WHO AND WHAT DOES OTHERS SEE IN ME? Part 2

WHO AND WHAT DOES OTHERS SEE IN ME?

Part 2

I had a friend calling me yesterday. She was so excited and shocked. She had been with the Lord and shared Him in different places. When she was on her way home, she was happy and felt light. What shocked her was that a woman came running up to her and grabbed her and told her how much energy that came out of her. This other woman was a stranger to my friend, but she said that she had observed her before. This happened without saying a word. My friend must have had a glow around her. We can truly say that Jesus was visible in her. We say that what the heart is full of, comes out of our mouth, but this time it became visible. I got a little envious since I also want Jesus to be visible in my life. I cannot do anything else than being with Him.

It is written that we should know each other by the Spirit. That means that we Christians should recognize each other through the spirit living in us and working through us. I actually experience that when I travel to new places. I meet a Christian from another country, but when we start taking, it seems like we have known each other for years. We share heart to heart. We are skipping all the superficial phrases and talk about what matters most to us, Jesus and everything connected to His kingdom. Everybody doesn’t have Him as their first priority and our conversation becomes more superficial then.

We read in Nehemiah 8:10 that the joy of the Lord is our strength. I believe that the joy is not only for our strength, but also to be observed by others. One can easily see if a person is in love or if a person is happy for other reasons. I am not saying that we should hide our sorrow. If you have experienced something very tragic, you should be honest about that. I have been in churches where people come with a word of victory no matter how sad they are, but generally speaking; we should be happy and thankful. We belong to a Father who has created heaven and earth and have a Brother who has taken all our sins. He died so we could live and in His wounds, we are healed. (Is.53:4+5) He was punished so that we could have peace. I believe that we will have joy when we understand what Jesus has done for us. I talk about real joy. I have been to meetings where they use a lot of outward remedies to make people happy. They want to manipulate people to dance, laugh and cry out loud. None of these things are wrong in themselves, but it should come from within. It should be a response to real thankfulness.

It is written in Galatians 5:22 that one of the fruits of the Spirit is peace and in Philippians 4:7 we read that the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard our minds through Christ Jesus. Something positive is happening to me when I am surrounded by people with real peace. It is contagious and I want to have that peace myself. Stress, fear and worries are the opposite. That infects others as a virus. Jesus was not a stressed man. He trusted His Father and spent a lot of time together with Him. Peace goes together with faith. If you trust God and feel secure, people will sense an inner peace in you. I heard about an aunt of mine. She died when I was a child. When people entered her room in the hospital before she died, they had an encounter with Jesus. My aunt was so full of Jesus and encouraged everyone coming close to her. She knew where she was going and whom to meet, her friend and Savior Jesus.

Hebrew 12:15 is warning us against allowing a bitter root to grow. It says in the sentence before that it might happen if we fall short of the grace of God. Bitterness is also contagious. I do not enjoy being around bitter and negative people. That steals my energy and I might lose my joy in the Lord. We have life and death in our tongue and we are spreading an aroma of death if we speak negatively. There are times when we can share something negative in order to get help or be prayed for, but gossip is sin.

In Hebrew 12:14 we read that we should pursue peace with all people, and holiness without which no one will see the Lord. I you are a Christian, you are a ambassador of Jesus to the people around you. Jesus is in heaven. People cannot see Him, but they see you. If you sit at work telling dirty jokes or are flirting with somebody in order to become popular, you are definitely giving a wrong picture of Christ. He is pure and righteous. I worked in an institution where the patients often told bad jokes. The patients were vulnerable and I did not stop them every time, but one day a person said: “Else does not like this because she does not laugh nor smile.” We are read as an open letter and maybe Christians more than others. What are they reading?

BECOME A LETTER WORTH READING!

Mother Else