Remember & Revere
Love God, fully, with all of your heart, mind, soul and strength so that his name may be honored and glorified. Giving God your leftovers or less than your best is not good.
“If you fear the Lord and serve and obey him and do not rebel against his commands, and if both you and the king who reigns over you follow the Lord your God—good! Now then, stand still and see this great thing the Lord is about to do before your eyes! Is it not wheat harvest now? “Do not be afraid,” Samuel replied. “You have done all this evil; yet do not turn away from the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. Do not turn away after useless idols. For the sake of his great name the Lord will not reject his people, because the Lord was pleased to make you his own…be sure to fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart; consider what great things he has done for you.” 1 Samuel 12:6-24
Samuel says as plainly as he can that what pleases God is that we are faithful as He is faithful, that we love fully as He loves fully, and that we remember all He has done as He remembers us because of our covenant relationship. The conditional clause that gets often cast aside is with all your heart. Can you say that you fear the Lord and love Him with all your heart?
I hope that you do, but I also know that God sees everything. It is really easy to look like you are loving God with all your heart, but really hold back the best of what you could offer. You can look like a Christian but be far from Christ. Jesus tells the story of people who prophesied, but He said I did not even know you. Other people might not see any other people might not know, but God knows and God sees your heart.
Quick question, where in your life have you allowed yourself to become casual? Where have you been complacent? Where have you chosen to give God your leftovers rather than your first fruits? Why? Have you allowed Christ to be part of your life but not the center? Like a driving a car with a flat tire, living with complacency will take us off course. God loves us too much to leave us in stuck on the side of the road. He brings conviction to our hearts to help steer us clear of the common life. Conviction helps us restore Christ to the center of our lives. Where are you convicted when you consider the message of these texts?
“Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things…The Lord has made his salvation known and revealed his righteousness to the nations. He has remembered his love and his faithfulness to Israel; all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth, burst into jubilant song…for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples with equity.” Psalms 98:1-9
There is an easy way to see or test whether your heart is truly devoted to God and that is if you have a song to sing. There is a song of salvation that glorifies God and radiates light out of a grateful heart. There is a song that is song by all creation that testifies to the power of God and recognizes how He has been faithful to us.
When you woke up today, did you give praise to God for the breath in your lungs, food on your table, shelter from the storm, and promised Hope that comes from an empty tomb left behind by a Risen Savior? Did you praise His holy name? Will you or will you hurry along because you have more important things to do? David says judgment day is meant to be a day of joy and it will be for the righteous ones who are rewarded for revering God.
“We rejoice and delight in you; we will praise your love more than wine. How right they are to adore you!” Song of Songs 1:4
The Bible is a love story. You might not think of song of songs as wisdom literature, but the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Learning to adore and stand in awe of God is the beginning of wisdom. God wants to fill your heart so full of his love, presence, peace, and power that you do not have any space to put in anything else.
Whether or not you are currently in a relationship, you could likely describe the way you felt when you were most deeply in love with another. The love of that person captivated you or captivates you now. It is beyond words. Solomon wrote how right they are to adore you. God feels this way about you and wants the fullness of His love to fill your heart so you feel that way about Him. How would you describe your relationship with Jesus? Are you captivated or is it casual?
“I have loved you,” says the Lord. A son honors his father…If I am a father, where is the honor due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me?” says the Lord Almighty. When you offer blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? My name will be great among the nations, from where the sun rises to where it sets. When you bring injured, lame or diseased animals and offer them as sacrifices, should I accept them from your hands?” says the Lord. “I am a great king,” says the Lord Almighty, “and my name is to be feared among the nations.” Malachi 1:2, 6-8, 11, 13-14
Ponder the words of the Lord. He says I have loved you. The Creator of the heavens and the earth loves you. Yes, you. He loves us with an everlasting love, not for anything we have done, but because of who we are to Him. God's love is unconditional and uplifting. We love because He first loved us. Have you thought about what it means to be loved by God? Did you wake up today and sing a new song because of the love you have received? The love in which you stand?
Awe does something within us. All inspires us to action. Reverence moves us into right living because we have a right perspective, a clarity about Christ, that centers us. The opposite of awe and reverence is familiarity and forgetting. Think about how much you care about getting credit when you’ve worked hard. I am not talking about pride, I am speaking to appropriate recognition. How much more does God deserve recognition for all that he has done?
How often do we take the people in our lives for granted? How often do we take God for granted? Are you giving God your leftovers? Are you giving him your leftover prayer time, leftover energy, leftover resources, leftover strength? God asks us how does that honor Me? Timing and again we are reminded to turn from the patterns we have been in so that we can do what is right. We do not give God our fruits out of obligation, but out of grateful hearts that recognized that God is the one that first gave us all that we have.
“I was given a reed like a measuring rod and was told, “Go and measure the temple of God and the altar, with its worshipers. The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign for ever and ever.” And the twenty-four elders…fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying: “We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, the One who is and who was…The time has come for judging the dead, and for rewarding your servants the prophets and your people who revere your name” Revelation 11:1, 15-18
Truth tells us there is a measuring line and a judgment day. Conviction helps reveal to us areas in our hearts where we have not gone all in with the All in All. The call is to move from casual to intentional. It is a call to move leftovers to loving fully. It is a call to move from your default spare time going to social media rather than seeking first the kingdom, seeking time with Jesus Christ who saves, redeems, restores, and empowers. What are you willing to give up so that you can get closer to God? What sacrifice will you make today to honor God?
Just like Jesus, we need to flip the tables. If we are honest, what are the things that we typically remember? Do we not remember our hurts, our pain, our regrets, our anxiety, our worries, our responsibilities and to do lists? Do we not tend to forget how God has been faithful, gracious, righteous, powerful, loving and good to us?
Jesus not only invites us, but He actively pursues relationship with us. He meets us with grace where we are and calls higher by the truth He reveals through His command to love. Today’s texts confront our comfort. They confront our casual commitment and call us to renew our covenant to God. Let not one of us be counted among those who perish, but let us sing a new song of our salvation where we revere God and His Only Son by remembering all that He has done for, in, and through us.