After 22 years of playing and coaching football, I won a championship ring while serving as team chaplain for the Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College football team. Under the leadership of Steve Campbell, that team finished number one in the national JUCO poll. They possessed a rare quality—honor. After every victory we gave God the glory. All year we honored our coaches, one another, our teachers, and parents. We made mistakes, but always came back to honor.

To honor someone is to count them as highly valuable and precious—extraordinary. Honor demands careful attention. Honor and respect are not the same. Respect is good but can be a surface thing. One can say, “Yes sir” and “no sir” out of respect, but never value the person. If I honor my coach, I must highly value and give careful attention to what he says. Honor cannot be faked. It must come from the heart. Sin comes from not honoring God. When I count Him and His Word as extraordinary in value, I will have the heart to obey His commands.

God set up an authority structure to accomplish His purposes. I honor God by honoring my parents, coaches, church leaders, and teammates. If I truly honor God and obey Him, He will open His supernatural resources to me. When we dishonor God we restrain Him from working in our lives.

Honoring God does not guarantee wins but does guarantee God’s best. I love His promise in Malachi 3:10: “Bring the full 10 percent into the storehouse so that there may be food in My house. Test Me in this way,” says the Lord of Hosts. “See if I will not open the floodgates of heaven and pour out a blessing for you without measure.” When we honor God, we can be sure of honor’s reward.