Acknowledge Me

True faithfulness comes from a deep abiding love for Jesus understanding that He first loved us. Since we are loved, we take God at His word. The love of God creates in us a devotion of fidelity. We have a bold confidence to believe He will do just as He promised because God is faithful!

Obedience is not so difficult or laborious, but an expression of our love to Him. Galatians 5:22 speaks of faithfulness as a fruit of the Spirit.

It’s important to understand faithfulness is not something we do but rather it a character of Christ. Faithfulness is cultivated by the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives. From out of this work, the fruit of faithfulness is evident by our obedience to God. In other words, simply doing what God commands does not mean we are faithful.

The question becomes then how do we sustain daily a faithful relationship to the Lord? In seeking the Lord, His answer was simple.
Acknowledge Me. The definition of acknowledge means to recognize and remember.

Whenever we are tempted or weak or when all is going well, we must learn to acknowledge Him. Remember His faithfulness. Call to mind the promises in His Word. Think about the past deliverances performed by His strength and think of the bright, hopeful future He has in store for those who love Him.

When we fail to acknowledge God and turn our focus to another, we in turn dismiss God. And this is the power of idolatry to turn our focus away from God to acknowledge another for relief, salvation, help, comfort etc. Jonah 2:8 warns those who cling to idols (vanities) forfeit their own grace.

We can acknowledge God in a number of ways:

We acknowledge God by retelling of God’s faithfulness to others who will in turn tell others. Psalms 145: 4 says, “One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts.” (see Deuteronomy 6:4 - 9). The success of the this and the next generation truly depends on how we acknowledge God in our daily lives.

We acknowledge God through our worship especially in times of opposition, failure or when prayers are seemingly unanswered.

We acknowledge God’s work through the lives of others in the body of Christ. God speaks through his people who some we rather dismiss because their personality or outward appearance or some flaw. God also speaks through the leadership He ordained to lead the congregation. This can be challenging for those who have been hurt by those in authority or when the pastor fails.

Proverbs 3:6 says when we acknowledge the Lord, He makes our paths straight. In other words, He not only gives us direction, but He carves out a path for us to walk on, even if we can't seem to find our way!

My dear brothers and sisters, let us acknowledge the Lord, as prophet Hosea encourages, "Let us acknowledge the LORD; let us press on to acknowledge him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth." (NIV).