respecting God

Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, on those who hope in His mercy, Psalm 33:18

In the workplace, the workers all know that the boss or other supervisors have their eyes upon them. Some hate that they are being watched, while others do not mind it at all. The difference is in whether one is doing what is right or is trying to cut corners and cheat the system. Those who are trying to cheat the system do not want to be watched because they know that they will be punished for doing wrong.

The writer of this psalm says that God’s eye is on those who fear Him and hope in His mercy.

Respecting authority is something that many people struggle with doing. People like to be free to do what they want in their own way and time, without restrictions. Authorities often lay out restrictions and good authority will punish those who break those restrictions.

Believers have an understanding that God is the ultimate authority in every area of one’s life. They also understand that if they do not obey Him fully that there will be severe consequences. They fear or respect God’s authority and do not want to go against Him. They put their hope in His mercy when they do make a mistake and sin against Him. God’s eye is upon that person.

Many in the church have lost this fear of God and see Him as just a loving God who would never punish. They choose to continue to live in a sinful way, despite claiming to believe in Jesus. God takes His eye, hand of favor, off of those who live that way. In the end they have no hope in following the ways of the world.

God has freely forgiven you of all your sins, if you have chosen to believe in Jesus and follow Him. This means that your life has changed to a new creation, in order to live for Him. Living for God means that you will fear or respect God’s authority over your life. You will allow Him to have complete authority over every area of your life. Yes, you will have times of making mistakes, but then you can hope in His great mercy and love to forgive again, building you and not tearing you down.

His eye will be upon you as you fear and hope in Him.

Today I pray that you will know Jesus as your Lord and Savior; that you will give God the respect due Him; that you will respect God’s commands to you; and that you will have hope in His great mercy over your life.

Picture by Aniket Solankar on Unsplash

There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil. Job 1:1

Every day people are described by others by how they are known. There are thousands of different ways that a person can be described, depending upon how others see that person. Usually, the description of a person is based off of what that person does and what that person’s character is like. These descriptions can be either positive or negative, helpful or harmful, but often are truthful.

Job is described as from the land of Uz and being blameless, fearing God and shunning evil.

Many people are very focused on making sure that they are known by a certain way. They want to be known as a great actor, a worker in a specific field, a good person or some other specific way that can show what they have physically done with their life.

Some people do not really care about what others think of them. They live their lives just how they want with no concern for others.

Often believers are not seen as one’s who fear God nor shun evil. Many act, speak and look just like the world, guilty of active sinful habits.

Jesus had given His followers to be a witness in this world, to let others see God in and through them by their words and actions. Some of the characteristics of true believers are that they will fear God, be blameless and flee all evil. Each of these characteristics come out of fear or respect for God, knowing who God is and His characteristics.

Every believer who can be described like Job was, is one whose character is just like that of Jesus.

People will have some description of who you are and what you are like. While some of those descriptions may be a little off, most will be accurate.

Take a moment to think about how you would accurately describe yourself. Would it be a description that you believe would honor and please God? Or would it be one that looks like the world? Seek to live your life like Jesus did and to look like Jesus to the world, fearing God, blameless and shunning all evil.

As you go through your days, how would others describe who you are? How would God describe you?

Today I pray that you will know Jesus as your Lord and Savior; that you will be found blameless in Jesus; that you will fear and respect God and His commands to you; that God will give you strength to flee all sin; and that you will be described as a true follower of God.