I am so aware this week of a demonic strategy against the generations. God wants to accelerate His Kingdom’s advance from generation to generation. He intends each generation to go higher and farther than the previous one. If each generation would honor the other, the older could LAUNCH the younger, like a NASA rocket. This is God’s design. If satan can divide the generations via DISHONOR, he can abort the launch! This is his strategy!
Brothers and sisters (especially dads and moms), we can short circuit this strategy by sowing HONOR! As we pour honor on the younger generations, we strengthen the bond between us. This is what Malachi (4:6) meant when he said that God would turn “the hearts of the fathers [first] to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers.” I added the word “first” to show God’s order. We (the older ones) must make the FIRST MOVE in sowing honor into the next generation! If we don’t intitiate this, God’s launch will be aborted!
A big obstacle to this launch is offense! Satan so wants to cause one generation to be offended at the other. One generation causes the other pain, and offense digs in its ugly talons. In our deep heart, we grip the grudge, refusing to let go until the other person “knows how much they’ve hurt us.” It is almost like we hope to “teach them a lesson.” How is that working for you, dad? Mom?
God is calling us to JUST forgive. But, not just forgive and then turn our back on them. He is calling us to sow honor, even into the lives of those who’ve hurt us! Even into the lives of those who may hurt us still. We can use honor as a vaccination to innoculate us from the virus of offense!
Come on, let’s be generous with our honor. Let’s give honor BEFORE it’s deserved! Respect may well need to be EARNED. Honor, though, can just be given!
Ken Smith
