Tag Archives: grace

November 11, 2014 · 6:00 AM

The Prayers Of Paul

Paul lived an incredible life. He went from an aggressive persecutor of the church to an aggressive follower of Jesus Christ. He was shipwrecked three times, bitten by a venomous snake, stoned and left for dead, deathly ill for over a year, imprisoned and eventually beheaded. Yet he would write two thirds of the New Testament and stay firmly fixed on his calling to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Paul was probably able to do all this because of his strong prayer life. Each of his letters to the churches are filled with him praying for them and asking for very focused prayers for himself. His recorded prayers are not long but they are powerful. Paul is very consistent with his prayers through each Epistle and Ephesians provides us with a great example.

When you have a chance I suggest that you start by reading Ephesians 1:1-23. Paul begins in verse two by praying a blessing of grace and peace over the church. (This was a standard greeting of the day and used by other Apostles). Grace and Peace are such powerful words. When you actually look at the original Greek, you see that Paul prayed for the Ephesians to be “lavished” with Grace and Peace. If you think about it, when you have God’s grace and His peace, what else do you really need? His grace is given to you freely. You don’t have to work for it and you don’t need to be good to earn it. His peace is complete; it is greater than our circumstances. Our circumstances may be difficult at times but His peace will see us through every time. It is a peace that invades our thoughts and emotions.

Paul then uses verses 3-14 to praise God and remind the Ephesians of the good things they have received from God. When life is hard, it is easy to forget the blessings that God has lavished upon us. Paul reminded them (and now reminds us) of how we have been adopted by God and how we are redeemed by the blood of Jesus. It is so easy to forget all of the good things that God has done for us. Paul wanted to be sure they never forgot the gift of the Holy Spirit and that we are counted as God’s very own possession. On a regular basis it is important to write down how God has blessed your life. When did He show up when you thought you had no hope? Then weave into your prayers those events along with Paul’s reminders.

In verses 15-23 Paul begins to thank God for the Ephesians and prays that they will receive God’s wisdom and revelation and that they would know Him better. Paul makes sure they know that the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is working in their own lives and that same power works in our life.

At the end of Ephesians, Paul asks for the church to pray for him. When he wrote this Epistle he was in prison. One would think he would ask them to pray for him to be set free. However, Paul saw beyond his current circumstances to something greater. He asked them to pray that he would preach with boldness. In Ephesians 6:19 he asks that he could speak “fearlessly” (NIV). He is in prison, in chains and all he asks for is the ability to preach fearlessly.

Let’s break it down to the few key points of Paul’s prayer:

1. Pray for the Grace and Peace of God to be lavished on you, your family and for others.
2. When you pray take time to remember the work of salvation and remember the specific blessings God has worked in your life.
3. Pray for yourself and others that you may know God in an ever deeper and richer way.
4. Pray beyond your circumstances. God is madly and passionately in love with you. He cares about your needs but something happens when we focus our prayers on a greater cause, a cause where you will live out his perfect and good will. If we have God’s grace and peace and pray beyond our circumstances, I am sure God will meet our needs in the right way.

These thoughts are not intended to be the only way we pray. My hope is that they will become a starting place so that your prayer life will grow richer and more effective.

I would love to hear your thoughts on the prayers of Paul. What other key elements stand out to you?

Jon Stallings is a bi-vocational pastor and blogger from Stockbridge GA. He is co-pastor, along with his wife Janice, of Life Church in Conyers Ga. He also works for a technology company in Atlanta. Jon is passionate about helping others live out their own God given calling. He blogs about faith, leadership and life at www.jonstallings.com. You can also connect with him on twitter @jonstallings

3 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , ,

May 5, 2014 · 8:01 AM

The Mom Who Was Granted Grace

I want go focus on mothers in the Bible this week. Today, Hannah comes to mind. She was the mother of Samuel. Her husband had another wife named Peninnah. She had blessed her husband with children, but Hannah had not. She struggled with infertility. I’m sure it bothered her all the time, but each year when they would travel to Shiloh to worship God, it would become a major issue. Her husband would give a portion of the sacrifice to Peninnah and to each of her children. To Hannah, he only gave one portion. Peninnah would taunt her and make fun of her for not having children.

