Work to live in a way to gain the Lord’s Appreciation
Genesis 6:8 “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.”
Tomorrow, November 11th, 2024, is a day we set aside each year to acknowledge and to honor the men and women of our military services. We call it Veterans Day. It is a day we will do many things to show our appreciation to our veterans for their service to our country.
Appreciation is something less the things we do and more the persons we are as we do the things we do. It is to be humble enough to recognize the best of someone. It is the sense of value and respect and admiration of the person of others as we acknowledge the sacrifices others made for all of us.
The Lord appreciates us. He showed us the best example of appreciation when scripture tells us He was thinking of destroying all mankind, but Noah found grace in His eyes. In other words, Noah was spared God’s wrath because God saw something in Noah that He appreciated.
What is key about God’s appreciation and our recognition of others is the sense of selflessness. The scripture may be a bit confusing until we listen closely to what it says. Noah was not looking for grace. Noah was living and being the person whom He knew he was supposed to be.
Because of his selflessness, his sense of obligation, and his sense of honor, Noah lived in a way that he found something of great value that he wasn’t looking for. He stumbled into the heart of grace. And when grace found him there, grace said to the Lord, we must appreciate Noah because he lives selflessly in pursuit of the things We love.
In several ways our veterans share some of the same qualities that were found in Noah. Every veteran knows these three words and what they mean, duty, obligation and honor.
It is a veteran’s duty to live a life given to the lives of others in their country. They give up their lives so we can have ours. They do this because it is their God given duty to be this sacrifice for us. We should appreciate that.
It is the Veteran’s obligation to never give up on the task before them. More than the fact that their lives may be at stake, they know that your life and my life are at stake so they have a self-prescribed obligation to never give up, especially when others would give in. We should appreciate that.
It is the veteran’s honor to serve the people of their country and all the good that the country stands for. But honor to the veteran is not just what they do, they are the personification of honor in who they are. In a world where honor is not seen, the veteran personifies honor in the most visible ways. They live it. We should appreciate that.
Finally, just like Noah, the veterans know they live this way because they are in the Army and service of the Lord. The Lord God Himself is the Commander of the Army to which they belong. The Lord always goes before them into the battles they will face. Like Noah, veterans do not become preoccupied with the things of this life. Instead, they focus on the things the Lord prescribes for them.
In this, the grace of the Lord finds them. The Love of the Lord carries them. And the appreciation of the Lord declares their value before others and for others.
This Veteran’s Day, I urge you to do more than to simply thank them for their service. Show them your appreciation by acknowledging their sense of duty, obligation and honor for you and for our country. If the Lord can appreciate them in this way, so can we.
Live a Delivered Life. Love you.
Live Delivered 