tolerating one another, but honoring one another.
Action Plan: Spend time today reflecting on your life and those who have made a difference in your life, if you can make an effort to call or see them to tell them how they impacted your life and honor them.
The Weekender
Looking Back
Today is the day that we take time to look back on what we have learned this past week. To reflect on what the Holy Spirit has highlighted in our lives and how we can implement the changes needed in our lives to be fully all we can be.
Father, we ask that you bring back remembrance of changes and what we need to do to change in our life to be fully who and what you have purposed us to be in your kingdom, Father thank you for being at work in our lives, in Jesus’ name, Amen
Take a few moments and Journal what the Father is speaking to you:
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