LIVING LIKE GOD IS YOUR GOD

God wants us to live trusting Him. He wants us to be faithful to Him. He wants us to know what it’s like to have Him fulfill our lives and give us all that we need. He wants to bless us. When you become a believer in Jesus Christ He wants you to live in such a way that honors Him, and that way of living will certainly be different than a lot of the people around you. Not that God wants you to be odd, but instead of adapting to the ways of the world that are all about serving self, He wants us to live with His values that serve Him and honor Him. When we do, God uses us to point others to Him. He gets the attention. He gets the glory. And the people around you are either drawn to Him through you or they may keep their distance.

When the people of Israel entered the land promised to them by God, He wanted them to live trusting Him and serving Him. He wanted them to live pure lives, separate from the ways of the other nations. In so doing God would use them to testify of Himself, and the other nations would have a visual of God’s reality through Israel. They would have the opportunity, after hearing about Israel and the one true God, to turn to Him in belief. So God tells His people: “When you come to the land that the Lord your God is giving you, never learn the disgusting practices of those nations. …You must have integrity in dealing with the Lord your God.” Deuteronomy 18:9,13 (GW). The people of Israel were set apart to God for His purposes, and they were to live according to His purposes which would in turn invite His blessings on them. This would be a witness to the other nations.

Here are four things we can do to live like God is our God:


1. Grow.
“In a word, what I'm saying is, Grow up. You're kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.” Matt. 5:48 (Mes)

2. Purify.
Let's make a clean break with everything that defiles or distracts us, both within and without. Let's make our entire lives fit and holy temples for the worship of God. 2 Cor. 7:1 (Mes)

3. Go forward.
Yet, my brothers, I do not consider myself to have “arrived”, spiritually, nor do I consider myself already perfect. But I keep going on, grasping ever more firmly that purpose for which Christ grasped me. Phil. 3:12 (Ph)

4. Live the new you.
Could it be any clearer? Our old way of life was nailed to the cross with Christ, a decisive end to that sin-miserable life—no longer at sin's every beck and call! … Throw yourselves wholeheartedly and full-time—remember, you've been raised from the dead!—into God's way of doing things. Sin can't tell you how to live. After all, you're not living under that old tyranny any longer. You're living in the freedom of God. Rom. 6:6-7, 13-14 (Mes)