What Respect Does For You—R Fritz
What is “respect?” I looked in the KJV dictionary for the meaning. It says “to view or consider with some degree of reverence; to esteem as possessed of real worth.” We should respect everybody the same because everybody has real worth. We sometimes want to put people on a pedestal or have favorites. James 2:1-6 says “My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons. For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment; and ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor, stand thou there or sit here under my footstool: are you not partial in yourselves, and become judges of evil thoughts? Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith promised to them that love him? But ye have despised the poor. Do not the rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgement seats?” We are supposed to treat all people with respect, nobody is any better than anybody else.
I went to a chaplaincy conference this week and saw how real respect is supposed to work. Everybody was treated the same with love. Love shows no respect for persons. It does not care who you are or how you look. God does not pick favorites. He will work with anybody and there will be equal treatment. You will be given that same chance to succeed at God’s perfect will for our life. That is your choice and your will. It is the full surrender of our life. My question to those who are not ready to fully surrender is what is it going to take for you to surrender fully. We are going to be judged on what we do on earth. There will be no excuses. It is usually a trust issue. Without your surrender, you will be stuck where you are until you decide to change.
The benefits to full surrender are a blessed and fulfilled life. The Holy Spirit is your teacher and that is why you will be able to succeed. It knows what you are doing because the Holy Spirit is part of you. This means that with the Holy Spirit in control they have God’s anointing, blessings, and grace and are able to overcome whatever or wherever the Holy Spirit commands them to go. It could be to go to the top of a mountain with someone or go in a valley to pull somebody out
thinking about suicide. It is our duty to be all God wants us to be. These are assignments that the Holy Spirit will send those that have surrendered their will. Matthew 7:21 says and this is Jesus speaking “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord have we not prophesied in my name? and in thy name have cast out devils? And in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” Those that do the will of God shall enter into heaven. In other words, just because you speak the words does not get you into heaven, it is your actions.
We have to have a reason to do what the Holy Spirit wants us to do. It is something that will make you overcome your past. Most people do not want to change. It takes you to a place where it is not familiar to you. We forget circumstances change how we look at things in our life. We need a plan where we want life to take us. Proverbs 29:18 says “Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.” The vision is what I am talking about. When you have no vision, you have no plan. The vision comes from God. Without a plan, we are controlled by what life throws at us. In the water, it’s the waves that throw us around without having any control over where we go. It is the “law of liberty” that keeps us happy.
God has a plan for our life. We need to find out what that is. That is the vision I was talking about. We might have had a personal vision in our life which is great. I am talking about the vision God has for you. God has a plan for each of us. To find that plan we need to find Jesus Christ. If you are serious all you have to do is call out in the time of need. It is you wanting to follow Jesus Christ is where God’s vision for you comes alive and in motion. You now know that your spiritual vision depends on you having that relationship with Jesus. It is the Holy Spirit that teaches us and shows us our vision at the right time. Without the Holy Spirit in us, we will not know our God-given vision and who we can be.
“Respect” for each other is what God commands with love. It is not treating somebody better because they have more money or any other reason. It comes back to Matthew 22:39 and says with Jesus speaking “And the second is like unto it, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” When I say this, I want to ask the
question, who is your neighbor? Your neighbor is everybody around you. When we treat somebody around us unjustly whether we think they deserve it or not is us breaking a commandment. Everybody deserves respect and love. When somebody has disrespected us, we need to pray for them and forgive them. Your ability to pray for them shows in your heart you have started the process of forgiving. God Bless.
