UV 263 Imitate God

Uni-verse 263/10,000 for better through verse Ephesians 5 v 1
Eph 5:1 Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children;

Imitation is said to be the greatest form of worship. Whom we admire we imitate. We begin life by imitating our parents, consciously or unconsciously. As parents,we often feel gratified in seeing our children like us in their character and conduct much more than we are gratified by their similarity in physical aspects. Likewise, since God is our eternal parent, we are to imitate Him. It pleases Him to see us being and acting like Him. We normally imitate people based on what we see in them. But, how do we imitate God when no man has seen Him?

In physical life, we see and believe, we see and imitate. In spiritual life, we hear and believe, we also hear the Word of God and imitate Him. A good guide to following God is to ask ourselves, “ What would Jesus do?” and do likewise. Jesus in His sermon on the Mount said, “ Be perfect because your Father in heaven is perfect.” Trying to be perfect in all that we think, speak, do is one of the important ways we confirm that we are indeed the children of God, that we do have His DNA and there is no need for any DNA fingerprinting to prove the point!
One of the most significant ways we can be like our Father God is to be forgiving like Him, to be merciful and gracious. We must also try to be pure and pleasant in our conversations. We need to order our conversation to be in line with God’s ways. We need to be charitable and compassionate. We need to be faithful and believe that nothing, absolutely nothing is impossible with our Father. At the same time, we should be aware that being like God is quite different from being God or playing God in different situations. We must avoid being judgmental, a common failing of believing Christians, a “holier than thou” attitude. We must take care not to lord it over others. We must always cultivate and demonstrate an attitude of humility and repentance, regardless of the calling, gifting and fruits that the Lord in His mercy and generosity has endowed us with.

Prateep V Philip