104. Honor
John 12:26 If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour.
If you serve Jesus, then the Father will honor you. The promise is not as conditional as it sounds; serving Jesus means believing in Him. Faith is not a condition for the promise of life; it is the means of receiving the free gift.
The promise is unusual: the Father will honor him. The Father honors the Son and the Son honors the Father. We also know that the Father honors all who believe in Jesus, those who are connected to Him. It is wonderful to be loved, saved, forgiven, redeemed, adopted and given life; and to be honored is even more fantastic. It pleases me and lifts me up to be honored; I am something special to God; I am not just another one whom God loves, but he honors me and gives me respect and position and esteem.
Not only did God create me specially as someone He wanted to love particularly, and He bought me back to belong to Him as one of His own, but He also regards me highly and thinks of me in a special way as a unique individual. It blows my mind that God Almighty, the Creator, should honor me and hold me in such high regard. That makes me someone who is really important with worth and value.
It has often been said that if I were the only one in the universe who ever sinned God would have sent His Son to die for me to forgive me and bring me to Himself. It is true that Jesus came into our world just to find and save me, in addition to the fact that He came for everyone else as well. But that He came to die for all does not diminish the fact that He died for me. I am honored.