To Honor and Please God
What kind of “fruit” do your relationships have?
Verse of the Day
‘Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better.’
Today’s Devotional
All the while….
This verse comes directly after yesterday’s verse. As we grow in the knowledge of God’s will, spiritual wisdom, and understanding, we will learn to live in a way that honors and pleases God. Do you want to have a life that honors and pleases God?
It’s easier to make the connection of what that might mean if I compare it to my marriage relationship. My husband said to me yesterday, “We haven’t talked much this week.” He was right. This week has been busy, and I was not intentional about setting time aside for us to connect. When I take the time to really focus on my marriage and we talk about more than just surface things, the fruit of that time is a feeling of connectedness, closeness, and love. But sometimes life gets busy, and the fruit of not being intentional in my marriage relationship is a feeling of disconnectedness.
We have the gift of the Bible, so we all know what honors and pleases God – putting Him first in our lives and loving His people. Paul is telling us (from yesterday’s verse) that the knowledge of God’s will, spiritual wisdom, and understanding are what help us know how to honor and please the Lord in the everyday situations we face. As we are intentional about spending time with God, and as we put into practice the things he teaches us, our lives will be marked with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. This is the fruit of a God-focused life.
At this point, my thought is: “I must be doing something wrong. That fruit does not necessarily describe my life.” But just like my relationship with my husband, this is not a one-and-done, “I’m saved, so all is well” kind of life. It takes years to develop a close human relationship. How much more time will it take to develop a relationship with a non-physical God? But the more I practice, I grow as I know God better and better. The more I decide to trust, the more God proves that He is trustworthy. The more I love, both God and others, the more love I have to give. The more I place a priority on my relationship with God, the more real God is in my life.
Relationships are important. New relationships take time to develop. Relationships with infrequent contact would require a change in our pattern to develop a deeper level of closeness. The long term relationships, though comfortable and safe, still require effort. Sometimes, they require more thought and intention than other relationships – simply because they are a given. As I am convicted that I need to focus more time and attention on my husband, I am also convicted that sometimes I treat my relationship with God the same way I treated James this last week. It’s not detrimental, it doesn’t cause a rift…but it also doesn’t produce the kind of fruit I’d like to have In my life.
I am convinced that learning to live the kind of life Paul is describing here is a life-long process. It will require practice, it will be marked by mistakes, and it will look a lot less selfish than my life does today. Sounds a lot like my marriage. I long to honor and please God with my life. But wanting something, and choosing to do the required actions to achieve something are two very different things.
Journal Prompts
Answer only the questions that seem relevant to you today.
How can you honor and please God with your life today?
How can you be more intentional with the important relationships in your life today, specifically your relationship with God?
How is your fruit?