Keep Yourself Unspotted From the World as You Walk With God

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Not all of us can walk down the red carpet at the Oscars, but we all have opportunities to show the world how we show up through our behaviors and actions.  Surrounded by culture, all of us have decisions to make on a day-to-day basis regarding when and how we reflect the elements of our culture that are presented by others around us.

One might ask:

If my friends use profanity when we are together, should I use profanity as well?

If my best friend listens to music with explicit lyrics when I ride as a passenger in her car, should I turn on the same music when she is a passenger in my car? Even if I never listen to it?

If I am offered a list of stolen answers for next week’s exam at school and my friend accepts, should I also accept?

I could go on with many examples, but this all leads to the question of how we should posture ourselves in the world when we seek to walk with God.

If we seek to walk with God, how important is it that we carry ourselves in a way that demonstrates the influences that the world has on our behavior?  

Keep Yourself Unspotted From the World

If we do seek to walk with God, it is very important to understand that God’s ways are not the world’s ways.  What the world may see as perfectly acceptable (such as listening to music with explicit lyrics), is not acceptable when it comes to seeking to walk with God.

We have touched on this topic in a number of messages in the past.   In one message, we are reminded of the common saying “You can’t have your cake and eat it too” when it comes to walking with God.

Check out our message “Unanswered Prayer: Is it God or you?“

We cannot and should not expect our relationship with God to be unaffected if our hearts and minds are focused on things that are popular in the world but do not honor God.  

An important part of this concept is how others in your world perceive you.  What would your friends and family say if someone were to ask them if you conform to the world’s ways or to ways that are pleasing to God?

Do you model the influences of the world for all to see or do you refrain from behaviors that you know are far from God?

Walking with God Unaffected

So how do we walk with God in a way that honors Him and allows us to keep ourselves unspotted from the world?

Let’s go over a few strategies:

Ask God for strength and courage

Peer pressure can be a daunting thing.  If your friends are doing it, your family is doing it, and you know that it is not honoring God, what do you do?  By no means is it simple to stand out in the crowd by not going along with the status quo, but in this situation, we thankfully have God to lean on.  

Ask God for the strength and resolve to not bow to peer pressure when you are the only one that prefers to abstain from inappropriate behavior among close friends and family.

Ask God for courage when you need to enter an environment or a set of circumstances that you know do not honor God, but your presence is needed. Ask for the courage to remain firm in your posture of acting in an honorable way before God, even if there are strangers all around expecting you to go with the flow.

Ask God to remind you

Perhaps you have been in a situation where you used to have a particular behavior around friends but you learned it did not honor God.  Old habits can be hard to break.

One of the many wonderful things about walking with God is that He knows your situation.  He knows you used to do a particular thing and that you are trying to not continue the behavior.

You can ask God to remind you if you are steering towards old habits that you know move you away from Him and towards the world.  We all have free will, but He will delight in helping you if you ask.  God has very unique ways of getting our attention and if you ask Him to get your attention, He most certainly will.

Be Unchanged

One of the most powerful things you can do as you keep yourself unspotted from the world is to remain consistent in behavior that honors God. 

What do you think would happen if you went out to lunch with some work colleagues to discuss events from over the weekend? Each person one by one explains the highlights of their weekend filled with profanities. {{ Video edit: Add info to ‘God in the workplace’ }} It’s your turn.  What do you say? Do you try to align with the mood at the table and lace your weekend activities with expletives or do you refrain?

Walk Unashamed

Last but not least, walk unashamed.  By refraining, over time, your colleagues will start to notice that you behave in a way that is very different from ‘everyone else’.  

By using words that do not contain the elements of our common culture, you begin to set a tone that others at that table may seek to also employ.  It may even turn into an opportunity for you to give testimony to someone about your walk with God and invite them into a relationship with God as well.

Today we discussed how we are to be unspotted by the world and instead walk with God unchanged by culture and unashamed of God’s way. There will certainly be many times in life when the behavior of those in our surroundings is not honoring God and we will have to choose how we show up in the room.  

Let us lean on God to remain steadfast in a posture that prioritizes honoring God over honoring the status quo of what is popular in today’s culture.  As ambassadors for God, let us behave in a way pleasing to God that is uncommon and unique in the circles we travel.  In doing so, we stand to create opportunities for others to gravitate to us and in turn, introduce others to a relationship with the Father.