honor God

Why do "Christian" movies have to have such bad acting and cheesy plot lines? I ask because I feel those things keep a lot of people from watching them - it keeps me from renting or buying them. It makes my husband groan each time I bring a new one home. I do bring them home though, begrudgingly - because a dear friend of mine buys them, loves them, recommends them, and finally lends them out. In the end - though sometimes after many weeks - we concede and watch them. And, I will admit that after all the jokes have been made, and cinematography expectations have been lowered, the message made through them is unmistakable and powerful. Such a thing happened last week. Allen and I watched - at the recommendation of a friend - Facing the Giants. The first half of the movie was a little hard...the bad acting had Allen and I in stitches as we mimicked the fake crying and rehearsed conversations. But, the second half of the movie moved me in such a way that I can't stop talking about the message of it....

....are you ready for it? Honor God. It seems so simple. So straight-forward. So duh. Yet, if we do not focus on it and make it the focus of everything we do, it is so easy to forget or to not even consider. The movie started about high school football; but it took an amazing twist and became about honoring God through football.

The very next day after seeing this movie - I was blessed to see this principle in action through a dear friend. She confided in me that her husband asked for a divorce just two weeks earlier. Through years of unrealistic standards and unmet expectations, being married had gotten too hard and quitting seemed easier than continuing on. That night she opened her bible and began praying. The next morning they discussed their options...of which one was to honor God by staying married. What?!? How do you go from getting a divorce to staying married to honor God, overnight?!?! By God, and through God, and with God - that's how. I love how God can stir the heart of a person and in an instant a situation can go from hopeless to hopeful. Her husband made an appointment with a christian counselor, and they have been going and growing since. I am so proud of them and so blessed by their honesty through their testimony. And I know that because their goal and their motive is to honor God, that He will honor that and will bless them and their marriage immeasurably. That's not to say that it won't be hard - it will be hard. Another wonderful principle I learned from Facing the Giants was that it is easy to fight when we are strong; it is hard to fight when we are weak. But, that we still have to fight - even when it is hard. Right now they are weakened; right now Satan is attacking them; but right now is when they are clinging most to God, and through their weakness, they are strong.

But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. ~ 2Corinthians 12:9-10

So, how do we honor God? How do I honor God? By putting God in the middle of everything I do. By making Him the center, and letting my life revolve around him. Honoring my husband honors God, so I need to focus on my marriage and what God wants for us. Raising up my children in the truth honors God, so I spend time training them in love. Loving the unlovely honors God, so I have to show Godly love to lots of people who make me mad, annoy me, hurt me, and even don't love me back. These are just a few examples of the things I do to try and honor my God...there are so many more: ministry, body, friends, work, activities,...etc.

Again I say, I am so blessed by the honesty and transparency of my friend and her situation. It is like a movie being filmed right before my eyes. But, it has better acting, better cinematography, and it is a real story of how God is working in the lives of His children. Though this story is far from over, I know that if they let Him, God will write them an amazing ending.