Honor You, Lord
By Shirley Mitchell
“Jesus said to them, ‘Only in his hometown, among his relatives and in his own house is a prophet without honor.’ He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. And he was amazed at their lack of faith.”
Mark 6:4-6
I couldn’t believe that it had happened. I held myself together, escaped to my office, and closed the door. Then, I let my emotions spill out to God. I told God how angry I was that my co-worker had acted that way to me and felt that way about my God! He was my friend. We had worked on programs for many years. We had talked about the Lord countless times. Yet, it was he who heckled me about my beliefs in the Word of God and the election. He was not a non-Christian but someone I trusted and conversed with many times about God. He asked me, and I stated my beliefs about God’s Word regarding our country. He did not share the same beliefs and thought the morals of the Bible did not pertain to the presidency. I was shocked. He laughed in my face at my beliefs. I remained kind in front of him and told him that I didn’t want to argue with him. Then, we separated for lunch and behind my office door, I had a talk with God. I knew I handled the situation correctly, but I hurt for our friendship, and I hurt for God.
Later that night at choir practice, we sang these lyrics to a song, “And I’ve got to give Him glory,” and then we paused and belted out, “honor,” paused again and then sang “praise all the days of my life.” Then, Father God spoke to me loud and clear, “Shirley, today you honored Me. You lived this part of the song. You love Me so much that you had to honor Me today even though it was difficult for you.”
God then reminded me about something that my husband has been teaching me. Mark 6 tells us this story about Jesus’ lack of acceptance in His hometown. Jesus said He was a prophet without honor because the people did not accept Him. Scripture says that He could not do any miracles there, except lay His hands on a few sick people and heal them. He was amazed at their lack of faith. They didn’t honor Him. He was limited in the miracles that He could do. The people withheld honor, and only small miracles were done. Now, Jesus always had full authority and the power of the Holy Spirit in Him. However, He was restrained in performing more miracles because the people did not honor Him. They did not see Him as their long awaited Messiah. They didn’t see Him as their precious King of Israel that so many of their fathers had prayed to see. They didn’t esteem Him. They treated Him as a common man. He was the most uncommon person who has ever lived!
When we honor God like the Roman Centurion honored Jesus and told Him that all Jesus had to do was say the word and his servant would be healed, then God is released to honor us. The Centurion received the highest accolade from the Son of God who was amazed at his faith, and his servant was healed. Jesus was released to honor him. 1 Samuel 2:30 says, “Those who honor me I will honor.” Honoring Him allows Him to release the power of God and His Spirit in our lives.
God said to me that because I honored Him that day that He would be able to release something in my life. Now I don’t know what it is, but anytime God wants to release one of His blessings in my life, have at it! Yes, Lord, release all Your blessings. Likewise, when a country honors God, then we have placed ourselves in a position for Him to release His blessings upon us. When a country dishonors God, then we have restrained the Holy Spirit. This could explain why other countries around the world are seeing more miracles of healing and resurrection than we see in America. We are not honoring God.
Beloved, how I pray that you and I will become increasingly a people who honor God. We don’t want to be like the people of Isaiah 29:13, “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” We want our hearts to be close to God and spill forth honor to Him in every area of our lives. Let’s be a people who show how valuable our God is. He is worthy!
Pray with me: Almighty God, we honor You. We esteem You. You are the most precious part of all of life. You are life itself. We don’t want to be a people who restrain You. We want You to be able to release Your power and the Holy Spirit to have full freedom in our lives. Show us how to demonstrate honor to You in our spheres of influence. Raise up believers who honor You even when it is difficult. May Your bride honor You. May our country honor You. You are uncommon. Never let us treat You as a god made in our image. There is no God like You! Hallelujah! Praise You, Father! It’s in the Name above all names, in Jesus’ Name, Yeshua’s Name, I pray. Amen.