For though they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became nonsense, and their senseless minds were darkened. Romans 1:21 HCSB
If someone were to ask you if you knew God, what would you say? Do you feel like you really know Him? We get to know God as we get to know people. The best way to truly get to know someone is to converse with them and spend time around them. We converse with God through prayer and Bible study. When we pray, we are talking to Him, and when we study our Bibles, we are learning what He has to say to us.
God is willing to be a constant presence in our lives if we will allow Him. He wants to be with us. He wants to fill our hearts with His holy Spirit, but He never comes in without an invitation and an open door. James 4:7 tells us to submit to the Lord, resist the devil, and He will flee from you. And in verse 8, James tells us to draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.
Once you study your Bible and get to know who God really is, you can have a deeper gratitude. You can love Him even more. And you learn to revere Him and understand that He is a good father, and He disciplines His children when they mess up. Hebrews 12:6 says, “For the Lord disciplines the one He loves and punishes every son He receives.” God disciplines us to try to get us on the right track, just as parents do when they love their children.
You often hear people say that a loving God would never punish someone or allow someone to suffer. Many believe that because God is so loving, He would never condemn someone to hell. Unfortunately, many people are going to be in for a rude awakening.
Perhaps if someone asked you if you knew God, you would answer “yes” with great certainty. Then the next question would be, do you glorify Him? Jesus said in Matthew 7:21, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord!’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of My Father in heaven.” When we do God’s will, we bring glory to His name. We glorify Him to others. When we surrender our will and live a life of obedience, others will see Him through us. This is our most effective witness.
When we truly know the Lord, and we understand who He is and what He has done for us, we can’t help but love Him with all our hearts. When we love the Lord in this way, we want to bring him glory, honor, and praise. We do this by following His commands. In John 14:15, Jesus said, “If you love Me, you will keep My commands.”
We can say we know the Lord. We can say we love the Lord. But our actions are worth a thousand words. When we truly know the Lord and love the Lord, we glorify Him.
Glorifying God by obeying His commandments assures us an eternity in heaven with Him. When we live a life of disobedience and fail to glorify God, we suffer eternal consequences. So, the choice is ours to make.
As we enter this Thanksgiving week, we must also remember to show gratitude. In 1 Thessalonians 5:18, Paul reminds us to give thanks in all circumstances. We should maintain an attitude of gratitude no matter our circumstances. This isn’t always easy to do, but it brings God honor when we do this.
When we fail to give God glory and show gratitude, we run the risk of having our thinking become nonsense and having our senseless minds darkened. And it can even get worse, but we will talk about that tomorrow.
Have a great day!