What I do affects my relationship with God

It is easy to see that my actions can impact my relationship with others. If I respond to something in anger and drive at high speeds, I may have an accident with someone abiding by all the laws. That means a person I may not even know has a dim view of me.

It is more difficult to view my day to day activities with the realization that it impacts my relationship with God. What I do may hurt him, but I do not see God’s sorrow, or anger. Yet, my deeds directly impact how God views me.

The nation of Judah demonstrates my point very well.

“The kingdom of Judah was in a state of spiritual decline. Religious superficiality and rampant immorality saturated the countryside. The nation had ceased to trust in Jehovah and was inclined to form protective alliances with certain pagan powers” (Wayne Jackson The Prophets 2).

Isaiah wrote to those straying people in an effort to bring them back to their deliverer. He declared,

“Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, That it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, That it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear” (Isaiah 59:1-2).

The letter of 1 John demonstrates that those who walk in the light and are pleasing to him. Those in darkness do not get to have any partnership with the Father in heaven. John told his little children in the faith,

“But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:7-9).

Those who want to have God’s approval must handle his word in the right way. Paul informed the young preacher, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).

Jesus said, “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). He prayed to his Father in behalf of his followers and asked, “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth” (John 17:17).

Paul’s further writings to Timothy show he understood what the Lord was saying. He proclaimed,

“And that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction to righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:15-17).

Those who want God to work everything in their lives out for their ultimate good must love God. Paul told the Roman saints, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28).

Jesus explained how love for God is manifested when he said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15).

These clear teachings of scripture should make us all take a longer look at the things we are planning to do. Those wanting the Lord to bid us enter the eternal kingdom need to remember his words in the parable of the judgment.

“Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me’” (Matthew 25:34-36).