Today we’re continuing with the gem found in the book of Numbers that we looked at yesterday. You can find yesterday’s blog here. We’re looking at this passage:
22 The LORD said to Moses, 23 “Tell Aaron and his sons, ‘This is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them: 24 ‘The LORD bless you and keep you; 25 the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; 26 the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace.’ 27 “So they will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.” Numbers 6:22-27 (NIV)
Today I want to look at the specific elements of the blessing. Remember it is the specific instruction God gave to the priests about how to bless the Israelites. And God promised that when the priests blessed the people in this way, God would bless them. As I wrote yesterday, there’s nothing “magical” about the words, but they are instructive about how we are to bless others. So let’s look at each element.
Verse 24: “The Lord (Yahweh) bless you and keep you.”
“The Lord bless you” – may He bless you as He desires to bless you. Let’s let Him decide how to bless, rather than being more specific and praying that He would bless them with __________ (fill in the blank). God knows the needs of the person being blessed better than we do, and I sometimes think we are working against the purposes of God when we are overly specific in our prayers. I’m not saying it’s wrong to pray “Lord, my friend needs a job, we ask that you would bless her with one.” I am saying that this passage encourages us to pray “Lord, bless my friend where he or she is right now” – because God knows each of our needs beyond the obvious we may see or feel.
Notice that the object of the blessing is “you.” In the original language, it is a singular “you.” It is a personal blessing for the one being blessed. It’s not a mass-produced blessing that God just pulls off His shelf of ready-made blessings. It is a blessing unique to the needs of the person being blessed. Wow! God knows my name, He knows my thoughts, He knows my needs, He knows me – better than anyone else – and he has a blessing designed and created just for me. Again – wow! And Thank You, Lord.
A favorite verse of mine is Psalm 34:15 – “The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their cry” (NIV). The verse says to me that He is always listening and ready to respond to my cry. He hears me. He is El Roi – the God who Sees, and El Shama – the God who Hears.
“The Lord bless you [wow!] and keep you.” The word translated “keep” comes from a root word that means to put a hedge around, to guard, to protect, and to attend to. Remember this is a blessing – we are not asking God to do these things, we are blessing the recipient with these things. We are giving them God’s hedge around them, His protection of them, and I love the last phrase – we are bringing God’s attention to them that He might attend to them. He will be attentive to those who are blessed, knowing even the number of hairs on their head (Matthew 10:30).
Verse 25: “The Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you.”
Notice the third word in that verse – “make”. The blessing invokes the Lord to purposefully make His face shine upon you. Just as I want to be intentional about my walk with the Lord, He is intentional about blessing me. May the Lord make the glory and light of His countenance shine upon you.
There are some who describe prayer as holding others in the light of God. It is a phrase often used by our Quaker brothers and sisters. Light blows away darkness. Light brings healing. Light leads the path before us. Light warms our bodies. May the Lord be purposeful in shining His light upon you.
The word translated “gracious” is almost equally translated mercy or merciful as it is gracious or favor/favorable. May God make His face shine with His glory upon you, and may He be merciful and gracious to you. There is only love in that verse. There is no condemnation, there is no judgment, there is no taskmaster-like ruler or kingship. There is love and compassion and a ready desire to bless.
Verse 26: “The Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.”
May God turn His face toward you, see you, and give you peace. Again, we have God being purposeful in turning toward us, looking upon us with His glory shining upon us (from verse 25), and “give you peace.” The word “give” literally means put or set upon you. His peace transcends anything happening in our lives – it is more like a blanket that covers and protects us, it settles on us and we can wrap ourselves in it. Even though all around us there may be chaos, His peace covers us. Peace is not the absence of conflict or chaos, it is God’s light covering us and shining on the things that are most important so that our attention is directed toward them instead of the chaos. It is also knowing that He will bless us and keep us, that He will be gracious to us, and that His solutions will prevail no matter what the day looks like.
The word is “shalom” and it means prevailing peace and well-being, and is the final phrase of the blessing that with which we are to bless the people of God. And God’s promise is that when we do so, He will bless them.
Our Powerful Opportunity
Friends, as I wrote yesterday, let’s not shy away from our authority to bless others. Know that you bless others with this blessing, you invoke God’s blessing upon them.
