You Are Here > Home / Devotionals / Honor

Honor

Bill Buckley's picture

By Bill Buckley

Posted
September 22, 2013

Ready: 

“I will honor those who honor Me, but those who despise Me will be disgraced.”–1 Samuel 2:30c
 

Set: 

After 22 years of playing and coaching football, I won a championship ring while serving as team chaplain for the Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College football team. Under the leadership of Steve Campbell, that team finished number one in the national JUCO poll. They possessed a rare quality—honor. After every victory we gave God the glory. All year we honored our coaches, one another, our teachers, and parents. We made mistakes, but always came back to honor.

To honor someone is to count them as highly valuable and precious—extraordinary. Honor demands careful attention. Honor and respect are not the same. Respect is good but can be a surface thing. One can say, “Yes sir” and “no sir” out of respect, but never value the person. If I honor my coach, I must highly value and give careful attention to what he says. Honor cannot be faked. It must come from the heart. Sin comes from not honoring God. When I count Him and His Word as extraordinary in value, I will have the heart to obey His commands.

God set up an authority structure to accomplish His purposes. I honor God by honoring my parents, coaches, church leaders, and teammates. If I truly honor God and obey Him, He will open His supernatural resources to me. When we dishonor God we restrain Him from working in our lives.

Honoring God does not guarantee wins but does guarantee God’s best. I love His promise in Malachi 3:10: “Bring the full 10 percent into the storehouse so that there may be food in My house. Test Me in this way,” says the Lord of Hosts. “See if I will not open the floodgates of heaven and pour out a blessing for you without measure.” When we honor God, we can be sure of honor’s reward.
 

Go: 

1. To whom do you show honor?
2. In what ways do you show honor to God?
 

Workout: 

Matthew 10:40-42; Ephesians 6:1-3; Hebrews 13:17
 

Overtime: 

Lord, in victory or in defeat, I choose to honor You. You are my victory and hope. Let all I do be honoring to You. Amen.

About the Author:

Bill Buckley was an All-SEC and All-American wide receiver at Mississippi State University and was drafted by the New York Jets. He coached high school football for 10 years. He and his wife Mary are campus directors for FCA at Mississippi College in Clinton, Mississippi.