Skills of Godly Living
Skills of Godly Living
Life, fully surrendered to God.
“a life no longer seeking self-satisfaction through a sinful lifestyle, but now surrendered to God and His will for our life.” - Chuck Stanley
I want to speak into the topic of Godly living and highlight four areas that we can focus on that will have benefits in our daily lives.
Speech
God spoke everything into existence and show’s us from the start of creation the power of words. I think this was not just to show us his power, which it does in a big way, but to show us how important and powerful the words we use are.
Power
Throughout the bible we see several instances of an audible command given by God and in the New Testament we see Jesus use his speech to complete his ministry. He could have easily looked at someone or thought about something and the task would’ve been accomplished, but we see him say commands like these: “Forgive them”, “get up and walk”, “come out of that grave”.
Guard Your Mouth
Psalms 141:3 asks God to set a guard over our mouth.
“Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth;
keep watch over the door of my lips!”
How often do we pray for this? Let us not just be bold in words but be meek in silence. Let us give room for God to speak through us.
Proverbs 10:19 states that too much talk leads to sin.
“Too much talk leads to sin.
Be sensible and keep your mouth shut.”
James 3:5-6 talks about how our tongue is like a fire that can lead to the destruction of a whole forest.
”So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell”
Remember the more we talk, the less we listen to God. The unfortunate result of not listening is a greater opportunity to sin as well. There are a few things I try to remember in my daily walk when thinking about what I say:
Complaining
It isn’t biblical, it’s letting the enemy win because we focus on our problems instead of giving them to the Lord. My wife, Katie, doesn’t let me complain or vent. When I asked her one day “Can you just let me complain about my day sometimes?”, she said “no, it’s not biblical”. She tells me every time that she will pray for me and then tells me to pray and ask God to have his will in the situation.
Joking
Making sure I’m retaining my Christian example when joking with others. God gave me a sense of humor, but the enemy will try and use it to hurt my witness. Ephesians 5:4-7 talks about crude joking or fooling talk to how there is no place for that. Instead of trying to get that quick wit in, we should be meek and let only edifying words escape our mouth
“Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not become partners with them;”
Armor of God
Remember that as Christians we put on the armor of God, we have the Holy Spirit, we have the comfort of a merciful God. Those without a relationship with Christ, are so much more vulnerable. Imagine wrecking your bike and having a helmet vs not having one. We need to remember what we say around everyone, but especially know the power our words can have on those without the armor of God, the comfort of a merciful God, and the support of a church family.
Walking (Living)
How we walk in our daily lives should be reflections of how Christ lived. The bible talks about walking/living with faith and love and kindness. How we live our daily lives will sometimes be the only witness to those around us.
Walking with Faith
2 Cor 5:7 is my favorite bible verse and has helped me over the years. I like to replace the words in the verse with other words from translations as shown below.
“for we walk by faith, not by sight.”
How I like to translate it
For we live by trusting in the unseen, not by what is seen.
This verse is about living as though we can see God and the gates of heaven. Oh how little earthly troubles become when we compare them to walking towards eternity. We should live our lives, not as how we see the world, but as how God views the world.
Walking As Imitators of God
As it says in Ephesians 5:1-2, we should imitate God in all we do.
“Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children. Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God.”
The closer we are to imitating God in our daily lives, the farther we are from imitators of a fallen world. I love the quote “More of Him, less of us, until it’s all of Him and none of us”. Before I left the house to do anything as a kid or teenager, my parents always asked, “who are you?” and we couldn’t leave until we responded with “a person of worth created in the image of God”. This was a reminder for us to behave like a child of God should and that we were created by God that doesn’t do anything by accident.
Walking in Wisdom
Ephesians 5:15 tells us to be careful in our walk and to walk in wisdom
“look carefully how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise”
Growing up I was always taught to think about how my actions impact others. Looking back, there is such wisdom in that thought. This isn’t just a reminder to be kind or behave as a kid, this is a lifelong reminder to think about how my Christian Walk impacts others.
Walk in Kindness – Be Kind, We Can’t Rewind
Ephesians 4:31-32 perfectly lays out how to treat others and why.
“Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”
Bitterness is stated first as it will lead to other sins. Bitterness stops us from forgiving and causes us to hold onto feelings that are of the world and not of God. Kindness lets us look past how a person is defined on earth and see them as how Christ would.
Giving
In 1 Corinthians 16:2 Paul sends instructions on how to collect an offering and there are good lessons to take from this.
“On the first day of each week, you should each put aside a portion of the money you have earned. Don’t wait until I get there and then try to collect it all at once.”
Don’t Wait
Don’t wait until Sunday morning, until the plate is coming your way to decide what to give. We should be praying and listening to God and discerning how he wants us to give. Giving should be a pre-decision that we make, led by prayer.
Making a prayer led decision to give ahead of time, avoids manipulation by either a speaker or your own thoughts. We shouldn’t give out of guilt or pressure from others giving.
Everyone Should Give
Every Christian should be a giver. God is giving and so we should give as imitators of Him. God wants all of you and wants to convert you in your entirety which means he wants to convert your wallet to His will and to be used for HIS glory. Malachi 3:6-10 says we are robbing God if we don’t give according to his will.
”For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. From the days of your fathers, you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, ‘How shall we return?’ Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.”
Praying
The last one I want to talk about is “Prayer” and is possibly the most important as we can’t live a Godly life without a prayerful relationship with God. This is an opportunity to speak with God and ask for discernment in our daily lives. Prayer is where we get direction on how to daily walk with Him. Prayer is where we ask for God to be in our daily lives and help guard our mouths against saying things that would hurt our witness. Prayer is how we give our earthly possessions to him and allows direction in how to give and use what we have for His glory.
One-On-One
In Mark 1:35, Jesus gives us an example of how to pray. He goes alone before God to speak with Him.
Before daybreak the next morning, Jesus got up and went out to an isolated place to pray.
Prayer should be given importance in your daily life and you should do your best to remove outside distractions while you have one-on-one time with the Lord.
Give It All to The Lord
Philippians 4:6-7 tells us not to be anxious, but to give it all to the Lord and God will give us peace that surpasses all understanding.
do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
God already has victories that we can’t see. He is waiting for us to give our troubles and stress over to him. The God that created everything is bigger than anything we have in our lives.
Talk to God, don’t just ask
When we pray, remember this isn’t just an opportunity to ask for things. God knows what is in our hearts and what is going on in our lives already. We need to remember to do the following when we pray
Praise God – “Dear God, we love you and praise your name”
Be thankful – “Dear God, thank you for your blessings and all that you do for me and all that you have given”
Be intentional in pray, make it important to you, because it is important to Him
Closing
I want to end with a challenge for everyone.
Prayer every day this week. This doesn’t have to be a long prayer, just find a time to connect with God. I tell people to do prayer breathing. Take a deep breath in, exhale a prayer. If you have time to breath, you have time to pray.
Prayerfully give this week. Ask God to lead you in giving.
Try to use your words to edify and encourage someone.
Walk through your day and try to imitate God. Show others that we live with a peace that only God can offer.