That’s a powerful opportunity. And dare I say responsibility. Go forth and bless, friends.
I love finding gems in the midst of what might otherwise seem like fly-over territory in the Bible. I am reading the book of Numbers, and “buried” at the end of chapter about Nazarite vows and heads being shaved, I found this familiar gem:
22 The LORD said to Moses, 23 “Tell Aaron and his sons, ‘This is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them: 24 ‘The LORD bless you and keep you; 25 the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; 26 the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace.’ 27 “So they will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.” Numbers 6:22-27 (NIV)
I noticed 2 things about this passage that I hadn’t noticed before: It is a blessing and it invokes God’s blessing upon the recipient.
It is a Blessing to be Given by Priests
It is sometimes translated as a “special blessing”, and it is the blessing that the priests were to say to bless the Israelites. As I thought about this, the Holy Spirit reminded me that as believers, we are part of the “royal priesthood”. The Apostle Peter wrote about in 1 Peter:
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 1 Peter 2:9 (ESV)
While Peter’s letter is addressed specifically to the Israelites, it applies to all who have accepted Christ as their Savior – including those of us who are not Jewish but have been “grafted in” as the Apostle Paul described in Romans 11:17.
What does that mean? It means that we have the authority of priests to proclaim the blessing upon others. Did you get that? It’s a powerful statement – you have the authority to proclaim this “special blessing” upon others. Let me encourage you (and myself) not to shy from the authority God has given us.
Yes, I know, that this blog bounces back and forth between referring to “them” and “us”. I’m sorry. I can’t correct that – because what applies to “them” applies to “us.” So you will find that I write about the blessing that is given to them and then slip into how it is a blessing to you and to me. Remember, what God has done for them, He does and will do for you and me.
It is a Blessing with a Promise from God
The other exciting thing about this passage is God’s promise at the end – that when the priests proclaimed this blessing on the people, they “put God’s name on them” and God would bless them. Let’s look at each element.
When we pray this blessing, we “put God’s name upon them.” Oh my, there is so much in God’s name. It is His banner over them – His protection. It is His blessing over them. It recognizes a relationship with Him – that we are His and He is ours.
And then comes the promise – that God will bless them! That is so exciting to me – that when I proclaim this blessing upon others, God says He will bless them. My blessing on them – me praying these words over them – moves the hand of God to bless them. Is there anything magical about these words? While I would not use the word magical, of course, I would say that these are the specific words God instructed the priests to use when blessing the Israelites. I’ve checked many translations, and most say something like “this is how you are to bless the Israelites.” No, they are not magical words, but they are instructive words – words from God about how to bless others. Do I have to speak the words of the blessing exactly as they’re written? Of course not. But the concepts behind the words is how we are to bless God’s people. I’ll write more about those words – the actual blessing we’re to proclaim over others – tomorrow.
In the meantime, let me encourage you to spend some time today thinking about (that is, meditating on) the role of priesthood that God has given to you as a Child of the King. How does God want you to fulfill that role? And come back tomorrow to read more about the blessing God instructed the priests to use when blessing the Israelites.
May the Lord bless you and keep you, Friends. May He make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May He turn His face toward you and give you peace.
What a powerful statement and great reminder to me. It’s can be so easy for me to fall into a rut in my prayer life. Yet the words “prayer” and “rut” shouldn’t even be in the same sentence. Not when we realize how truly powerful prayer is. God’s Word tells us that the fervent or earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results (James 5:15, NLT).
That means you can have powerful and effective impact on your world through your prayers.
So often people say “there’s nothing I can do but prayer.” I know I’ve said it. But I always feel a little squeamish when I do – because the Holy Spirit reminds me that prayer is everything. It is doing more than anything physical I could do. (Don’t hear what I’m not saying – I’m not discouraging you from physical actions, I’m just remind myself (and you) that the power of prayer is beyond those physical actions.)
I get caught up in the “doing” sometimes when I should be in the “praying” sometimes.
This quote from Jared Brock reminds me of the power of prayer.
