April 5 ~ 1 Corinthians 7:17, 20
In every church I tell the people to stay as they were when the Lord Jesus chose them and God called them to be his own. Now I say the same thing to you. So don't try to change what you were when God chose you.
Scripture taken from the Contemporary English Version © 1991,1992, 1995 by American Bible Society, Used by Permission.
In 2003, the lunch ladies of Holdingford, Minnesota, pooled their money to buy a lottery ticket. The ticket won, and each of the 16 school cafeteria workers walked away with approximately $2 million. Two of them subsequently retired, but the other ladies continued to come to work each day and perform the same duties as they had done before the winning ticket was confirmed… cooking, cleaning, washing dishes, and more. Just because they were transformed into millionaires overnight didn’t mean they changed into different people. They just had a little extra money for sharing with family and friends, paying off debts, sending their children to college, and taking an elderly grandma to Las Vegas on a trip!
Why do you suppose I used an illustration about the lottery for this scripture passage? I assure you I am not encouraging you to play the lottery! But I want you to notice that winning the lottery may have changed the lives of these ladies in some ways… but it did not change these ladies. And Paul is telling us that when we accept Jesus as our Savior, things will change in our lives… but we don’t have to change careers, spouses, locations and more to serve God in our newfound salvation. Sure, if we are participating in sinful activities, we need to stop. If we are associating with people who act ungodly, we probably need new friends. But quite often, as a Christian, we can stay put and serve God right where we are. We can witness to those in our workplace who may not know Him. We can bring about improvement in our relationships with spouses, family members, and friends, just by showing love, grace and mercy in Jesus Christ. We can accomplish much for God’s kingdom by demonstrating how He has transformed our own lives and attitudes.
Sometimes we all try too hard. We think we have to be something all prim and proper and buttoned-down in order to please God… and we think we have to exhibit radical transformation in order to prove to others (and ourselves?) that we have experienced salvation. Nothing could be further from the truth. God wants us to be ourselves. He wants us to demonstrate how He does extraordinary things with ordinary people. He wants us to relax, rest, and be content with who and what we are… and what He can do with us! God wants to use us to be all we can for Him… but, I repeat - He also wants us to be ourselves. Who are you trying to be these days?
©2010 Debbie Robus
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