Imitators of God

“Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.  And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”  (Eph. 5:1-2, ESV)

I like to cook and do some occasional baking.  I guess the reason why I like to cook is to help out at home, and to have my wife say, “Oh, this is yummy.”  But one thing I don’t like while I am cooking is to mess up or to ruin the surprise for my wife what I am cooking.  Because of this I don’t like to ask for help while I am cooking.  However, there is one problem, I don’t always read the directions right or understand them correctly.  So you guessed it, this gets me into trouble.  Recently, I made a lemon meringue pie and had some problems.  While following the recipe everything was going well, the pie shell and the filling looked great. The meringue peaked and when I put it all together it seemed great. I put it in the oven and all was going as planned. As it was cooking my wife and I had dinner.  I told her I had made a lemon meringue pie but I had a question, how do you grate lemon peels?  She told me how and you guessed it, I did not do that, I simply cut the peels so fine no one would ever know.  At dessert time we had the pie and the first thing she noticed was that the pie crust was not cooked fully, I had missed the part about putting the filling in the baked pie crust, second the lemon peels were not fine as we were able to pick out almost all of the peels as we ate it.  The filling and meringue were great, but the overall pie had some issues.  Why is it so hard to follow directions?  Why is it so hard to ask for help?

One word, it is pride.  In the above two verses Paul calls us to imitate God instead of following the world.  We are to imitate our father as a dearly loved child.  To look to Him in all his righteousness and live a life of love just like Jesus did for us.  It is hard to ask for help.  It is hard to admit that our life here on earth will never measure up to what God desires for us.  But we can live the life God wants for us through Jesus.  The joy is set in place that when we do live that life we are like a sweet fragrant offering to God.  The smell of the lemon meringue pie filled the house in spite of its flaws.  It is an incredible thought that when God sees us through Christ he sees dearly loved children perfect and righteous because of Christ.  

So I am left with daily questions, how can I imitate God today?  Am I living a life of love as Christ loved me?  Is my life a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God?  What areas do I need to work on?

Prayer: Lord, help me to set aside my pride and ask for help.  Help me to imitate you God and allow my life to be pleasing to you.  I pray that I would be a fragrant offering to you. Help me to be more like you.  Amen