I’m sure that Hannah struggled daily with not being able to have children. The voice in her head constantly tormented her making her feel like she was somehow less of a person because she couldn’t have kids. She must have felt like God was punishing her or that there was something wrong with her. Every time she saw a mother with their children, it was like a knife in a wound reminding her that she was barren. Having the other wife taunt her and make fun of her was just salt in the wound.

Her husband would say things like, “Aren’t I worth more to you than ten sons?” Men really don’t understand what a woman goes through. We aren’t wired the way a woman is. Instead of doing something consoling, we say something stupid. It wasn’t that she didn’t love her husband, she wanted fulfillment that only a child could bring. Her husband’ swords weren’t meant to hurt, but spoken out of ignorance, they did more harm than good. She would have preferred he prayed for her there while we sacrificed.

Since he didn’t, she did. She went into the sanctuary to pray. She began to weep as years of pain, suffering and mental anguish released. When she ran out of tears, her body dry heaved as she tried to pray. The words wouldn’t come out. Her mouth was moving, but the prayer was coming from her heart. Eli, the priest, saw her at the alter. He assumed she was drunk by her behavior. He called out to her, “Must you come here drunk?” Sobbing she replied, “I haven’t been drinking. But I am very discouraged and I was pouring my heart out to The Lord.” He said, “In that case, go in peace! May the God of Israel grant the request you have asked of him.”

She went away happy and began to eat again. She believed the word from Eli. She conceived and gave birth to a son. When he was old enough to be weaned, she took him back to Eli and gave him to The Lord. She left him there as an offering for God answering her prayer. She gave back the thing she wanted most. When I looked up the name Hannah, it meant “grace”. Merriam-Webster dictionary defines grace as “an unmerited divine assistance given humans for their regeneration.” God gave Hannah grace just like he gives it to us. When Samuel was born, Hannah became a new person. She was free of the thing that haunted her. God is still in the business of answering our deepest desires and granting us grace when no one else understands.

2 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

April 11, 2014 · 5:34 AM

Free To Fail

It’s Free Friday! Today is the day you let go of the things in your life that keep you down or hold you back from all God has for you. To celebrate, I’m giving away an autographed copy of “What Happens When Women Say Yes to God” by Lysa TerKeurst. Keep reading to find out how to enter.

I heard something this week by Tullian Tchividjian, author of “One Way Love”, that challenged me. He said, “Because Jesus succeeded, you are free to fail.” Think about that for a second. Because Jesus was successful at the cross, you are free to fail. You don’t have to live a perfect life. Now before you start going nuts, I’m not saying you should go out and do whatever you want because He will forgive you. Paul addressed that in Romans 6:1-2 when he said, “Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it?”

What I’m saying is take the pressure off to constantly be perfect. You are an imperfect person who can’t live a perfect life. I know the pressure that comes from trying to live every day as perfectly as God described in scripture. I also think of three people who tried that as well. One was the Pharisees. They were so caught up in living by the law, that they couldn’t see when the law was fulfilled. They not only lived by the law, but they forced others to live by it as well. You don’t have to live by someone else’s personal convictions. Don’t live a life in sin, but also don’t live a life bound by so many rules you lose sight of the creator.

Another person that tried to live perfectly was the rich, young ruler. In Matthew 19:16, he asked Jesus, “What good deed must I do to have eternal life.” Jesus responded that he should keep the commandments. He looked at Jesus and said, “I’ve obeyed all those. What else do I need to do?” In verse 21 Jesus said, “If you want yo be perfect, go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor… Then come and follow me.” He left sad because he had a lot of money and didn’t want to give that up. If you listened to his question, he thought doing good things got you in to Heaven. They don’t. Only the grace that Christ gives from His death on the cross can do that.

Finally, I think of Paul. In Philippians 3:3-4, he said, “We rely on what Christ Jesus has done for us. We put no confidence in human effort, though I could have confidence in my own effort if anyone could.” He goes on to say how strictly he lived according to the law more than anyone else, but then verses 7 and 9 come along. He said, “(7) I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. (9) I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith.” There is nothing you can do to earn God’s love. So stop trying to live like you are earning His love and live a life out of love for Him.

When we grasp that, truly grasp that, the pressure of being perfect is lifted. There is freedom in being able to fail. I tell people all the time, “You learn the most when you fail.” I’ve got a PhD from the School of Hard Knocks. I’ve failed miserably in my life and have been embarrassed by it. I don’t have to be perfect because Jesus was. I don’t have to be successful because Jesus was. I don’t have to live up to the letter of the law because His grace makes up the difference between its standard and my failure. I am free to fail and so are you. Live in that freedom today. Be set free of trying to be perfect and let God’s grace make up the difference in your life.

