Learn from, serve and love those who
don’t yet believe
VERSE
Even though I am free of the
demands and expectations of everyone, I have voluntarily become a servant to
any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: religious, nonreligious,
meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, the defeated, the demoralized—whoever.
I didn’t take on their way of life. I kept my bearings in Christ—but I entered
their world and tried to experience things from their point of view. I’ve
become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I
meet into a God-saved life. I did all this because of the Message. I didn’t
just want to talk about it; I wanted to be in on it! 1 Corinthians
9:19-23 The Message
REFLECTION
Often
when we hear the word evangelize we break out in a cold sweat, I know I do! We
somehow believe we need to be experts, defenders of God’s word, world class
theologians in apologetics before we can even begin to engage people in
spiritual conversations. Often the result is that we swing from two extremes:
fear (being afraid to share our faith at all) or insensitivity (using pressure
to argue someone into the kingdom of God). But what if sharing our faith became
just a natural outpouring of our own love and gratitude to God in response to
all that the Lord has and is doing in our own lives?
I love
Paul’s instruction and example to us in the above verses. He tried to experience things from the point
of view of others without being afraid of people who looked, behaved or
believed differently than he did. Paul was a lifelong learner of cultures. He
met people where they were, wherever that happened to be, and he served them
where they were. He respected people in their differences without trying to
pressure them into become someone they were not.
We are
given opportunities everyday to bring the light of Christ into the dark places
of our world, if we can just remember to learn from and serve those who are
different from us.
Do you want
to be attentive to whatever the Lord is doing to advance His kingdom within
each person you meet?
QUESTIONS
TO CONSIDER
- What can you learn from one of the non-Christians who is in your life?
- What internal responses or reactions do you have when you encounter others who don’t look like, think like, behave or believe as you do?
- What might the Lord be trying to refine in your own character through these encounters?
ACTION
STEPS FOR THE WEEK:
- Make a list of names of those non-Christians you already come in contact with everyday.
- Pray for the Lord to give you Spirit empowered opportunities to learn from, serve and love these people towards Jesus.
This blog post is by
Lisa Smith who is on staff with staff with Alpha New England and a servant of
God who has given her life to making known the great news of Christ in Greater
Boston and around the world.
