Bible: Psalm 34: 1-9

Main verse: PSALM 34: 3 – O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt His name together.

*******

Human life has many stressful problems, but as we are God’s children, we can find many solutions to handle those problems and be able to enjoy life. It all depends on how much we want to obey and follow God’s instruction.

One of the ways to be satisfied and happy is to help others know God and love Him, most importantly our family members, relatives and close friends.

Sometimes, we have a hard time at work because of uncooperative co-workers. Most of us can handle difficult workload, but we would feel stressful if we work with such difficult people. In those circumstances, some Christians were tempted to act and behave like unbelievers in order to be accepted or to be treated friendly by those co-workers. However, doing so will risk of losing God’s favor. We cannot please others forever anyways.

The best solution is to introduce God to them and help them be a Christian like us. If we can do that, we can satisfy God’s greater command and at the same time, gain one more brother and sister in Christ. We cannot satisfy everyone’s point of view, but everyone can adopt God’ standards and live peacefully with others.

PROVERBS 17: 17 – A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.

Not only do we help co-workers to be Christians, but we should encourage them to love God, because it’s the only way make them to accept God’s standards willingly. If Christians do not love God strong enough to live according to His teachings, we Christians can be unfriendly to each other and sometimes even worse than that.

Only when we really love God is when we will truly love each other as brothers and sisters in Christ:

JOHN 13: 34-35 – A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

JOHN 15: 12 – This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.

ROMANS 12: 10 – Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another.

1THESSALONIANS 4: 9 – But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another.

1PETER 1: 22 – Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently.

1JOHN 4: 11-12 – Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.

It’s the same for those who serve God within the church’s environment. Only when we really love God is when we will truly serve Him with the same goal and purposes.

This can also apply in families to have a home full of joy, happiness and harmony. There are many examples in real life in which Christians were persecuted by his or her family members, their parents, siblings and relatives. If we abandoned our faith in order to appease to our non-believer families, then we would lose our chances of eternal life and our families would be lost too.

MATTHEW 10: 27 – What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops.

We should try our best to introduce them to Jesus Christ and His salvation and help them to be Christians. By doing so, we are not only able to keep our faith, but we also have a chance to see our loved ones again in the heavenly kingdom after passing from this life on Earth. In the meantime, we will have a home full of joy and happiness as the whole family has the same faith in Christ.

That’s one of the many reasons that we should help our fathers, mothers, spouses, siblings and relatives to be Christians and encourage them to love God with us. When all of us love God with our full hearts, then we will be more than willing to follow God’ standards to live a joy and peaceful life together.

EXODUS 20: 12 – Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.

EPHESIANS 6: 4 – And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

2CORINTHIANS 12: 14 – Behold, the third time I am ready to come to you; and I will not be burdensome to you: for I seek not yours, but you: for the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children.

EPHESIANS 5: 22-23 – Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.

COLOSSIANS 3: 18 – Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord.

EPHESIANS 5: 25 – Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it.

EPHESIANS 5: 28 – So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.

COLOSSIANS 3: 19 – Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them.

1PETER 3: 7 – Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.

EPHESIANS 5: 33 – Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.

Only when we love God with our full hearts is when we Christians will be willing to live according to God’s commands to have a peaceful, happy life together. God’s standards are beneficial to everyone and, with that kind of moral equality, everyone will be happy and satisfied for life.

May God bless us with wisdom to know how to help our loved ones and friends to become Christians. May God be with us as we encourage each other to love Him and live according to His teachings to the day we see Him in the glory kingdom. Amen.