Let me give you an example of the reality of this quote. In May 1934, a group of businessmen began to pray in Charlotte, North Carolina. They held their third prayer meeting in a pasture belonging to William and Morrow Graham. The pasture usually corralled the Graham family dairy cows, but this day a group of businessmen gathered to pray. “Lord,” one of them prayed, “raise up a man out of Charlotte, North Carolina, who will preach the Gospel to the ends of the earth.”
No one at the time imagined that the answer would come in the form of Billy Graham, the oldest son of William and Morrow. He was a teenager at the time, more interested in baseball and girls. He wasn’t even aware of the prayers happening in his family’s cow pasture. But someone prayed and God moved.
Within just a few months, an evangelist came through their town. Billy and his friends were bored and went to the crusade to ridicule the evangelist. The Holy Spirit had other ideas. Billy wrote in his autobiography “I was spellbound…The next night, all my father’s mules and horses could not have kept me from getting to that meeting.”* He attended each night and soon came to Christ. The rest, as they say, is history.
The power of prayer. Each one has the potential to change the world. Scripture is full of answered prayer. Which is your favorite? Which motivate you to pray more diligently?
* From Just as I am, The Autobiography of Billy Graham (New York: Harber Paperbacks, 1997), pages 27-28 by Billy Graham; as quoted in Top Ten Most Influential Christians Since the Apostles (Franklin, IL: Truth Books Publishers, 2012), page 98, edited by Ken Lambert & Abby Matzke, chapter written by Sandra Parks Hovatter
2 And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.” Acts 17:2-3 (ESV) (emphasis mine)
Such a profound statement – “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.” We may not recognize the power of such a sentence, but the first century Jews would have. You see, they were looking for “the Christ” to come. The word (or title) “Christ” means “the anointed one, the Messiah” and Jews had been looking for the coming of the Messiah for generations – centuries and centuries of generations! Their prophets had told over and over again that their Messiah would come and deliver them. Christ was the fulfillment of all they had been waiting for, all their ancestors had been waiting for.
When I came to know Jesus, I wasn’t looking for a Savior. I didn’t know I needed to be saved. I didn’t know, so I wasn’t expecting. The Jews were expecting – waiting in anticipation – for their Messiah – the One anointed by their God to save them. “This Jesus is the Christ,” Paul told them.
This Jesus, is not only the Messiah, He is your Messiah…If you will let Him be that for you. If you will recognize that you need a Savior – someone to pay the price for your sins – He will be your Messiah. He’s already paid the price, all that you must do is recognize it, accept it as payment for your sins and thank Him by giving Him your life. He bought it, after all, when He paid for your sins. Notice the phrase “accept it as payment for your sins” – it’s not just enough to objectively understand or intellectually believe the truth that Christ died for your sins, you must accept that payment wholeheartedly. It’s not enough for me to objectively understand how an airplane flies through the air (something called the Bernoulli Principle I believe) if I want to go from New York to San Francisco in a few hours – I must wholeheartedly believe it and get on the plane, forsaking all other options. Accepting Christ’s payment for your sins is like that – you must get on the plane by inviting Him into your life. This is done by a simple prayer – something like “Lord, I believe you died for my sins. Forgive me – I’m sorry. Come into my life and help me to live for You.”
“This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.” Get to know Him today.
For more on our sin, God’s grace and accepting Christ’s payment for your sin, check out this blog titled “The Gift of Life.”
I waited patiently for the LORD; he inclined to me and heard my cry.
Psalm 40:1 (ESV)
I love Psalm 40, but especially this first verse. The word “inclined” is most frequently translated “stretched out”. The NIV translates this part of the verse as “he turned to me and heard my cry.”
Every time I read or hear this verse, I see in my head the Lord pausing as if He’s heard something, stopping in His tracks, turning toward me and leaning in to be sure He hears me fully. He is attentive to me and he hears me! Out of everyone who is calling out to Him, He hears me. Now because this is Scripture and He is God, the verse applies to all of us and He turns and hears everyone. He hears you as much as He hears me. But that picture in my mind reminds me how very much He loves me and how He is always listening for my call and ready to respond.