If you would like to win “What Happens When Women Say Yes To God” by Lysa TerKeurst, all you have to do is go to my Facebook page here and “like” it. I will randomly pick one person tomorrow (April 12, 2014) who has liked my page. If you have already liked my page and enjoy reading these daily devotionals, you are already entered. Please invite your friends to like my page so they can receive encouragement from God’s Word too.

2 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

January 7, 2014 · 7:22 AM

How To Value Grace

20140107-071927.jpg

Several years ago the cell phone industry gave out free phones if you’d sign a contract with them. They also offered buy one get one free offers all the time. For the most part, they have abandoned that practice of selling phones for one simple reason: customers didn’t value the devices. Even though that device was worth several hundred dollars, because it was free to the customer, they treated it poorly thinking, “It’s a free phone. If anything happens to it, I’ll just go get another one.” Now customers are charged hundreds of dollars for the devices and they take better care of them.

I wonder if we’ve done the same thing with God’s grace. Do we treated it poorly because it is given to us freely? While it really doesn’t cost us anything to accept it, it did cost God His only son. When we face temptation, we think, “God will forgive me. I’ll just ask for forgiveness later.” We get an “it’s easier to ask forgiveness than permission” attitude with God. Because grace is free to us, we don’t value it like we should. We know that the more we sin or fail God, the more abundant God’s grace is. There is enough to cover our sins, no matter how bad they are.

Paul must have been experiencing the same lack of appreciation for God’s grace with the Roman believers. In Romans 6:1-2 he wrote, “Should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of His wonderful grace? Of course not!” He knew how valuable God’s grace was and it upset him that people just treated it as commonplace. It bothered Him that people used the free gift of grace to live their lives in sin apart from the way God wanted them to live. He saw that they placed no value on what grace really cost.

It’s easy to devalue something that is free to us. It’s in our nature to treat it poorly. Unlike the cell phone companies, God is not going to start charging you more for His grace. Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For it is by free grace (God’s unmerited favor) that you are saved (delivered from judgment and made partakers of Christ’s salvation) through [your] faith. And this [salvation] is not of yourselves [of your own doing, it came not through your own striving], but it is the gift of God; Not because of works [not the fulfillment of the Law’s demands], lest any man should boast. [It is not the result of what anyone can possibly do, so no one can pride himself in it or take glory to himself] (AMP).”

We can’t earn God’s grace or salvation by doing things. Since the price was paid by the death of Jesus on the cross, it has been made free to us. It’s paid for. We simply need to find a way to value it in our lives and to learn to not treat it like it didn’t cost anything. If we consider what grace cost Christ each time we’re faced with temptation and ask ourselves, “Is doing this worth a nail in the hands of Jesus,” we’ll learn to value it more and follow through with temptation less. We’ll find that we will live like He asked us to and place a higher value on something that cost Him so much.

6 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

January 3, 2014 · 7:38 AM

Free From Dark Clouds

It’s Free Friday! What are you going to let go of today? What’s holding you down that you need to be free of? Today’s the day you can make that choice to let go. To celebrate Free Friday, I’m giving away “Epic Grace: Chronicles of a Recovering Idiot” By Kurt Bubna. Keep reading to find out how you can be entered to win it.

20140103-073606.jpg

Disney put out a movie recently called “Frozen”. My favorite character has to be a snowman named Olaf. He’s the world’s only snowman who loves summer. He’s always upbeat and looking at the bright side of things. Even when he’s melting, he’s saying positive things. In the end, he gets his wigs to live in summer. He’s given his own snow cloud that follows him around so he can live through the times that would normally wipe him out. We can learn a lot from that snowman.

Many of us walk around with a dark, rain cloud over us instead of having our ideal climate overhead. We see the world through lenses that are tainted by the things that have brought us pain. We see negativity in every situation because that’s all that we believe will happen. We’ve lost our ability to see good coming from anything. When something good happens to one of our friends, we aren’t genuinely happy for them. Instead, we’re either bitter or we believe that the floor is going to drop out from under them too.

For many of us, that dark cloud is caused by our past. We’ve never learned to forgive ourselves from the things that God has forgiven us of. We allow others to label us with a scarlet letter. We love under condemnation instead of freedom. Romans 8:1-2 says, “Those who enter into Christ’s being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air (MSG).” Once you are forgiven from Christ, you are free from the black cloud of your past.

