Respected by God

God lives and works today. He is the one who deserves all the honor in heaven and on earth. But when Jesus became man, he gave up his honor out of love for us.

Today's program by Vassily Ishchenko will tell us how we can follow in his footsteps and gain the honor and respect of God. Some people are really addicted to getting attention. They have a passionate yearning to be noticed, to be respected and esteemed by people.

And yet, aren't we all to some degree affected by this desire? If people whom we admire don't respect us, don't we often become sad, depressed, unhappy and touchy? We mustn't tolerate this desire for recognition and attention at all. It gives rise to so many other sins. Sometimes it makes us pretend to be something we are not, or to have abilities we actually don't possess.

So we become untruthful and, without realizing it, hypocritical. We hurt others. We are unloving and place them in the shadow so that we can appear in a favorable light.

Especially in our times, when it will cost us increasingly more dishonor, ridicule and disgrace to be a Christian, our desire for recognition can bring about our downfall. It can even cause us to deny Jesus. But how can we fight against these drives which are so deeply rooted in our personalities? First of all, we have to let the Holy Spirit show us again and again how despicable our desire for recognition is.

And then we must make a definite renunciation. Lord, I don't want to be anything. I don't want to be respected.

There's power in this renunciation. Jesus accepts it. His blood will wash away all the impurities of our personalities and souls.

And then we will receive the greatest gift. We will be respected by God. The Father said He was well pleased when Jesus, His Son, went down to be baptized in the River Jordan and let others think that He was a sinner, not worthy of respect.

Yes, throughout His life, Jesus forsook His glory and chose disgrace so that we could be redeemed from our desire for recognition and be changed into His image of humility. His lowliness, even to the point of dying like a criminal on the cross, is a sure guarantee of His aid for all of us who want to be free from our desire for attention. You have been listening to a program written by Basilea Schlink of the Little Land of Canaan.

To learn more about how God lives and works today, visit us at our website, www.canaan.org. That's canaan.org. If you contact us, we would be happy to send you a free inspirational booklet. If you do not have access to the web, please write to God Lives and Works Today, 9849 North 40th Street, Phoenix, Arizona, 85028-4099. God bless you.