And then there’s the first part of the verse – “I waited patiently”. In Hebrew that’s communicated by repeating the word “waited”. In other words, the word-by-word translation is “I waited waited.” I like that. It brings to mind the phrase that is spoken before a great surprise – “wait for it…wait for it…” And then all of a sudden something wonderfully fantastic happens! It’s something we used to say when training our dog to sit. We would have a treat in our hand and command him to sit. He would sit with his eyes locked on either our eyes or our hands, just waiting for the indication of a wonderful treat to come his way. Then “suddenly” we would release him and the treat was his. Oh happy day! (Don’t you love the “suddenlies” of God?)
Interestingly, the word translated “wait” (“waited”) comes from a root word that means “binds together (perhaps by twisting)” (Strong’s Talking Greek and Hebrew Dictionary). So as we wait, with anticipation and expectation in our hearts and showing on our faces, we bind ourselves to God. We immerse ourselves in Him, His Word, and in fellowship with His people. And then suddenly, He gives the nod and the treat is ours!
One last thing – I’ve used the word “suddenly”, but it’s only suddenly to us. Scripture is clear that God is working on our behalf even when we don’t see it. Not bound by the constraints of time like we are, He works in our past, our present and even our future, to bring about what we see as the “suddenly”.
So friends, know that He hears you today, and as you “wait wait” for His response, bind yourself closer to Him. Wait for it – His suddenly is coming!
“So the LORD God formed out of the ground every wild animal and every bird of the sky, and brought each to the man to see what he would call it. And whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name.” Genesis 2:19 (HCSB)
The second telling of the creation story describes that God made every wild animal and bird and brought each to Adam for Adam to name the creature. This verse sparked my imagination today.
God brought each animal He had created to Adam and gave Adam the privilege and responsibility of naming them. How cool is that? How collaborative was that? Imagine the process! I’m smiling at the thought of it.
God brings an animal to Adam. The animal doesn’t have a name. God says “look at this, Adam, what do you think we should call it?” Adam looks closely at the animal, noticing its shape and coloring. He watches it move, maybe even spends time examining its behavior and habits.
And then an appropriate name comes to Adam. “Let’s call this one ‘elephant’” he exclaims.
And I imagine the delight that is in God’s eyes as He watches the creativity and thoughtfulness in the man he created as he names each one. I also see pride in God’s eyes. Not sinful pride, but pleasure in the goodness of a job well done. I love that God brings us into the process of all that He does – that He enjoys our participation with Him. I can feel His pleasure in us as I write this.
And it occurs to me that the enemy doesn’t like this. His purpose is to steal, kill and destroy. Jesus’ purpose is to give life and give it more abundantly. (John 10:10) My job is to pay attention to the One who gives life and ignore the lies of the destroyer.
Don’t let the enemy steal your joy. It’s a good thing to revel in the pleasure of God. Know that He is pleased with you. He created you in His image – with creativity and goodness and life to share with Him and those around you. Enjoy God! Enjoy life! He is worthy of your enjoyment!
6So Isaac settled in Gerar. 7When the men of the place asked about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” for he was afraid to say “my wife,” ?thinking,? “The men of the place will kill me on account of Rebekah, for she is a beautiful woman.”
Genesis 26:6-7 (HCSB)
Sins of the Father Visited Upon Their Children
This verse records Isaac committing the same sin as his father Abraham. In Genesis 12 verses 2 and 3, God makes a covenant with Abraham (then called Abram) to make him into a great nation, to bless him and to bless all the people of the earth through him. (The covenant is repeated in Genesis 17.) He also told Abraham to leave his country and go to the land God would show him.
Also in Genesis 12, just 10 verses later, Abraham instructs his wife Sarah (Sarai at the time) to pretend to be his wife “so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you.” (Genesis 12:13).
We have a classic example here of the sins of the father continuing in the son. We read this in Exodus 20:5 (and other places):
5You shall not bow down to [idols] or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity [sins] of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me,
Exodus 20:5 (ESV)
Hmmm…does this mean that the children commit the sins or they simply experience the negative consequences of the parents’ sin? I would say both. It’s easy to understand how children experience consequences of their parents’ sin, but if we look around us, we also see many examples of children committing the same sins as their parents. This leads me to believe that the passage can also indicate that the sins of the father somehow spiritually give the children a proclivity toward that sin. John Piper, author of Desiring God and many other books, agrees and says this about the passage:
We are not told how the father’s sins become the children’s sins. That is a mysterious thing left in God’s mind. But they do. What we are told is that when father’s sins are visited on the children it is because the children have become sinners like the fathers. The father’s sins are the children’s sins.
