CWW Week 16 - Day 5 - God In The Family
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Joshua 24:15
‘As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.’
Devotional.
We continue today to unpack the Resolution commitment with the eleventh
principle of manhood.
“I WILL seek to honour God, be faithful to His church, obey His Word,
and do His will.”
As we enter a new phase here, we need to apply this principle to our own
unique circumstances.
How do we honour God?
Think of someone you look up to in life. Perhaps your Dad or an uncle or
friend. The first thing we notice is a desire to spend as much time with that
person as possible. We long to be with them. As we do this we find that we
start to emulate them; adopting their character traits. We just want to be
like them.
We read everything that they have ever written and hang on their every
word. This is a clear indication that we honour them.
The next phase of honouring is respect and revere. We hold them in
reverence. We don’t want to offend them because we don’t want to lose
our relationship with them or have them see it as un-important in our lives.
We defend them from the wrongful notions of others who may not know
them, and we become one with them.
We just love them.
The bible tells us “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your
heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’
This is the first commandment.” Mark 12:30 NKJV.
In loving God in this way, we honour Him.
Be faithful to His church?
This is where we must be comfortable with the meaning of the word
Church.
Spiritual Community: Beyond the physical or organisational aspects,
“church” can denote the spiritual community of believers who share
common faith and practices.
Assembly or Gathering: The word “church” originates from the Greek
word “ekklesia,” which means an assembly or gathering of people. It
reflects a gathering of believers for worship, teaching, fellowship, and
ministry.
While a church can be a building or an organisation, we must see it how it
was when the scriptures were written. Your church, in the above context,
may be your family. In the context of the principle I am convinced it refers
to the people.
We must be loyal and faithful to the community of believers. This means
not entertaining gossip and division; calling people on their behaviours and
telling the truth faster. Don’t let the sun go down on your anger with
someone and defend the integrity of the community by challenging it to
live by the principles of God.
Obey His Word.
Obedience to God’s principles and design laws give us the best foundation
for a life of real meaning. To live with purpose, knowing always that
perfection is not the goal, but it is the desire to do as God requires. In
accepting that we are forgiven and moving forward each day looking for
better ways of being our God given identity, we are surely on the right
path. We must know His word by reading His word and then acting on it.
We must always remember too, that we must invite the Holy Spirit in
prayer to guide us and discern the meaning applicable to our lives when
He knows we are ready to comprehend it.
Do His will.
When I pray, I seek God’s purposes for me to be made plain. I want to do
what He wants me to do knowing it may well be the opposite of what I, in
my wickedness, would want to do.
We can only accept our own feeble attempts at this through grace, knowing
that we screw up all the time. Sometimes it’s one step forward and two
steps back.
One example of doing His will is in loving your enemies. As counter
intuitive as this may seem, we must be prepared to love the way God
loves. This is sometimes in practicing tough love but it is still love
nonetheless.
Once again we get back to motive being demonstrated in method. If the
things we do are centred in the love of others, even our enemies, then we
are actually doing God’s will because He loves them too, even though they
may behave badly. If He is prepared to redeem us, then He is prepared to
redeem them. Salvation is not an elite club offering a pre ordained
membership. Life experience helps us to make the ultimate choice to
accept God and live by His principles, or, reject Him.
The choice as always remains with us.
Joshua 24:15
‘As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.’
Questions
1. Does this principle challenge you and have you questioning your long
2. held views?
On a scale of 1-10 how do you rate yourself on this principle at this
moment?
3. What are you prepared to do today to improve your ranking?
Prayer.
Dear Lord, Papa God.
I seek to follow today’s principle not only for today, but every day of my
life. Honouring you and obeying You in all facets of my existence is my
greatest desire but I cannot do this without you Papa.
Please guide my steps and forgive my stumbles I pray in Jesus Holy Name.
Amen.
Graham Hood.
