Recognition At Its Finest

Acknowledgment is something that all people enjoy. Whether they admit to it or not, a little bit of acknowledgment feels just right. You do something nice for someone else and there is some satisfaction just with knowing that you helped them-but it's a bonus if you get some of that acknowledgment for it. This I know full well.

I'm interning under a lead pastor at a church, Evangel Temple, this summer. A few weeks ago, the Care Ministry Pastor approached me and said, "Kenny, I was talking to Pastor Jason this morning and he told me that you are doing a great job this summer. He probably will never tell you that, but I want you to know that he said it." I tell myself that I don't need acknowledgment and that I don't need to be recognized. That may be true. I don't need it, but I'm never going to rebuke it. I may on the outside...but my insides know me better. Someone who I greatly respect had acknowledged the work I had been doing. Yes please. Acknowledgment.

I was reading in Hosea tonight. This is an incredible story of how God chooses to love, despite the dumb things that Israel had been doing. In Hosea 2:8 it says, "She has not acknowledged that I was the one who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil, who lavished on her the silver and gold which they used for Baal." The very first thing that came to my mind was "what have I not been acknowledging?"

God had been all these people could have asked for. He was a provider, protector, deliverer, giver, encourager, their source of hope and happiness, and their lover. He loved them in spite of their sinful selves. And even though God was all these things for them, they not only did not acknowledge this fact, but they took the blessings and the gifts that God gave them and turned around and used them on a false god. A one-two combo to the gut.
The initial jab-they did not acknowledge His unconditional greatness towards them.
The haymaker-they took His unmerited blessings and used them in appreciation of another god.

So I am forced to look at my own life and say "what have I failed to acknowledge from God? What gifts have I been given and turned around and used them for dull purposes and immature gains." God consistently gives me everything I need; He can fulfill my every desire; yet I often run in vain towards other things for fulfillment. I do not acknowledge God enough. I do not acknowledge the greatness that He is.

An acknowledgment of my inability to acknowledge my true provider, giver, and lover.
An acknowledgment that I can no longer claim ignorance of this.