Today's encouragement comes from 1 Samuel 2:30c, where we read these words:
" . . . For those who honor Me [the Lord] I will honor, and those who despise Me shall be lightly esteemed."The Lord cannot be "outdone." If anyone is willing, by grace through faith in Christ alone, to "honor" Him, God will more than "return the favor." On the flip side: those who treat the Lord with disdain and contempt will be "lightly es-teemed." (And to be "lightly esteemed" by God is *not* a good thing.)
How do we honor God? Only one thing pleases Him, and that is faith in Christ. (See Heb. 11:6 for vivid proof of this.) Sincere faith will then, inevitably, lead to a life of love, which results in gratitude and willing obedience—begin-ning with Sunday (Sabbath) observance, church membership, and true wor-ship.
[Puritan quote of the day: "Morality shoots short of heaven. It is only nature refined. A moral man is but old Adam dressed in fine clothes." —Thomas Watson, in, "The Doctrine of Repentance"]
