The Respect Line
Theme of the Week: Our Incomparable God
Wednesday, February 19, 2003
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Key Bible Verse: Should the thing that was created say to the one who made it, "Why have you made me like this?" (Romans 9:20). Bonus Reading:Job 40:1-5
I asked three questions when my child crossed the Respect Line with me. First I turned, looked the child in the eye, and said, "I need to ask you to think with me: To whom are you talking?" My child answered with the obvious, "You."
Secondly I asked, "Who am I?" My child's response was, "You're my father."
That's when I knew we were getting somewhere. I was able to ask the third question: "Who are you then?"
The answer: "Well, I'm your child." Then the lights went on. The child wasn't the parent. In fact, the child was nowhere close to my role—and recognized it.
I wonder if God doesn't sit on His throne in heaven and respond to us in much the same way when we cross the Respect Line. As we get "overly familiar" with God, I wonder if He says to us, "To whom are you talking? Do you understand who I am? Do you know who you are?"
We like to exalt our needs rather than embrace our neediness. We want a God who'll serve us and be what we want Him to be, rather than a God who expects us to bow and surrender in brokenness in the presence of His holiness.
—Crawford Loritts Jr. in Make It Home Before Dark
My Response: How may I have crossed the Respect Line with God?
Thought to Apply: God is too kind to do anything cruel, too wise to make a mistake, too deep to explain himself.
—Charles Swindoll (pastor, writer)
Adapted from Make It Home Before Dark (Moody, 2000) by permission.
Copyright © 2003 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.
Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.
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Give me a growing sense, God, of who You are and of what I must do to honor You as You deserve.
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