Honor Is Easy

Written by Jarred Rushing

(5 minutes)

After Sunday's service Pastor Tim and I were talking and a phrase came out in our conversation that has really stuck with me. This was the phrase: "Honor is easy." Honor is absolutely a foreign subject for American Christianity, but it's not foreign to us. The principle of honor is woven into the fabric of our everyday life. Today, I want to give you my most elementary understanding of honor. This is how I think about it. 

When I think about intimacy and honor, I think about gardening. We use some of this language at The Wilderness Place. We've even sung songs that draw the parallel between a garden and our own hearts. "I am my Beloved's and He is mine, so come into Your garden and take delight in me, take delight in me." When you read the Song of Songs, Solomon frequently uses the language of a garden to describe our inner world and what the Bridegroom is doing in us. 

"Awake, O north wind!
Awake O south wind!
Breathe on my garden with your Spirit-Wind.
Stir up the sweet spice of your life within me.
Spare nothing as you make me your fruitful garden.
Hold nothing back until I release your fragrance.
Come walk with me as you walked with Adam in your paradise garden.
Come taste the fruits of your life in me."
(Song of Songs 4:16)

Gardening requires intimacy.

Intimacy happens when we are completely open -"into-me-see." When I am open to the idea of planting a garden and the ground is open to being cultivated, we have seen a picture of intimacy. Intimacy requires two things being completely open to one another. Intimacy requires vulnerability, honesty, trust, and it almost always involves risk, or should I say...faith. If any one of the two parties is withholding a part of themselves, you don't have the fullest measure of intimacy. Intimacy in marriage requires two open hearts. Intimacy with Abba requires two open hearts. Intimacy in gardening requires two open hearts - my heart being open to engage with the ground, and the ground being open to engaging with me. And just like marriage and our relationship with Abba, intimacy always carries the potential for a seed to be planted in the right soil and begin to grow. 

So where does honor fit in?

This is the moment you should begin to see honor as something that is easy to understand, because this next statement should strike a chord in all of our hearts, especially those of us who have tried to do any type of gardening in the past. 

Everyone wants to plant a garden (intimacy), few people want to commit to seeing that garden actually grow (honor).

Do you see it now? Do you see the connection between intimacy and honor?

I've heard people say the same thing about marriage. 
"Anyone can get married (intimacy), few people can stay married (honor).” 

I've heard people use this same language about men.
”Any man can be a father (intimacy), but it takes someone special to be a dad (honor).”

This is why Abba is building intimacy and honor in the wilderness. Because if our intimate encounters with Him are not followed by honor, we will forfeit all the fruit that could have been produced by the encounter. Nazareth was supposed to experience so much more than a few sick people being healed, but they couldn't honor the seed that was planted in their own town.

You see...honor keeps watering the seed that intimacy planted.
Say it with me, "Honor KEEPS WATERING." 

This was a hard pill for me to swallow, but I recently discovered that there's a reason why all my plants keep dying. It's because I fail to honor them the way they deserve to be honored. 

One thing is for sure: if we want to continue to reap the blessings of any relationship in our life, we must honor it. 

This is why intimacy and honor must travel together. Honor should always be riding the heels of our intimate encounters with Abba. 

I'll draw one last parallel because I really want us to see what's at stake.

I want you to stop for a moment and think about the institutions that exist in our world today that thrive off of giving people an intimate encounter without any sense of responsibility, commitment or follow-through on the back end. I can think of two right off the bat, and they both start with the letter "p" and end with the letter "n."

So maybe we can define spiritual prostitution as our being intimate with a God we never intend to honor.

It's sad, but that's how religion taught us to relate to our First Love. Stimulation, without procreation. As long as we walked away from that church service feeling good, everything was okay. But we weren’t okay. We were empty. We had nothing growing on the inside of us.

Abba is luring people into the wilderness so they can be transformed into real lovers. In the wilderness we're becoming the Bride of Christ who is marked by both intimacy AND honor. We see this picture in Hosea 2:14-23, and we're told that after Yahweh marries this Bride in the wilderness, He sends her out into the world and the world sees her and responds with this exclamation, "God plants!"

And just like that, we're back to gardening.

As you walk with Abba today, let His love nourish your heart and encourage you in the ways you can begin to honor every intimate encounter you have with Him and His body.

Letting His love wash over us is the key.

Honor is easy for those who are forever falling in love.

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Worship: "Where I Belong" by Upperroom

Honor: Give Online to The Wilderness Place

Share With Us: We would love to hear how you're encountering Abba in your daily walks. Don't hesitate to share what you're hearing, seeing, or sensing in His presence. Email us here!