It All Comes Down to Trust
What impressed me more than the repetition of sins through generations is that Abraham’s sin and Isaac’s sin both boil down to being acts of not trusting God. Both men had a covenant with God (although Isaac hadn’t yet received it personally). Both men chose not to trust that God was able to keep them safe so that He could, at some future time, fulfill the promise He had given them.
It was only ten verses of Scripture from the time God established His covenant with Abraham until Abraham denied Him. God’s covenant with Abraham wasn’t a small thing. He made it clear that He was going to make Abraham into many nations and that Abraham would not only be blessed himself, but that he would be a blessing to all people on the earth. So Abraham began to follow God. But along the way, he quit relying on God and began to rely on himself.
I’m sure Abraham (and Isaac) didn’t see that they were missing the mark on this. They were simply doing “what seemed right in their own eyes” (ref. Judges 17:6). They were protecting themselves. Protecting ourselves often seems like wisdom. So they too action – probably without a lot of thinking and certainly not a lot of praying. Abraham and Isaac developed plans to protect themselves in a foreign country.
What they didn’t do was trust God to protect them.
We’re Not So Different from Abraham and Isaac
I suspect that most of the lies people tell come from the same root – wanting to protect themselves either from the consequences from something they’ve done or not done, or from some real or imagined threat. So we make compromises hoping (or perhaps “helping” God) to “protect” our current life so that God can fulfill His promises for the future!
Can there be any Godly wisdom in that? Of course not. It is foolish, earthly wisdom. God wants to use our present situations to prepare us for the future fulfillment of the promises He’s given us. He wants to teach us to trust Him in the little things and the big things of today so that we are better prepared to trust Him in the little and big things we will face tomorrow and ten years from now.
We know that God uses all things for the good of those who love and pursue Him (Romans 8:28). So He takes our lies and our other missteps (aka sins) of the present, redeems them and uses them in our future if we submit them and ourselves to Him. But how much the better to have not sinned at all! How much the better to trust God in our present so that He can bring about the fulfillment of His promises
Where Do We Go from Here?
First, friends, ask God where you have made compromises in your life. The Holy Spirit will reveal them to you. Repent in those areas. Make changes where changes are necessary. Trust that God is in the process and He will be faithful as you do the right thing in difficult situations. I’ve lived by one maxim for many, many years: Do the right thing and trust God with the results. I find it especially helpful when faced with difficult decisions. Ask God to reveal the right thing, then do it, trusting Him to protect you.
Trust God to forgive past sins. Don’t carry around old guilt. That’s condemnation from the enemy, not conviction from the Lord. Confess your sins and trust that He is faithful to forgive them (1 John 1:9).
Be appropriately transparent with your children. Seek God about what, if anything, of your past sins you should discuss with children. They will see the change as you repent of past sins, but if a discussion with them helps them to avoid the same sins, ask God if and when the time is right to have those conversations.
Serve God in confidence that He is working in you and will fulfill all the promises He’s made to you as you continue to pursue Him.
God is very good, friends. He already knows your sins and He still loves you. Rejoice in that!
16All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, 17so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 (HCSB)
I love the Lord, and if you’re reading this blog, I am guessing that you do, too. And I love how He changes things up sometimes. And the source of that change-up usually comes from His Word.
On New Year’s Eve we were worshipping and praying in a small church service. During the service my husband Phil quoted a verse of Scripture that will be his key verse in 2018. It has been a significant verse in our life for many years, but we believe it has special significance this year. (No, it’s not the key verse quoted above.)
As I meditated on the verse on New Year’s Day, I began to develop a sermon around it. About 2 weeks later I went back to polish up that sermon to deliver at a nursing home in which we minister. God didn’t polish the first sermon, He gave me a totally different message.