The first part of that scripture says that we no longer have to live under that cloud. That means that if it’s still there after you’ve been forgiven, it’s there by your choice not God’s. He wants to come in and clear the air over your head. He wants to create your ideal climate so that you can be who He called you to be. He knows you’re still going to mess up from time to time and He knows you aren’t perfect. His desire is that you understand He is a God of second (and third, and fourth,…) chances. He’s not there to hit you over the head and put a dark cloud over you every time you mess up. He’s there to clear the air and to forgive you.

If you’re living under that dark cloud today, let God’s Spirit come in and clear the air over your head. Get free from that cloud that affects you negatively. You simply do it by accepting His forgiveness is enough. Don’t condemn yourself or allow others to condemn you for the things you’ve been forgiven of. Let God use the dark things in your past to be a positive testimony of what He can do. The choice is yours. Will you let go and be free today?

In order to win “Epic Grace: Chronicles of a Recovering Idiot” by Kurt Bubna, go to my Facebook page for Devotions By Chris here and “like” it. I will choose a winner at random tomorrow, January 4, 2014 from the names of people who have liked the page and post it on my wall. If you win, private message me how you would like to receive it. If you know someone that needs to hear this message, please repost or share from your own wall.

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

November 7, 2013 · 7:52 AM

American Night in Cairo

I’ve been reminded twice this week about what I called “American Night in Cairo”. When I lived in Egypt, there were days were I longed to be back in the States and I would remember everything great about the U.S. On those days, I would put a cassette tape in my jam box that my parents recorded from my favorite station at home and listen to the music, DJ chatter, news, traffic and weather. I’d cook hotdogs that someone brought me, open a can of chili and drink a Dr. Pepper that a friend got from the commissary. After that, I’d put in a VHS tape into the VCR, sit on the couch and what “Friends” and other shows from “Must See TV” with commercials and all. For a moment, it was like I was back in my natural habitat.

The truth was, Egypt was my new home. I fell in love with Arabic, the pyramids, eating who knows what from who knows where, the dust storms, the horns honking, sailing down the Nile and everything else that was special about living there. I was so caught up in looking back to my old life that I almost missed the new one. I longed for days that had passed and my memory amplified how great things were because they weren’t right in front of me. It got to be all I thought about until I really embraced Egypt.

I heard the first part of Romans 6 last night from The Message Bible and it paralleled with those nights in Egypt. It says, “If we’ve left the country where sin is sovereign, how can we still live in our old house there? Or didn’t you realize we packed up and left there for good? That is what happened in baptism. When we went under water, we left the old country of sin behind; when we came up out of the water, we entered into the new country of grace – a new life in a new land!” I find myself, even now, looking back on my old life, the one where I didn’t follow God’s ways, and remembering it with fondness.

I don’t think it’s bad to remember the good times I had, but when I start longing for them again, it distracts from my new life in Christ. I start missing out on what God has for me in this new land. I can’t allow what used to be to dominate my present thoughts and to create a homesickness for what once was. Since we’re born into sin, that lifestyle is “home” to our flesh. Our mind and body want to go back there, but our spirit, who is given to us from God, desires the new land. It creates a battle inside. That battle stunts our growth, stagnates our walk and keeps us from seeing all the blessings of the new life.

It wasn’t until I quit having “American Night in Cairo” that I began to see the beauty of my new home. I had missed out on so much because I was always dreaming of what used to be. What is your “American Night in Cairo” that keeps drawing you back to your old life? God has called you to live a new life in a new land. Don’t spend your time in this new life dreaming of days gone by. Thank God you’re forgiven, listen to the deepest part of your spirit as it calls you to love this new life and follow after it. You live in a country of grace now. You have a new life in a new land, embrace it.

3 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

May 28, 2013 · 9:23 AM

The Grace of Transformation

One of the earliest definitions of grace I ever heard was: God’s Redemption At Christ’s Expense. That acronym helped me to remember it all through the years. Because that became my definition of grace, it limited my understanding of grace. I always thought of grace as what God used to cover my sins and nothing more. I’m learning that while that is part of it, grace is so much more.

