Your Daily Life Matters to God

After having church fellowship, my wife and I were returning back home along with our children. As we were waiting at the crossroad to take the right turn, the vehicles before me started to go ahead. I began to follow them, but when I saw the red signal still on, I immediately stopped. There were honks behind me, signaling me to keep going, but I didn’t move.

My eldest son, Joy, began telling me, “Papa, let’s go. Vehicles are going. Why did you stop?” I replied, “The red signal is still on.” He said, “So what? No problem. Others are going. Go.” I was trying to explain to him how as Christians it is not the right thing to follow the crowd in doing wrong. Then he said, “This is just signal; it is not Jesus. This has nothing to do with obeying God.”

I find many of us are like my seven year old kid who assumes how we live our daily life and what daily choices we make has nothing to do with God and spirituality. How many of us act (we may not admit) according to the following myths?

• How I shout at my wife has nothing to do with God! Am I am shouting at God?
• How I disrespect my husband has nothing to do with God! Am I disrespecting God?
• How negligent I am at my workplace has nothing to do with God! Am I neglecting the church?
• How I gossip about others has nothing to do with God! Am I speaking evil about God?
• How I dishonestly earn money has nothing to do with God! Am I robbing God’s money?
• How I misbehave with my neighbor has nothing to do with God! Am I behaving harsh with God?
• How I lie to people has nothing to do with God! Am I lying to God?
• How I avenge those who offend me has nothing to do with God! Am I not being nice with God?
• How I cheat on taxes has nothing to do with God! Am I not giving my tithes to God?
• How I refuse correction from people has nothing to do with God! Am I not listening to the Holy Bible?
• And on and on and on…..

Many think spirituality is just about praying, reading the Holy Bible, going to church, singing songs, listening to a sermon and giving an offering...etc. We suppose these are the only things that matter to God. We don’t realize that our daily life, i.e. how we live at home, at workplace, on streets and in our private life, matters to God and speak a lot about our spirituality.

Are you aware of the following instances?

• Do you know when Paul persecuted the believers, the Lord said, “Saul, Saul why do you persecute me”? (Acts 9:4)
• Do you know when David committed adultery with Bathsheba, he said with repentance, “Against you only have I sinned”? (Ps. 51:4)
• Do you know when the righteous did good to His people, the King said, “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me”? And to the wicked who didn’t do good to His people, the King said, “I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me”? (Matt. 25:32-46)
• Do you know, out of The Ten Commandments, six are related to how you treat your fellow human beings? (Ex. 20:1-17).
• Do you know, to the slaves who were working for their earthly masters, Paul said, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men”? (Col. 3:23).

I can go on and on and cite Scripture after Scripture. But what do all these Scriptures reveal? God is concerned about how we treat others and how we follow the right standards in this corrupt world. When we misbehave with others, we are ultimately offending God. And when we don’t follow the right standards, we are eventually disobeying God’s word.

Friends, how we live on earth and conduct our daily affairs matters to God and reflect our love for Him and reverence to His word. We cannot put God out of our daily life in whatever we do. And our life and choices not only matters to God but as the Scripture says, “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad” (2 Cor. 5:10).

Therefore, “whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Col. 3:17).

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Enquiries:

cstephendavid@gmail.com (or) stephen@tents-india.org