Christian Living

To Be Respected by God, Or Not

by Travis Darnell
05/06/17
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            In the book of Genesis chapter 4, there is an amazing revelation from God to His creation, mankind. The revelation is that by the way we treat God, He will either respect us or disrespect us. Always remember that God is oh so personal and we were made in His image. Therefore, we ourselves have the free-will to be a respecter of God, or not, and God, has the same free-will to exercise respect, or not, back to us. There are times when God will show you how you are treating Him, by the way He allows other people to treat you, i.e. disrespectfully. Not always, but He does do this at times. Again, don’t ever take the personal out of God, nor, dare I say, His sense of humor at times.

            But back to Genesis, chapter 4, the story of Cain and his brother Abel, in how they treated God. It was anything but comical, but rather, very deadly. Cain’s offering to God was not sprung by faith and love for God, but of works. Cain felt that if he were to find favor with God, he must do it by his works. Cain became a product of the sin begot by his parents Adam and Eve. No longer was there any delight in God, but the mere mechanics of religious works. Cain was a symbol of the coming of the Pharisees who outwardly thought that they were finding favor with God by the show of things, but inside, their hearts were completely dead towards Him. This deadly thinking and deception continues on today and has been the most common religion known to the world, in any day and age.

            Cain did not care about God at all, but rather looked at Him as Someone in whom he could give an offering to and get a blessing or benefit out of it. He only sought God for His blessings, benefits and favor, but never just simply for Himself and who He was. There was no delight, no sweetness towards God. This shows up in his total lack of repentance towards God at any time in his life. He was a cold, hard dude and his relations with God were out of nothing more than cold hard duty.

            So how does this pertain to our relationship to God? Are we more mechanical in our spiritual lives with God, more dutiful? Or are we on the other hand going about our lives with God in a passionate, delightful undertaking to bring pleasure and delight to God’s heart, again, born out of love for Him. In our life with God, do we read His word just for the principles and precepts that will benefit us with knowing about God? It’s an easy rut to get into and it’s simply miserable. Or do we come to God’s word to actually meet the living God to know Him better, not just simply to know about Him historically? Same with serving God and church attendance, etc.

            Today, with you and I, we can be mechanically going about our lives with God, cold and dutiful, with our hearts completely dead towards Him. This is called religion, but totally void of any kind of loving relationship. We may be fooling ourselves and the people around us, all the while, all our service, worship and reading of God’s word is being totally disrespected by God Himself. Believe me, I have been in this place. He did not reconcile us back to Himself for us just to go through the motions with Him, but to daily come into a greater knowledge and love to Him and for Him.

            Jesus Christ was always respected by God the Father and all His works toward the Father were always favored. Why? Because the Son’s only interest was to please the Father, benefit or no benefit, blessing or no blessing. Jesus was only conscientious towards the Father, never caring one iota about Himself or His own life. Passion, love and sweet devotion to God were always the sole desires of the Son. Never for Himself. His life was solely centered around the Father’s will and purposes. And we are to walk in the same manner and attitude that Christ had to His and our Father God. In your inner lives to God, make sure you are always in an  obedient, sweet, simple state of heart towards God in whatever you do and take no thought of your exterior life, because “God looks at the heart,” (Samuel 16:7, NIV). Take no thought of benefits or blessings from God, but only to please His heart in sincerity, regardless of the cost. This will always be respected by God.