Contentment in Christ, because we are being His disciples, does not only bless you and me, but those around us too.
“Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” Mt 16:24 NIV
When others see our peace and joy that comes from learning to be content right where we are, and even in the midst of whatever is happening around us, it is a powerful witness to others who may or may not know Jesus for themselves. Our witness, our story, the way we choose to live our lives here, can be very influential for everyone. For those who are born again, but not yet growing, that is they have not yet decided to act like disciples of Christ, our witness can encourage them to continue to seek Him and follow this process spelled out in the verse above. For those who are curious about why we are so joyful, but who have not yet surrender to Jesus, we can inspire them to seek something more than this world has to offer. My point? When we choose to be His disciples, we are not the only ones who will be blessed.
God very rarely does, or allows, something to happen for only one reason. Usually, any given event is meant to touch a multitude of people. Look at any of the lives of any of the saints of the Bible to see what I mean. It awes me that the life of St Paul, for instance, continues to affect millions, almost 2000 years after he passed away from this world. Talk about a lasting legacy. My Friends, this is what God wants for us too. Our Salvation was not just for us. One of the greatest privileges of becoming born again is to point others to Salvation too. And our witness starts by wanting to become His disciple. We will wrap this up tomorrow…
Join me in memorizing 52 verses this year:
January: 1- Jn 3:16; 2- 2Co 5:17; 3- Jas 2:26; 4- Eph 2:10
February: 5- Jn 10:10; 6- Ro 6:23; 7- Rev 21:4; 8- Php 4:13
March: 9- 1Pe 5:7; 10- Jn 8:32; 11- Dt 30:19; 12- Jn 3:30; 13- 2Chron 20:3
April: 14- 2Chron 20:12; 15- 2Chron 20:15b; 16- 2Chron 20:17
May: 17- Ro 8:28; 18- 1Co 13:13; 19- Php 2:12; 20- Mt 5:4
June: 21- Lk 23:42; 22- Jas 4:7; 23- Pr 22:6; 24- Mt 5:3; 25- Jn 14:6
July: 26- Jas 2:19; 27- Dt 31:8; 28- Jn 14:15; 29- Jn 8:11
August: 30- Ro 8:1; 31- Pr 4:23; 32- Pr 18:21; 33- Ps 118:24; 34- 1Jn 4:4
35- Mt 16:24
<>< Peace, Diane
