Romans 14:7-13
"For none of us liveth to himself and no man dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord; whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that He might be Lord both of the dead and living But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? For we shall all stand before judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, AS I LIVE, SAITH THE LORD, EVERY KNEE SHALL BOW TO ME, AND EVERY TONGUE SHALL CONFESS TO GOD. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother's way."
I love to be an encouragement to others. I love for people to encourage me. I believe God knows just when to lay it on someone's heart to encourage me. As christians we all need encouragement on a daily basis. In another direction Christian's do not need discouragement. I believe God is telling us just that in these verses. It's ok to disagree with someone or not like the way they do something but as verse 13 says if it is going to cause someone's walk with Christ to fall then there's no need to say anything about it. This goes with anything in our life really. As christians we must present our bodies as living sacrifices unto Him (Romans 12:1). When we walk around judging everyone, gossiping (this applies to me as well), or presenting ourselves just like anyone else in the world would, we are being a stumbling block to others. Not to mention, we are not glorifying our Heavenly Father. What I find so amazing, that a lot of times we don't think about is, if we would just strive to be more like Christ and live for Him, not judging others but directing them to Him, those people that we feel need to change would. They would change because they would then have a desire to be more like Christ. I've been praying for God to reveal to me the things I need to change so that I can draw closer to Him and direct others in His path. He has been revealing a lot of things to me. I'm realizing more and more everyday that our actions affect EVERYONE around us. We have to be very careful of our actions and how we treat others. People in the world realize the things we do wrong a lot quicker when they know you are a Christian. I believe they are looking for things for us to do wrong just so they'll have an excuse of why they don't want to be a Christian. This breaks my heart. I NEVER want to do ANYTHING that would make someone not want to be a Christian!
God please help me to be more like you. Help others to see Christ in me that I may draw them closer to you as well. Help me to have a joyful spirit even on my worst days. I love you Amen.
What a reminder AND an encouragement that post was!! My heart's desire is just what you said Heather, I NEVER want to do ANYTHING that would make someone not want to be a Christian!
ReplyDeleteI have even prayed that God would strike me dead before HE would EVER let that happen.
I know I tell you this often, but I DO love you soooooo much! You are such an encouragement to me and I see so much of myself in you....well, not really myself, but more that God seems to have given us such similar personalities, desires, dreams, burdens, goals, etc. Funny how He does that!