For the honor of the Father
Who reaches out to us
That we might live inside His love.
He gave His only Son.
For the honor of the Savior
Let the cross be lifted high.
The great exchange of love and grace
Came down to give us life.
For the honor of the Spirit
Whose power lives in us.
That we might see much greater things
As we embrace Your love.
For the honor of Your kingdom
Whose reign will never end.
We’ll give our lives in sacrifice
Until You come again.
Forever, forever
We’ll honor You forever.
The first time I heard this worship song by Elevation it wrecked me and its pledge-like words ring through my spirit each time I listen to it. Like a warrior promising their King to give themselves in declaration of their faith and loyalty.
Honor. A word I believe has lost so much of its prestige in our culture, and a word that has been heavy on my heart almost all year. I asked in one of my recent FB statuses if people would respond in a couple sentences what they define the word as. Here were a few of the responses:
“Going beyond the call of duty. Working for the greater at the expense of yourself. To honor someone is to uphold them without question or motive.”
“Having a personal set of standards, a code of behavior. An honorable person endeavors to meet those standards every day, and has friends to help keep him accountable to his own code.”
“Respect, integrity, trust, confidence, loyalty. Standing by someone no matter what, willing to put yourself aside for something or someone else.”
“Honor communicates ‘My relationship with you is more important than you doing what I want you to do.'”
All of them were good. The dictionary uses words such as “privilege, respect, ethical conduct, admiration, purity, and distinction.” When I dug deeper, I wanted to know the Hebrew and Greek words the Bible used, I was shocked at the similarities, both refer to weightiness or valuing in price. The primary description being “conveying God’s infinite, intrinsic worth.” When I think of honor, I think of it as something worth defending. This “weightiness” stuff threw me off, but we even use it in our description of things like “unless there’s some weight to it…” or “this is a heavy situation.”
I was at a loss, had my whole perception of this word been wrong? Why did God place it so strongly in my heart to begin with? Then the simple question arose of “why am I doing this again?” I already gave my answer during the interview process which in a nutshell was to be changed and in turn change others, and by that I mean growing in love. The more I meditated on it though, my answer seemed shallow, and probably not the first time spoken in that manor. Why am I doing this? Or more accurately, why, God, did you call me to this? To settle my mind, I put on the song, and just listened to the words verse by verse. I wrote them down and read them over and over. Then the words just began to flow…
For the Honor of the Father
We carry His name, His legacy, His inheritance, His traits. He is good, pure, and holy. He is untainted and perfect. We fight to uphold His name and to abide under it and in it; which is love. A love that satan lives to skew and destroy. The honor of the Father is to submit to His authority, and above all else our actions are to reflect His true name, pure love.
For the Honor of the Savior
To give utmost respect to the preciousness of Jesus’ sacrifice. It is the priceless end all. Perfect obedience. The weight of God’s glory is more than any mortal could attempt to uphold. It weighed him down on the cross. He took the burdens. A word given promise fulfilled. There is no greater loyalty.
For the Honor of the Spirit
The bestower of the privileges and power that comes with being under the household of God. We continue to build on His foundations. A selfless gift with no end.
For the Honor of the Kingdom
To fight for all God represents that others may come under His name and experience the immeasurable love. To purify what has been tainted. To give back what has been stolen. To heal what has been broken. To reinstate what has been stripped away.
The honor I seek to uphold, is the truth of God’s love. In fact, if you substitute the word “honor” in the song for “love” it still makes just as much sense. Honor is such a tangible word because it is shown by action just as much as feeling. I want to do this to show God how much I love him, and how much I want him to use me so that someone out there can experience it too. I think that can be said for just about every Racer.
I wanted to end this by posting the song that has moved me so much. Let this be a blessing and an encouragement to you fellow racer or those who stand with us as we approach launch. For you, oh God, we give the highest honor and praise.
