On Reverence and Respect

Reverence, great respect and admiration mixed with love.

 

Deeply respect GOD, your God. Serve and worship him exclusively. Back up your promises with his name only. Deuteronomy 6:13 The Message.

 

The next time your child asks you, "What do these requirements and regulations and rules that GOD, our God, has commanded mean?" tell your child, "We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt and GOD powerfully intervened and got us out of that country. We stood there and watched as GOD delivered miracle-signs, great wonders, and evil-visitations on Egypt, on Pharaoh and his household. He pulled us out of there so he could bring us here and give us the land he so solemnly promised to our ancestors. That's why GOD commanded us to follow all these rules, so that we would live reverently before GOD, our God, as he gives us this good life, keeping us alive for a long time to come. "It will be a set-right and put-together life for us if we make sure that we do this entire commandment in the Presence of GOD, our God, just as he commanded us to do." Deuteronomy 6:20-25 The Message.

 

The world would have been a very different place if reverence and respect had existed in relationships, families, communities and societies. There'd be less hurt, more warm, more trust, more shelter. Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, saying, "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?" Jesus said to him, "You shall love the LORD your God with all you heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' "This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbour as yourself.' "On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets." Matthew 22:35-40 NKJV.

 

An empty heart needs it. A humbled heart realizes that it will not be better without it. A puffed-up heart does not  recognize its very state of poverty.

A self-centered heart does not see the hurt it causes. Reverence, a posture of the disciple before the Master. As he bows down before the Ancient of Days, his face to the ground, he finds himself in the presence of One who was, who is, and who is to come. And he is overcome by the eternal reality. For just one moment, he raises his head and understood the temporality of this life in the light of eternity. And his heart is lifted.

 

Reverence, a heart that has been washed over by the grace of God. It is not because we are perfect, but that we are not.

 

Shalom,

Sv