Today I was pondering how our lives speak for us and feeling like quite a miserable failure lately of letting my life speak for my relationship with God. I am not sure what more I should be trying to do, but boy, do I ever know what I should not be doing!!!!
“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” Matthew 5:16, KJV.
What happens if our works are not good? Then not only do they not glorify our Father in heaven, they blaspheme our Father in heaven. That is pretty awful!
I am wondering when we do our daily lives, how we can live our lives to let our light shine? What if someone cheats us?
“But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also.” Matthew 5:39, 40, KJV.
But how does this look now? Does this mean we need to let people walk all over us and not do anything when someone does something to us? I don’t think it means that, while I am a non-violent person in beliefs and convictions, I do not thinks this means not reacting to evil. Jesus spoke very harshly and reacted with anger to other “religious people”
“And they come to Jerusalem: and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves;” Mark 11:15, KJV.
But, this is not what I am talking about….right now, I am talking about how we live in our daily lives. We are all good at standing up for ourselves. But are we good at letting our lives witness? What about the cashier that was grouchy to us at the check stand? Did we smile at her anyhow?
What about the irritating sales person that keeps calling at dinner time? Were you rude to him? Or did you show him kindness?
Think of all the people you meet everyday and what things you could do if you purposely set out to try to bless each and everyone of them, even when they were not kind or even cheated you.
I read a book today about living life on purpose, instead of rushing through it. It was called Living on Purpose by Tom and Christine Sine. In this book it talked about how if you set a life goal for our life, instead of hurrying so fast we never take the time to purpose what we want to do, or just end up doing what life hands us, what good can we do?
I want to take it to a more basic level. I want to change my life and be more of a witness in my life instead of drifting along and reacting as things come along.
I sit here and contemplate the choices I have made in my life for my own children and pray that they are the right ones. I want to spend more time instead of criticizing what I think others should or shouldn’t do, be there to be the shoulder to cry on or yell at.
I think we need to all sit and consider what the man at the post office thinks of us. Does he think “What a nice lady!” after he waits on you…or “Oh, my goodness, what a grumpy person!” I am not even talking about in Christianity, but I think it should permeate all areas of your life. There is no reason to devolve simply because we deserve it, someone treated us badly. You have no idea how bad it can screw up someone’s life because of it!!!
“It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.” Luke 17:2, KJV.