I’ve been reading “Life with God” by Richard Foster and that book has really challenged what I thought about grace. Grace is what enables to have a relationship with God. It’s what empowers us in our walk with Him. It’s more than what covers our sins. For me, it is like air in my life with God. Without it, I would not survive.

We each need grace daily as Christians. Whether it is to cover our sins and to make up the difference in our short comings or to propel us forward in our relationship with God. Richard Foster described it as the road beneath our feet in our walk with God. Psalm 37:23 says, “The Lord directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives.” Walking in grace is what it is to be directed by The Lord.

I love the other part of that verse that is rarely quoted. God delights in the details of our lives. He’s not someone who has left you alone and doesn’t know what’s going on in your life. He’s intimately familiar with every aspect of your life. He knows what you have going on today. He knows about the challenges you face and the things that are stressing you out. That leads me to another thing that Foster mentions about grace: it’s what forms us.

Difficult circumstances, tragic loss and other things we face are what God uses to shape us. They aren’t necessarily a punishment from Him. They are used to form us into who He needs us to be. No one I know is truly excited about going through the times that form us. I’ve been there. I’ve hurt so bad that it would have been easier to die than to deal with the pain. I’ve cried so many tears that I ran out of them.

When we look back on those times of formation, we can see God’s grace in it. While we are in it, we are blind to what God is doing. We want to blame Him, accuse Him or turn from Him in that blinding pain. We really just want out of what we are going through and to find an escape from the pain. But once we’ve endured, grace makes us stronger than before. Grace allows us to help others who are walking through the darkness of formation.

I’ve heard it said that we are either in a time of formation, just coming out of a time of formation or about to go into a time of it. Where are you? If you’re in it, hold on. God has not forsaken you. He’s there with you even though you feel blind right now. If you just came out of it, recover and learn how God wants to use that time in your life to help others. If you’re about to walk into it, trust in God’s grace to get you through it. Decide now that you will trust His grace even when you can’t see it.

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

April 23, 2013 · 8:00 AM

The Unforced Rhythms of Grace

I heard a scripture a couple of weeks ago and I’m still chewing on it. I’m going over it in my mind over and over. I’m still not sure everything that it means, so I’ll keep chewing on it, breaking it down, thinking it through and pondering how it applies to my life. This simple phrase from matthew 11:28-30 keeps rolling around in my mind. Jesus said, “Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.”

Jesus says it after asking some good questions. He asked, “Are you tired? Worn out?” Then He offers for us to go to Him, get away with Him and to recover our life. He will show us how to take a real rest by walking with Him and working with Him. He says, “Watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.” It reminds me of a father teaching His child how to do something.

Watch me. Learn from me. I’ll show you how to do it. Do what I do. That’s a father’s heart. He wants to show us the rhythm of life. Real life, not this life we’re living that is inundated with emails, phone calls and traffic. Life that is unforced and natural. A spiritual life that loves others, does what is right and follows in His steps. He promised right after that, “I won’t lay anything heavy or Ill-fitting on you.” He’s not a burdensome God. His desire is simp,y to spend time with us.

The longer that I’m a father, the more I realize His love for us and His desire to just spend time with us. Our lives are to bring Him joy. We were designed to walk with Him and to spend time with Him. We weren’t meant to carry heavy burdens. His yoke is easy and His burden is light. In I Peter 5:7 It says, “Give ALL your worries and cares to God, for He cares for you.”

I think giving them over to Him is the first step to learning those unforced rhythms of grace. We can’t move well when we are bogged down with things that we can’t do anything about. Release them to Him and find rest. I know it’s easier said than done. It takes a shift in your thinking. Once you come to the realization that worrying about your problems won’t solve it, you have the ability to release it to God and find rest. The Amplified version describes that rest as “relief, ease, refreshment, recreation and blessed quiet.”

Maybe that’s where you are today. You need to learn those rhythms of grace, but you have to let go of the burdens of the past first. You can’t let the worry of the unknown interfere with those rhythms either. Your life is precious and our Father wants you to learn His ways and to find rest in Him. He wants to refresh your soul today if you’ll just let Him. Don’t hold onto the things that keep you from walking forward with Him.

2 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

April 19, 2013 · 9:37 AM

Freedom Through Perspective

A co-worker of mine has a drawing on his desk of a bird eating a frog. You can’t see the frog’s head because it’s in the bird’s mouth. With one of his legs that is still outside of the mouth of the bird, the frog grabs the bird by the throat to prevent it from swallowing him. The caption reads, “Never give up!” It’s a funny drawing, but there’s a great message in it too. Most people in that situation would have given up. They can’t see the light of day. They’re being swallowed by their problems. All hope seems lost.

