LIVING WORD DEVOTIONAL
By Pastor Mensa Otabil
Saturday 21st May 2022
LIVE HONOURABLY
Scripture Reading: Psalm 15
In whose eyes a vile person is despised, But he honors those who fear the Lord; He who swears to his own hurt and does not change; Psalm 15:4
To experience God’s presence at all times, we must align our actions with God’s expectations. When our ways please the Lord, we sense His presence in our lives. When our ways conflict with His ways, we sense a distance in our relationship with the Lord.
David tells us two more things to do in order to enjoy God’s presence.
• Honour what God honours. Many believers disqualify themselves from living in close fellowship with God because they admire, or at least excuse the behavior of ungodly people. Many times, the people we look up to and often seek to emulate are people who are openly wicked.
In our current celebrity culture, many of us are fans of people who live in open rebellion against God. Some of the sports figures and celebrities that we idolize flaunt their sinfulness and perversions proudly in the media.
As believers in Christ, we must honour people and things that honour God. We should not honour a vile person. The scriptures urge us, to despise the behaviour that are evil before the Lord. If we wish to live in God’s presence, we should neither admire the wicked nor associate with them.
*• Honour your words.* God takes His words seriously. He made all things by His word. The second person in the Trinity is called the ‘Word of God’. Because of that God takes our words seriously. He judges or justifies us by the words we speak.
As flawed human beings, what are we to do when we sometimes make thoughtless or rash agreements, agreements that are more difficult to keep than we originally anticipated? If we want to honour God, our word should be our bond. That means we will keep our promises even if it inconveniences us.
The Lord expects us to keep our word – to Him, ourselves, our spouses, children or friends. However, there can be times when dire circumstances force us to break our word. In such situations, we have to be totally honest and upfront about the facts involved. We never have a license to lie.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, help me to live in honour before you; to hate what you hate, and love what you love. In Jesus’ name, Amen.