Day 262: What You Need Me to Be

1 Corinthians 9:19-23

Even though I am a free man with no master, I have become a slave to all people to bring many to Christ.  When I was with the Jews, I lived like a Jew to bring the Jews to Christ. When I was with those who follow the Jewish law, I too lived under that law. Even though I am not subject to the law, I did this so I could bring to Christ those who are under the law.  When I am with the Gentiles who do not follow the Jewish law, I too live apart from that law so I can bring them to Christ. But I do not ignore the law of God; I obey the law of Christ. When I am with those who are weak, I share their weakness, for I want to bring the weak to Christ. Yes, I try to find common ground with everyone, doing everything I can to save some. I do everything to spread the Good News and share in its blessings.

This is one of my favorite passages in the bible, because Paul is explaining the lengths he goes to, just to share the message of Christ with someone. To make sure they have the same opportunity as everyone else, so that no one will be excluded from or not hear the word of God. It’s very clever, and so selfless. Paul could easily look past and walk over the people who seem unreachable, but he didn’t he became like them in order to reach them. He found common ground just to save souls and have the opportunity to share the gospel. He starts by declaring his freedom but then immediately saying that he has become a servant to all. To all people he has become a servant, in order to share the message of Jesus Christ with them. Paul is putting himself aside for the sake of God’s people. He was willing to do something that not many people were. He was willing to be looked at as less so that Jesus could be more. Meaning, he was willing to go places no one else would go, he was willing to associate with the people who had written off and given up on. Paul was willing to get his hands dirty. he was willing to put his pride aside for the sake of someone’s soul. He became who they needed him to be. He got on their level, whatever that was, and did whatever he could to make sure that everyone  had access to Christ. He made sure that everyone would be given a chance to experience the love of god and the truth of the Gospel. Even if that meant he had to become like the Jews, the servants, the Gentiles, whatever he had to do he did it. He did all of this and never lost who he was in Christ.

If someone was weak, he got down there with them and said, let's be weak together, you don’t have to do this alone, He took on the burdens of his brothers and sisters. He found ways to relate to the people. I think this is where we miss the mark sometimes. We are so concerned with containing our Christian composure and making sure that our spirits are not “tainted” that we are not really doing all we can to make sure someone’s soul is set free. The Scriptures say that when we find our brothers overtake in a fault, he that is spiritual restores him (Galatians 6:1) Sometimes we have to put ourselves of the line for someone else, We have to make sure they know that they are not alone. We cannot forget that at one point in our lives before we were high and mighty in our faith and too spiritual for the world we were right there where someone else is, and someone came and picked us up.

I think Paul knew this, I love the passages when Paul shares his testimony of how God brought Him to salvation and made him a man after God’s own heart. For those of you who don’t know Paul was one of the people who sought out and persecuted Christians. He was totally against the message of Christ, but on his way to persecute more Christians Jesus came to Paul and set him straight. Paul was saved by Jesus himself and turned away from the life of sin and brought into eternity. Now every chance Paul gets he shares what God has done for him. He does not stand ashamed of who he was yet he boasts in what God has done for him. Paul remembers the life he led before Christ and shares how God turned that around.

I share this because, too often we forget where we come from. No, we do not dwell on the past, that’s not what I’m saying at all. What I’m saying is at one point in our lives we were all leading a life that was not pleasing God. We were living a life that was against God and His word, so how dare we forget that once we decide we are too holy to associate with anyone who is not a believer. That’s why this passage is so important, because sometimes we have to sit our pride aside and whoever we think we are and become servants of God’s people. We are here to serve one another, that means that whatever people need us to be, God willing we will be it to make sure they are set free.

All this to say, don’t allow your pride to make you overlook someone. We must allow ourselves to be transparent, letting go of who we think we are in order to bring people to Christ. Let’s find a common ground with those who are suffering and find ways to bring the message of Christ to them, not wait for them to walk up to us.

Response

How do you respond to what we discussed today, can you relate? Maybe you know what it’s like to be overlooked because of who people perceive you as, or maybe you’ve overlooked someone. Whatever it may be, take the time to respond. Open your heart to God and pray about it. Whatever is on your heart talk to God about it. Have an honest conversation with Him.

I love you and I hope you have an amazing day or evening! Be sure to share this with someone and come back tomorrow for Day 263!

Day 130: God is Not a Feeling

Jeremiah 17:9

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

1 John 3:20

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

Many times we equate God with a feeling, and we allow our emotion and how we feel to dictate our faith. We get the sense that if we do not ‘feel’ God then He must not be there. But that is not true, God is not a feeling nor is He run by our emotions. We don’t feel an engine in a car but we know it’s there or we wouldn’t go anywhere. It’s the same thing with God, we may not feel Him here but we should know He is always there. Without Him, we would not go anywhere. We would not wake up in the morning. That’s called faith, knowing that God is there even when we don’t feel Him. Too often we depend on our feelings rather than lean on our faith in God. With that being said, we begin to chase a feeling rather than chase God, we are seeking what it feels like to know God rather than knowing God Himself. We will miss Him searching for a feeling when He’s right there with us.

We often think that we have to feel a certain way to be saved. We have to “feel saved” or it’s not real.

Romans 10:9

If you declare with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Nowhere in this scripture does is says we will feel saved it says “You will be saved.” We are not saved because we feel saved, we are saved because we believe in Jesus Christ, we believe that God raised Him from the dead. We declare that He is Lord. Putting feelings aside, whether we feel it or not Jesus is Lord and He is alive, God did raise Him from the dead three days after He died on the cross at Calvary. Nothing is going to change that. If that is true, why do we base our salvation on how we feel? We, again, are searching for something that we cannot find because it is not about how we feel it is what we believe. We cannot let our hearts or minds deceive us. Just because we are feeling a certain way does not mean we are not saved, it means we are human. We are an emotional people. Imagine if every time our parents got angry at us, they told us we weren't their kid anymore, but when that anger ceased they claimed us as their child again. It does not work that way, angry or not our parents cannot get rid of us. No matter how angry or happy they are with us we will always be their child. Take that and apply to what we are talking about, not matter how we feel if we still believe that Jesus is Lord and God raised him from the dead than we are saved.  

Sometimes following our heart is not the answer, our hearts can deceive us. As I said before, we are a bunch of emotional people, and sometimes that leads us to jump to conclusions very quick. Sometimes our hearts tell us one thing but our mind tells us another, this is why God is not moved by our emotions because they change so fluently. Sometimes when it comes to our faith we have to ignore our feelings and not allow them to dictate what we believe to be true about God.

Reflection

1. Do you agree that we as humans are very emotional?
2. Have you allowed your feelings to dictate your faith?
3. Based on the above question, do you allow your feelings to dictate your faith?

Prayer Time

Allow your answers to the above questions guide your prayer. Ask God to help you depend on your faith in Him rather than how you feel or how you think you should feel.