Motivators that encourage us to obey God - Part 1

The purpose of this series is to find Biblical truths that will stimulate us to love and good works. The first truth we'll cover is obtaining favor with God and also with man. The Bible verses are found in Proverbs 3:3-4

3 Do not let kindness and truth leave you

Bind them around your neck,

Write them on the tablet of your heart.

4 So you will find favor and good repute

In the sight of God and man.

First, believers can find favor with God through walking in obedience. Being careful to do all that God commands will result in our way being prosperous and having success. It is one of the things Joshua was instructed to do in Joshua 1:8

8"This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.

But in addition to finding favor in the sight of God we can also find favor in the sight of man.

We can shape our own environment by the way we treat others. If we make it our habit to bring good to others then good ends up coming back to us. People can warm up to us when they receive love from us and it increases how we are esteemed in their eyes . And although it is not our intention to show kindness and receive something in return, often times they want to reciprocate and do something nice for us. Our kindness caused us to find favor with them and it shaped our own environment in a positive way.

But the opposite it true too. If we are nasty with people then we shouldn't be surprised when that nastiness is returned back to us. One Bible verse that shows how being nasty with others causes us to have difficulty with people instead of favor is Galatians 5:15

15 But if you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.

Nastiness breeds nastiness and also causes us to have a poor reputation with others. But kindness encourages kindness to be returned to us. And our kindness also increases how others esteem us . So lets walk in kindness and truth so we can find favor with God and also with our fellow man.

Scripture quotations taken from the "NASB" (www.lockman.org)

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