
Focus Scripture: Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one. Colossians 4:6
I joke a lot and sometimes it can be too much for people. I have often times been called quick-witted, meaning it’s nothing for me to go back and forth with someone all in the name of a good laugh. Everyone needs a good laugh every once and a while, right?
Absolutely, laughter is good for us. Ecclesiastes 3 teaches us there is a time for every purpose under heaven, which includes a time to laugh. However, when does joking go too far? This is a question I often times have to ask myself and unfortunately, sometimes later rather than sooner.
I woke up early one morning excited to meet God and spend time with Him. Not long after settling down to have some alone time, I soon learned His agenda for that time was different from what I expected. He instructed me to apologize to someone for something I said while joking the night before. I made a mental note to oblige and prepared to move on. But God wasn’t having it! “Apologize” was all I could hear. God wouldn’t let me move forward in our time alone and building our relationship until I was obedient. “We were all joking. I don’t see what the big deal is and actually he was lying, so me calling him a liar, wasn’t wrong. He’s not going to care anyway because we were all joking.”
“But I care…” God cares about our relationships. Our horizontal relationships with people, deeply affect our vertical relationship with the Father. Matthew 5 instructs, if we are in the act of offering a gift to God, but remember that we have wronged our brother or sister in Christ, we are to leave our gift, go and reconcile with our brother or sister and then come back and offer our gift (Matthew 5:23-24).
Has God been calling you to reconcile with a brother or sister in Christ? He doesn’t want anything you have to offer Him until you get it right with them first!
Prayer: Heavenly Father, I have not always honored You with my words and the way I treat Your people, and for that I ask for Your forgiveness. Thank You for helping me to realize all relationships matter to You. Help me to be mindful of the things I say and do at all times. I want to glorify You in all of my actions, including my interactions with others. Thank You for the opportunity to get it right, so that Your name may be glorified. It is in Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.