Courteous Conduct

“Be wise in the way you act with people who are not believers.”
Colossians 4:5

Those who don’t believe in Jesus note what we do. They make decisions about Christ by watching us. When we are kind, they assume Christ is kind. When we are gracious, they assume Christ is gracious. But if we are brash, what will people think about our King? When we are dishonest, what assumption will an observer make about our Master? No wonder Paul says, “Be wise in the way you act with people who are not believers, making the most of every opportunity. When you talk, you should always be kind and pleasant so you will be able to answer everyone in the way you should” (Col. 4:5-6). Courteous conduct honors Christ.

It also honors his children. When you surrender a parking place to someone, you honor him. When you return a borrowed book, you honor the lender. When you make an effort to greet everyone in the room, especially the ones others may have overlooked, you honor God’s children.



From: Max Lucado

Brokenness: The Process

READ | Romans 8:29-31

How tempting it is to think we need very little improvement. Ask around, and you’ll hear many people concede they could probably use a bit of “maintenance” on one or two problem areas (preferably without being caused any discomfort). Yet most will add, “But I’m a good person.” Don’t be fooled—the Father refuses to settle for humanity’s meager vision of “good enough.”

God sees each believer as the person he or she will be when fully yielded to Jesus Christ. He then sets about achieving that complete renovation by transforming the individual’s present self into the image of His Son. We could say that God is our “interior designer.”

An essential step in remodeling involves removing whatever is unnecessary, damaged, or outmoded. In our case, what must go are the areas of self-will. I can tell you from experience that being a man under construction is uncomfortable! God targets habits, attitudes, and even relationships wherein we act independently of His purposes. Then He applies pressure to direct our attention there as well. The Lord takes hold of interests that are dear to our hearts in order to coax from us the rather humbling question, “What more would You have me submit to You?”

Conforming our will to God’s changes who we are. In the midst of our transformation, pain from His tools may temporarily obscure the beauty of His design. But nothing is more splendid to God than a committed, obey-at-all-costs follower. Submit to Him so that He might remake you into the servant He desires.


From: InTouch Ministry - Early Light Devotional

Hidden Treasures

We have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us.
-2 Corinthians 4:7 (NRSV)

IN the natural history museum we visited in Washington, D.C., our son's favorite section was an extensive geological exhibit. Its first display consisted of rocks found in deep, cold, dark, and practically forgotten places. The next showed rocks of incredible shapes and sizes, filled with exquisitely colored crystals created by heat pressure deep in the earth. Farther along in the exhibit were more common rocks - discolored or malformed or hollow. Upon closer inspection, however, I could see in them the beginnings of the beautiful colors of delicate, polished, fine crystal.

As I admired these wonders, I could sense what God already knows: this is the way we may appear, as common rocks shaped by the experiences of life's trials and challenges. But inside us lies a treasure waiting to be formed and polished by the very same pressures of the struggles that mark our everyday lives.

If we persevere, that treasure is perfected so that others may see our example and be drawn to Christ. Instead of deforming us, our struggles can refine us, shaping us into better servants of God.


Prayer
Lord, help us to see how struggles in our lives can help us grow and make us more like Christ. Amen.



From: UpperRoom Devotionals - Miriam Piñero