Paul the Apostle was in a similar situation. He was in jail often. His life was always being threatened. He was beat up, stoned, ship wrecked and had to face judges. When things seemed at their worst, he still found a way to praise God. One of my favorite stories of him was when he was in the dungeon of the prison. He was shackled with no hope of getting out. At midnight, he was singing praises to God.

If you’ve never been in a prison before, I can tell you there’s not much reason to be happy. There’s no joy there. Our prisons today have power, sewer, water, air conditioning, TV, food and more. Back then, prison was prison In every sense if the word. There was no hope for anyone that was there. Paul’s hope didn’t rely on his external circumstances though.

He understood that the things that happen to us are only temporary. As he sang, an earthquake shook the prison and the shackles that held him physically released him. His physical body became as free as his spirit. Not only did his shackles come off, but so did those of everyone in the prison. Praise is powerful enough to not only free you, but to free those around you who do not have the strength to praise.

We studied in church this week from the book “Love & Respect” by Dr. Emerson Eggrichs. The chapter we studied was called, “My response is my responsibility”. Even though the book deals with marriage, the principle that was shared applies to all areas of your life. Other people do not control your response. You do. You choose how you respond to situations created by others. They can’t make you do anything. How you react is your responsibility.

Paul’s response to troubles, persecutions, prisons and trials was never one if despair. It was always of hope. In II Corinthians 4:16-18 he says, “So we’re not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without His unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times.” He understood, as we should, that the thing we are going through right now is temporary even though it doesn’t feel like it.

When you compare the situation you’re in with eternity, it’s small potatoes. When you compare it to your life and what is temporary, it’s huge. God doesn’t want you to compare your struggles to the things of this world. You’ll lose your perspective and ultimately your joy. Keep your eyes on eternity and what is to come. Your perspective will change and your praise will rise to free you from those chains.

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

January 17, 2013 · 7:57 AM

Wrongfully Arrested

My wife told me a joke last week that got me to thinking. There was a lady who was in a hurry to get where she was going. She was tailgating people and weaving in and out of traffic. She was riding the bumper of a truck when the light turned yellow. Instead of speeding through it, the truck stopped. She was furious! She started banging her steering wheel, screaming and making hand gestures that showed she was upset.

About that time, there was a knock on her window. She hadn’t noticed the police lights behind her. He arrested her and took her to jail. About an hour later, they came and got her out of jail to release her. While they were processing her, the arresting cop was there. He said, “Im sorry, ma’am for arresting you. When I saw how you were driving and acting and then read your bumper stickers that said, ‘WWJD, Follow me to Sunday School, My boss is a Jewish carpenter and God is my co-pilot’ I assumed you had stolen the car.”

Now that’s funny, but it’s also true of how most of us act. We advertise Christianity to everyone around us through bumper stickers, the Bible we carry, the tracts we leave laying around and telling others that we’re believers. But what about our actions? I’ve always heard it said that actions speak louder than words. How do we act when we think no one is looking? How do we respond when nothing goes our way? What do we do when we are hit with one trial after another?

I know we’re still human and we will respond like that lady did from time to time. I know have been guilty on several occasions. What message does that send when we behave that way? We are called to be different. To live different, to act different and to respond differently than others. When we tell others we are Christians, it feels like they’re waiting on us to mess up. Guess what, you will at some point. Why? Because we’re still human and have that nature in us. It’s what we do after we mess up that makes the difference.

I wonder how the lady in the joke responded after she left the station. Did she remove the bumper stickers from her car? Did she repent and ask God to give her the strength to be a better witness? I know that’s what I would have done in that situation. I would have gone crawling to God, begging for His forgiveness and looking for ways to be a better light in this dark place. That’s the beauty of Christianity. That’s the unfathomable thing about God’s grace. That’s what gives me hope.

We all mess up. We all deny Christ with our lives at times. The witness to others is that even when I royally mess up, I can find mercy, grace and forgiveness in Christ. While others may not forget what I did, God can. No one can live a completely righteous life, but we can live a life dominated by God’s grace and make that our witness. People know you can’t be perfect, but they want to know they can be forgiven. They want to know if there is enough grace for what they’ve done. There is.

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , ,