Our Actions Affect God

Scripture Reading

Psalm 81:7-16

7 In your distress you called and I rescued you, I answered you out of a thundercloud; I tested you at the waters of Meribah. 8 Hear me, my people, and I will warn you— if you would only listen to me, Israel! 9 You shall have no foreign god among you; you shall not worship any god other than me. 10 I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of Egypt. Open wide your mouth and I will fill it.

11 “But my people would not listen to me; Israel would not submit to me. 12 So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices.

13 “If my people would only listen to me, if Israel would only follow my ways, 14 how quickly I would subdue their enemies and turn my hand against their foes! 15 Those who hate the Lord would cringe before him, and their punishment would last forever. 16 But you would be fed with the finest of wheat; with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”

Devotional

We know that God is all-knowing, all-powerful, and everywhere at all times. There is nothing he cannot do and none of his plans fail. We often talk about how amazing it is that God is not only our Savior, but our friend, and he genuinely cares about us, but have you thought lately about how your actions affect God personally just as much as his actions towards us impact us? There are numerous scriptures throughout the Bible that says how the Lord delights in us. We literally bring him joy and happiness in spite of our imperfections and sin.

Here in Psalm 81, we see another facet of God’s emotions. He is pained. He brought the Israelites out of bondage from Egypt and gave them water to drink from a rock when they were thirsty. And yet after all of that, they turned against him. They began to serve other gods and decided that they wanted to live life their way instead of the way God wanted. They essentially were released from slavery only to become willing slaves to sin. God is angry and hurting from their actions because he loves his people and he wants to bless them enormously and protect them. The New Century Version of this scripture verse 11 reads: “…Israel did not want me.” That’s not just a statement of fact, it’s an expression of sadness. He had plans to prosper them, but he knows their plans will lead to their own destruction.

I don’t know about you, but it pretty much never crosses my mind that God delights in my very existence. I know he forgives my sins. I know he calls me friend. I know that he wants me to be part of his plans and I’m humbled by all of that, but I’ve never stopped to think about scriptures like Zephaniah 3:17 that says:

17 The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.”

And Psalm 149:4 says:

4 For the Lord takes delight in his people; he crowns the humble with victory.

Did you notice that there are no caveats to those scriptures? It’s not from anything we’ve done. It’s not because we’re so perfect or because we go to church on Sundays and Wednesdays. The Lord just simply takes delight in us. Now, I will say that if we turn against God or idolize other things above God, then he becomes angry and jealous. But generally speaking, as long as we believe in God and are trying to follow in his ways even with all of our imperfections, he delights in us.

What if every day we thought about how our actions affect God? How would that change your mindset as you go throughout the day? You may have had times in your life when you’ve paused and asked yourself, am I making my parents proud or am I disappointing them? Instinctively, we want to make our parents happy and proud of us, so how much more should we want our Father in Heaven to be proud of us? He wants to grow you. He wants to shower you with blessings so that your cup runneth over. He wants the best of the very best for you. In the same way, I hope that each day no matter what the day brings, no matter what challenges we’re faced with, we can say “God, I also delight in you and I want the very best for your kingdom. I want to make you proud.” Let’s pray.

Prayer

Father God, thank you for the reminder that my actions affect you personally. Help me stay in your ways and remember how good and faithful you are to me. Help me to remember how you have great plans for my future and always desire the best for me. In the same way, I want to give my life to you. I pray that I will live my life in such a way that brings you joy and that I can use the gifts you have given me to bless others. My heart desires to make you proud. In Jesus’ name, Amen.