Know God, Honor God, Thank God

For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish hearts were darkened.  Romans 1:21

How do people get to know God?  Seeing or hearing about Him and then believing.  It is the same principle for everyone in the world.  Paul has just explained that God created the whole world and placed his “finger prints in all that He made.”  In turn, everyone can look at creation and know that there is a creator.  But they next step is important.  Believe in and respect in the Creator.

Paul says that knowledge about God is not enough.  Just to believe that God exists is admirable.  But honoring Him as God is a more specific step.  It means a shift in authority.  You relinquish the “ownership” for your life, to the one who created you.  Honoring Him is to seat Him on the throne of your life and as King over all.

Paul adds a defining characteristic that identifies one who honors the Lord…the giving of thanks.  And specifically- giving thanks to God.  Jesus said our speech exposes the values of the meditation that has been occurring in our heart.  Just reflect on the subject matter of your own words to discover what has been important in your life.  The giving of thanks reveals how you appreciate the influence of others.  Giving thanks to God as God shows that you connect events and circumstances in your life to His influence.  It positions our hearts to focus on God’s heart and His hands as the giver of life.

There is a consequence to NOT giving thanks.  When we do not place value on something it does not remain neutral…it atrophies.  Spiritually, when God is not  of the answer to our questions, then every solution begins to be in.  Sometimes it takes even more faith to believe in a big bang, for all the universe to just randomly occur is astronomical .  But this is what happens when you remove God from the system.  Intellectual thinking begins to spiral down to the concept of man being at the center of the universe.  Because one may think God does not exists, then you also do not have to respond to His authority..  Unless God brings the light of his revelation. Man remains in his darkened state of thinking.

Father, help us to see when we are relying on our own wisdom and strength.  Let us see you working before, during and after every event in our lives.  Let us regularly give you thanks as God, as Sovereign in our lives.  Thanks for our families, thanks for our health, thanks for our jobs, thanks for our church family, thanks for our communities and city in which we live.  You are God and we love and thank you.  In Jesus’ name Amen.