I tell you this only as an intro to say that it really excites me that God can give two totally different (yet related) messages on the same verse. It also really excites me that God gives the Word or message that specific people need to hear. When He gave me the first message I anticipated sharing it at our church. It turned out that our nursing home service was scheduled before I was scheduled to preach at our church. I thought I would be sharing a small part of the message I had prepared for our church at the nursing home. God had other ideas He used the same verse but totally changed the focus of the message. How cool is that?
God’s Word is amazing. It is what we need, when we need it. I suspect you’ll see bits and pieces of those two messages over the coming weeks, but today I wanted to praise God for His Word. It is good and powerful and life-changing!
God’s Word is a light to our path, correction when we’ve made a wrong turn, and wisdom for daily living. That’s easy to say (or write) but it’s not always easy to live. We can’t live it unless we know it and are immersed in it every day.
Being immersed in God’s word doesn’t mean simply reading your Bible every day. In years past I have placed a great emphasis in this blog encouraging you to read through the Bible in a year. I still do that personally and I still think it’s something that anyone can do. You can easily read through the New Testament in a year – there are only 260 chapters in it, so the only thing keeping you from accomplishing that goal is setting it – getting over the thought that it is un-doable, finding a reading plan you like (google “Bible reading plans”) and getting started. There are 1189 chapters in the entire Bible. Divide that by 365 days and you learn that you can read through the entire Bible by reading less than 3.26 chapters a day. That’s do-able, too! But I digress.
Immersing yourself in the Bible and reading the Bible are two different things. Last year, I decided NOT to read through the Bible. It was actually a hard thing for me to do, but I purposed to read each day until God impressed something from the reading on my heart. Guess what! (Again, I’m digressing, but…) God allowed me to read through the Bible while doing this and I actually finished early! That’s a first!
The point is, I wasn’t just reading. I was reading and listening for God to speak – to impress upon my heart some verse or event or concept. Then I was meditating on that. Now, let me be honest – each day wasn’t a “WOW” impression. That would have been overwhelming. But many days He did open my eyes, spirit and heart to something I needed to know. Many times He did highlight a verse as I read and that verse would speak specifically to a need in my life or the life of someone I would encounter in the next couple of days.
So, friends – in this first blog of 2018 – written here on the 15th of January (and refusing to feel any guilt about that), I want to encourage you to immerse yourself in God’s Word. Read it, study it, meditate on it. The treasures it will unfold will amaze you.
1 Very early on the first day of the week, at dawn, the women came to the tomb, bringing the spices they had prepared. 2 They found the stone rolled away from the entrance of the tomb, 3 but when they went in, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 While they were wondering about this, two men in shining clothes suddenly stood beside them. 5 The women were very afraid and bowed their heads to the ground.
The men said to them, “Why are you looking for a living person in this place for the dead? 6 He is not here; he has risen from the dead. Do you remember what he told you in Galilee?”
Luke 24:1-6 (NCV)
As I read this passage this morning, verse 5 struck me – “Why are you looking for a living person in this place for the dead?” This is the New Century Version translation of the more familiar translation “Why do you look for the living among the dead?”
Sometimes reading from a different translation allows the Word of God to speak to us in different ways. We know this verse relates to the women looking for the dead body of Jesus to anoint it with spices. The angel’s words were the first announcement that Jesus had risen from the dead – “why are you looking for a living person in this place for the dead?” In other words, “Jesus is not dead, He is alive so you won’t find Him in this place for the dead.”
Jesus is not dead, He is alive. And you won’t find him in this place for the dead.
We serve a risen Savior, praise God! His life means that I too can find life. It means that you can find life, no matter how horrible – or dead – your circumstances are.
As I read this passage this morning, it was as if God were saying… “If you want more of me, don’t look for me in the dead areas of your life…Don’t focus on those things because they are dead. I’m alive – look for me among the living.” I’m not saying that God doesn’t come to us in our darkest circumstances. I’m saying that finding Him means looking away from our dark circumstances toward His goodness.
You may feel like there is little in your life which is good right now. That’s a lie from the enemy, my friend. Seek even the smallest good, focus on it, and thank God for it, and then ask Him to open your eyes to the greater goodness around you. I have no doubt that if you do that consistently, God will reveal Himself to you in greater and greater ways. Yes, focusing on the smallest good is a discipline that must be learned and developed – but it is doable and you can do it.
