"As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle, be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace." Ephesians 4:1-3 (NIV)
One of the scariest realizations that I had, when I became a Christian, was that other people would look at me, and decide if being a Christian was for them. Yikes! I was nineteen years old and I was still trying to figure out who I was, and now that I was a Christian, how was that going to play in the equation?
I realized, once people heard, I had turned my life over to Jesus; they began to scrutinize every one of my actions. I even heard them say "No he's not coming because he's got Jesus!" It was like, all of sudden; my friends began to back away from me, because they knew, that when a person becomes a Christian they would change. I guess, they wanted to give me space, to see what changes would occur in me. And, boy did I change! All the rage and anger, and the desire to fight and brawl were gone. I had become the "gentle giant," as some of my friends began to call me.
As we grow in our faith, we begin to change, and people will see it. Just as my friends, saw the changes in me, so will yours. In today's passage of scripture, the Apostle Paul gives us some sound advice on how to live our lives worthy of being called Christ's disciples. Paul understood fully that non-believers would be watching us, and so he laid out this very effective and yet simple enough guidelines to follow. As we begin looking at this passage, notice how Paul "urges" us to live a life that will bring glory to Christ.
You, see Paul knew what it was like to be scrutinized because of being a Christian. Why you say? Well, before Paul was "Paul", he was known as Saul, whose job and mission in life was to arrest and persecute Christians. That's right! The person who wrote the most books in the Bible was previously to persecute Christians. His life changed when Jesus appeared to him while traveling on the road. So, Paul is an expert in this area of living a life worthy of Jesus Christ. He knew that the greatest tool to bring people to Jesus was the way we lived our lives.
The next point is that our lives should reflect the character qualities of being humble, gentle, patient, and bearing one another in love. How powerful are these qualities! These qualities reflect the essence of Jesus Christ. You have to admit, when Jesus was traveling with His twelve disciples, He definitely exhibited these traits to them. Imagine how much better our relationships will be, when we allow these traits to be fully functional and operative in our lives. We will definitely be mirroring Jesus when we live like this.
The next important point we read is to make every effort to live a life that brings peace and unity among the people in our lives. As we become more Christ like, it would be very easy to start pointing out the shortcomings of those in our lives. If we did this, it would cause strife and discourse among those that are within the circle of our lives. We want to live a life that promotes peace, unity and love among those we know. It is these qualities, which will begin to show those in our lives, that Jesus has changed us.
So be encouraged, living a life worthy of Jesus is not that difficult, when you surrender your life to Him and allow the Holy Spirit to do His job - that is transforming us into the likeness of Jesus. As we allow this transformation to take place you will find that, your life will exhibit gentleness, patience, humility, and bearing one another with the love of Christ. By doing this, people will definitely see Jesus living in you!
Have a wonderful day, blessed by the Lord!
Brother Rick
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Wow, talk about affirmation from God! I wrote a blog entry earlier this month with a similar message and I know that through your own words God is affirming mine. It was one of my more challenging posts to write, and do you know it took me two weeks to finish it once I started because I kept struggling with how I was coming across if certain friends or family happened to read it? I repeatedly told God that I just didn't think that particular message was going to work for me, but over the course of a couple of weeks, He convinced me otherwise :) To read what I wrote, copy and paste the link below.
ReplyDeletehttp://gentthoughts.blogspot.com/2011/10/pick-me-pick-me.html
I struggled a lot when I first began my walk with God, not just because I was an absolute mess, but also because I was too wrapped up in what friends and family thought of my new choices, interests, and plans. One night a couple of years ago I left a post on Facebook that generated the following response from an old college friend: "Not to be rude, Heather, but when did you become a Bible beater?" Though I was far enough along in my walk at that point to just brush it off, similar comments at the very beginning of my walk made me shy away from everyone who knew me before I knew God. Before I gave my life to Him, I was wild, reckless, and completely self-absorbed so when I began changing, alarms went off in the heads of everyone who knew me. I understand why, but it didn’t make the transition any easier. I have so far to go to get to where I want to be, but I am so grateful that He has brought me as far as He has. I’m a little more courageous and bold for Him each day. Thanks Brother Rick, for this devotional. It brings me great peace and an increased confidence where worry and insecurity still try to thrive.