How does one honor his benefactor?

"What shall I render to the LORD for all his benefits to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD" (Psalm 116:12-13; ESV)

What can we possibly give to God that he does not already have? He blesses us so richly, how can we honor him without insulting him by attempting to be his benefactor?

What is the best way for a dinner guest to praise the cook? Isn't it to ask for seconds? I believe this is what the Psalmist is saying in Psalm 116. As Christians, we are consumers of the continual flow the incalculable blessings of God through his river of grace to us.

How then shall we honor him in this arrangement? Shouldn't we remain in the river, drinking deeply of his blessings, and continually lift up our empty spiritual cups asking for more?

Let us be ever cautious about "serving" God. We are called to be servants, but not with the mindset that we are giving back to God. He already owns everything. We can give him nothing but our faith in his promises yet to be experienced and gratitude for the promises already experienced.

Our "service" to him is to come forth in the form of the fruit of faith in the hope we have in his promises to us. Our service is to be directed at other humans, not God. He is the vine and we are the branches. Branches give no consideration to the fruit they bear. Instead they concentrate fully on sucking the sap from the vine. The natural outcome of this sucking of sap is the growth of fruit. The branch cannot claim to have produced the fruit on its own. It was empowered by the strength it received from the sap which was provided by the vine.

This is the arrangement. We are helpless branches that are powerless to produce fruit without the vine which provides the sap. Let us continually recognize that we are helpless without God and constantly feed on him through his Word. In this way we honor him as the source of all things and he rightly gets the glory.