Today we are learning more about how to live and what I love about how Paul writes here is that he tells us what to do and then he tells us how to do it.

Paul begins this chapter by telling us to be an imitator of God and then tells us what that looks like practically and which in turn gives us an idea of what God looks like.

We are to live lives that are generous because that's what He is like. God loves to give, to invite us in, to sacrifice Himself for those He loves (which includes those who don't love Him). We also need to watch our speech, not being rude or obscene which Paul sees as beneath us, it will mean speaking differently to those around us and when we speak and act differently it shows them the right way, it exposes them and demonstrates to them that there is a different, better way.  We're to take opportunities to stand out, to tell people the gospel, to pray, to bless, to bring heaven to earth whenever we can, that's what taking advantage of every opportunity means to me.

God builds us up and has so much encouragement for us that He wants us to be full of His spirit rather than wine and in being filled with the Holy Spirit we will overflow with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs and in so doing effectively prophesying to those around us. We’re building up and pointing Christians and non-Christians to Jesus because our nature and language have been changed because we've been cleansed by Him.

God's desire is for us to be beautiful, radiant, without spot or blemish and He wants to feed us, nourish us and give us everything we need because we are so valuable to Him. He can only do that if we come to Him daily so we do that by praying, reading the word and spending time with Him. He is continually speaking to us, we need to have a listening ear so we can hear and be nourished and washed clean by it. The more we are nourished by Him, the more we'll see what He is like and He'll show us how to imitate Him so we can demonstrate to the world what an amazing, loving God we have.

***

Father God, please show me any area of my life where I don't imitate you and please show me how I can change. Amen.