Watch What You Say!

Greetings beloved,

This morning as I prayed the Daily Office, I momentarily slipped back into a Pentecostal mind set and ended my prayers with the statement “Lord I give you all of the honor, all the glory, and all the praise in Jesus’ name.” Immediately I caught myself and began to think “Do I really give God all the honor, glory and praise?” If so, where did I get it?

Truth is I don’t give God ALL of the praise, honor and glory, because I don’t and could never possess the entirety of those commodities in this world (no one can). Even if it was possible for me to possess them, would I give them all to Him? Or would I be like Ananias who sold his property and claimed he was giving it ALL to God while holding back a portion for himself? Considering the fact that it is sometimes a struggle for me just to give God my time praying the Daily Office, I’d rather not answer that question.

Ending my prayers the way I did was something that I had heard, and probably repeated over and over in my days as a Pentecostal minister, and I’ve come to realize that it’s nothing more than a fictional statement invented to make people feel more spiritual than they really are. The Devil has tricked the non-critical thinker to reason, “Well, God is worthy of all honor, glory and praise, so I’ll give it to him.” Problem is this isn’t biblical! They’re not ours to give. The Scriptures clearly declare, “THINE, O LORD, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O LORD, and thou art exalted as head above all. Both riches and honour come of thee, and thou reignest over all; and in thine hand is power and might; and in thine hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all (1 Chronicles 29:11-12).”

Now, some of you might be saying, “Bishop, you’re just being a nit-picker, that statement really means that we must give God all of OUR honor, glory and praise.” Well, first things first… We have no honor or glory. Hear what God’s word says concerning this: “But we are all as an unclean thing, and ALL OUR RIGHTEOUSNESSES ARE AS FILTHY RAGS; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” “For I know that IN ME [that is, in my flesh,] DWELLETH NO GOOD THING: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.” “They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is NONE that doeth good, no, NOT ONE ” (Isaiah 64:6; Romans 7:18; Romans 3:12 cf. Psalm 14:1, 3; 53:1, 3). Therefore we must understand that although we can declare the honor and glories of God, we cannot give them to Him.

Second, as far as “giving God ALL the praise” is concerned, I agree that we should praise Him for all of the things He has done for us. After all Psalm 150 says “Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise ye the LORD!” But can anyone of us say truthfully that we give God ALL our praise? You’ve hit the snooze button one too many times, now you’re going to be late for work and you’ve spilled your coffee on your lap… are you giving God ALL of your praise? You get over-looked for that much deserved promotion at work… are you giving God ALL of your praise? When that no good so and so cuts you off in traffic… are you giving God ALL of your praise? When you come home from a hard days work and you just want to relax in front of the TV… are you giving God ALL of your praise? OF COURSE YOUR NOT! No one can give God all of their praise. Our minds aren’t focused on God 24 hours a day so it’s impossible--- not to mention impractical! Think about it? To give God ALL of your praise would mean that when your spouse goes through the windshield of a car, or has a heart attack, or you lose a child that you give God ALL your praise. It seems like a pretty ridiculous statement now doesn’t it?

Beloved, I am no better or worse than anyone. I know that I’m not perfect. I know that I am not a spiritual superman. I have hard days, I sometimes want to slap the wife and kick the dog (or vice versa), and sometimes I get messed up spiritually, and I must admit, sometimes it is very hard to praise God at all. This is why we are admonished in Scripture to offer the “sacrifice of praise” (Jer. 17:26; 33:11; Heb. 13:15). When is the last time you remember a sacrifice being pleasant? Truth is, there will be times when you’re praising God and you won’t feel like doing it and maybe you won’t even mean it, but we do it out of obedience, because we know that obedience is better than sacrifice. “Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, As in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams” (1 Samuel 15:22). By doing what God asks even when we don’t feel like it we are heeding the instructions of our Apostle St. Paul who says, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service” (Romans 12:1). We wouldn’t need St. Paul’s admonishing if we gave God All our praise. If you’re still not convinced, just read the Old Testament and see if God’s chosen people the Israelites gave God ALL of their praise.

Friends, my point is: we cannot lie to God, He sees all and knows all. When we make statements or pray things like: “I give you ALL the praise, ALL the honor and ALL the glory,” we are only lying to ourselves and this lie promotes self –righteousness, the holier than thou mindset and that serves no purpose but to drive us further from a real and living relationship with God. We must examine ourselves daily “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?” We must also be careful what we say for “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” and “every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned” (Matthew 12:34; Luke 6:45; Matthew 12:36-37).

The Primate of the ACW has well said, “Watch how you go.” Let me also add, “Watch what you say!”

God's blessings to you all!

Your servant in Christ,
+Ernest A. Ross