That first smallest good thing might be simply an unexpected smile from someone who crosses your path, an unexpected beauty (in nature or in a painting, for example), or an unexpected joy (perhaps from a song or phone call). That good thing is among the living and it is where you will find your Savior.
I am reminded of the old hymn Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus. Written by Hellen Lemmel in 1922, you can find many versions of it on Youtube – performances from the current decade by artists and groups such as Hillsongs, Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith, Alan Jackson and more. I listened to many of them, but chose this version by Loyiso Bala, Neville D and Ivan Siegelaar. Listen to it. Allow it to seep into your soul and lead you into finding the smallest good thing and then the greatest good thing – Jesus.
We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.
2 Corinthians 5:20a (NIV)
I was shopping at Walmart the other day and a sales associate smiled and greeted me as I walked by. His greeting took me by surprise and put a smile on my face.
And the Holy Spirit used the opportunity to remind me that I am Christ’s ambassador…and then to ask me how that was going. The answer – not nearly as well as the Lord and I would like it to be. You see, I keep forgetting to act like an ambassador. The Walmart associate was doing a better job that day of being an ambassador for Walmart than I was at being an ambassador for the Lord. Ouch!
I once took a missions trip, and throughout the trip, I was so aware that my behavior represented Christ to the people around me. I made a point of smiling and being pleasant and talking about the goodness of God. Throughout the trip, I was mindful that I wanted people to see Christ in me, their hope of glory (Colossians 1:27).
Then I came home. And I returned to life as usual. I don’t want to live my life as usual in 2015. I want God to use me to impact the Kingdom of God. That requires living life as an ambassador for Christ. Let’s put the verse in context:
16So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! 17This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
18And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. 19For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. 20So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” 21For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.
2 Corinthians 5:16-21 (NLT)
One of the purposes God has given us – and it’s one He will infuse with His power as we perform it (read this blog for more on that topic) – is telling others about Christ. That’s what this passage says, but it wraps in it in a bit of a different package.
God, through Christ, took the initiative to reconcile the world to Himself. That means He took the first step to restore the relationship between sinful man and holy God. That reconciliation is possible because God no longer counts our sin against us. That’s His gift to us. We are forgiven. And being forgiven, our relationship with Him is restored to the way God originally intended it to be – loving, intimate and ongoing.
He’s given us the message of reconciliation – in other words, He wants us to tell others that they can be reconciled with God, just as we are. God is making His appeal to the world through us – you and me. In other words, we are Christ’s ambassadors. We speak and act for Him.
An ambassador is “the highest-ranking person who represents his or her own government while living in another country” (Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary).
We’re not flunkies! As ambassadors for Christ, we are people of high stature and authority. We speak for the King. We’ll need to study what the King would say and how the King would respond to situations we encounter if we want to represent Him well.
We represent the government of our true home – God’s Kingdom.To do so, we must know as much as we can about our country – God’s Kingdom. Its values, customs and goals are significantly different from our earthly country.
We live in a country that is not our home.While we’re here on earth, we’re just passing through – earth is not our home. Lord, help me to live that way! Someone who is just passing through travels light. I confess that I’ve accumulated too much stuff to be considered one who is traveling light!
It’s important for us to get all three of those points firmly planted in our minds and spirits. Being confident of these things, we can fulfill our role as ambassador effectively. When we lose sight of any of those points, our ambassadorship is hindered. We don’t live or act in the authority of the King, we don’t represent Him well or we become too preoccupied with the way things are done in our temporary country.
While living in our temporary home, it’s important that we have a Kingdom perspective. Verse 16 reminds us that we should not evaluate others from a worldly or human perspective. In other words, everyone we meet is a child of God, create in His image, loved by Him. God wants to shower His love on each person we meet. He wants each person to join us with Him in eternity. Do you view people from this perspective when you meet them?
Lord, change my perspective. Help me to see others as you see them. Help me to love others from a Kingdom perspective and in a Kingdom way.
I want to be a better representative of Christ in 2015. How about you?
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