1st Samuel 2:30. “Them that honor Me I will honor, and they that despise Me shall be lightly esteemed.” HONOR ME. How do I honor the Lord? “Honor the Lord with thy substance.” I honor Him, when everything entrusted to me is used in a way that can maintain the cycle of honor. When I claim what I have been given as my own, I will lose a personal sense of honor that is very important for me to have in order to be happy in myself. If I claim what God has given me to be my own, I will be looked upon by others as selfish, self-centered and self-serving. If I keep what God has given me with a tight fist, it is despising Him. God forbid that such a thing will ever happen – that I should ever despise Him in such a way.
I honor Him when I hold Him in reverence and all that is about Him. His name, His word, His house, His people are to be honored when He is honored. When I speak His name to others, is it with an audible expression of reverential fear? When I hold, handle and read His Word, is it with respect and carefulness of speech? When I am in the place of His name, do I show by my ways that holy things are done here? When I am with His people, do I honor Him by giving them the proper respect they deserve, the dignity that children of the living God have a right to have because they belong to their heavenly Father?
There is a lifestyle in which God is honored throughout one’s whole life as a child of God. Often there are successes granted by God to such people. They will be the first to credit God and His grace for everything that has been done. They know that it hasn’t been done by their own power and so God can trust them with the honor that He gives. Ezra 7:27-28.
"O Honored God and Father, and Honored Lord Jesus Christ: I honor Thee here from my heart. But I want it not to be just something inward; I see the need of it being visible to my family, my brethren, my fellow-travelers on this road of life. With voice and words, with songs and prayers, with attitudes and deeds, I want Thee to be honored in my sphere of influence. Amen.”