Honor God and Be Honored

Fresh Manna 2008 by Pastor Tim Burt

2 Kings 4:13 “Elisha said to her, “… You have gone to all this trouble for us. Now what can be done for you? …”

As I was getting ready for my day and thinking about the Lord, I began to think about Priscilla and Aquila. They were a very special couple that we can read about in the Book of Acts as well as three other epistles. They were a couple who appeared to me to really have a grasp on the purpose of life and marriage as much as any other couple in the Bible that I can think of.

As I study about them, there are some things I surmise about them. First they were Jews learned of God. This means they loved and took the time to learn about God. They had met the Apostle Paul and had been converted to Christianity. They eventually worked by day along side Paul making tents. They spent time being a help to him in His work for the Lord. In doing so they were able to benefit from Paul’s tutorage – most likely from conversation, prayer and impartation.

They then assisted the Apostle Paul in other ways – probably in any way that he requested of them. He had them assist a Jew named Apollos – one who was highly knowledgeable of God that had been converted to Christianity. Priscilla and Aquila were used to help him take all that he knew from the Jewish perspective and learn of it in a new light from his new life and perspective in Jesus. Their help contributed to Apollos becoming a great teacher of God’s Word.

When I think about Aquila and Priscilla, I think of a couple who had their lives and their life’s focus on serving God by honoring and serving God’s leaders. They don’t appear to be a couple that had aspirations for great notoriety. Just a twosome that wanted the short time they had on this earth to having meaning for God. Did they honor God by honoring men of God? Absolutely! Consequently, God honored them. How do I know? They were so honored that the Holy Spirit inspired Luke the author of the Book of Acts and the Apostle Paul to write of them. God knew they would be eternally recognized in His Word.

There is another couple that did the same thing. They honored a man of God yet had no self-motivation for doing so. They built a small room… and put in it a bed and a table, a chair and a lamp for him. They did this just to bless him out of a pure heart. How do I know that? Because God had Elisha the prophet, the man of God whom they built the room for, ask if there was anything he could do for them. Let’s look at today’s Fresh Manna. They are words to mediate upon. “Elisha said to her, “… You have gone to all this trouble for us. Now what can be done for you? …” Can you imagine that? Imagine God saying to you, you’ve really blessed me, what can I do for you? She responded that she had no needs. That’s how we know her heart and motive was pure.

Even so, God through Elisha so wanted to bless them that He, knowing her heart, gave her the impossible gift she could have gotten no other way – a child. Later the child got sick and died and again, God honored her by having Elisha come and raise him from the dead. This couple certainly had favor in the eyes of the Lord.

God sees the efforts we make and things we do to know and serve Him. The Apostle Paul said in 1 Cor 7:35 “…but that you may live in a right way in undivided devotion to the Lord.” We don’t do these things to make Him happy with us. That’s a given. He loves us and nothing we do is going to change that. But He does bless and honor those who bless and honor Him from a pure heart.

As a Pastor, I know that every church has its Aquila and Pricilla’s and those that honor, help, and bless God’s leaders. Don’t think it goes unnoticed and don’t’ be surprised if God finds a way to ask you, “You have gone to all this trouble for us. Now what can be done for you? …”

In His Love,
Pastor Tim Burt
http://readfreshmanna.blogspot.com/