“Make the most of
every opportunity in these evil days.” – Eph 5:16, NLT
As I was
reading my morning devotional today, I was struck by something that was said in
it.
“People don’t
need the light of our devices to shine on them. What they need to see is the
light of Jesus shining through us!”
I would go farther.
People don’t need our non-professional advice, they don’t need our political
opinions, they don’t need our contrived empathy and they don’t need our
insincere speech about how we’re going to pray for them when we have no real
intention to do so.
If you are a disciple
of Jesus, you probably have had the Holy Spirit quietly prompt you to speak to
someone before. You may have acted on it or maybe you didn’t but I’m pretty
sure that if you are a follower of Jesus that you have experienced this.
We have all
been commissioned to spread the Gospel of Christ, but sadly many of us have
fallen into a belief over the years that somehow this is the church’s role, or
our pastor’s role or the paid Christian professional’s role.
Have you ever
asked God to provide you with daily opportunities to reach others for Christ or
to be an encouragement to someone?
I have become
more and more aware that we must be intentional if we hope to be of use to the
Lord and His work. We cannot drift through life hoping that a happy accident
will occur at any given moment.
We cannot
afford to be Sunday only Christians. The local church cannot survive as an
inward focused entity. We must always be looking outside ourselves for ways to
serve the Lord by serving others.
And this doesn’t
have to be during any specific time of our days. We can be this way at play, at
rest or at work.
Again, this
doesn’t just happen by accident, it happens by intention. And that intention
must be transferred and transformed into action. Look carefully in scripture to
see what Jesus did as he went about his days. He encountered people sometimes
during the most mundane of moments (like the woman at the well) and he turned
them into eternity changing moments by pushing into those moments and getting
involved.
Now you may say
to me, “Mike, that would be an interruption to my day. It would take me away
from whatever else I was focused upon.”
I must ask you.
I must ask myself. What deeper and more meaningful purpose do we have as followers
of Christ than to spread the good news?
Our lives on
this big blue ball we call Earth are so very short and this thing called life
is obviously terminal so why do we play with this thing called Salvation?!
It’s high time
that we, the Church, stop playing nice when it comes to the consequences of
sin. I have said it many times lately… It’s time we crash the gates of Hell and
take by some prisoners for Christ!
My
encouragement for you and I today is this. Go out into your day with
intentionality. Ask God to bring people across your path that need to hear from
Him through your obedience to the calling we all have which is to share the
Good News! I believe God will faithfully do exactly that and send people your
way.
Seize the day!
-
Mike <><
