It was a minor thing.  It always starts out that way.  A careless driver in a hurry cut me off with their “me first” driving attitude.  It caused me to make a defensive driving maneuver to prevent an accident from happening.  I said something in the moment that was neither faithful nor Christ-like.  And my thoughts certainly didn’t reflect an act of faithfulness to Christ.  I caught myself after the fact, but in the moment, I had some pretty shameful thoughts about the other driver.  That’s how easy it is to slip out of character being true to Christ.

         Being true to Christ can be challenging.  And it requires being born again for any who dare to undertake the challenge.  Our human spirits are corrupt and biased such that treating others with our human tendencies almost always leads to failure.  And if we are to live up to the image of Christ and be true to Christ, there are certain requirements that need to be followed.  For the most part it requires removing any sense of pretense or phoniness.  Our interactions with each other must come from a place of deep integrity where sincerity is not faked but lived into under the direction of the Holy Spirit.  It’s considered spiritually unhealthy to grumble and complain about loving and helping others when that’s the main service project we signed up for.  We have to watch our language to ensure that it’s as Godly as we hope to be and serve the world motivated by the Holy Spirit so that God might be glorified through Jesus Christ.  It’s the image of Christ that we are commanded to live up to and into, so that being true to Christ becomes our single most important act of faithfulness.  It’s how we show the world who we are and who Christ is that brings the power of transformation to broken and lost souls.

• When have you found yourself antagonized by the event of life that caused you to slip out of character as a Christian?
• What were your thoughts after you realized your un-Christian response to the incident?
• How can we move back into faithfulness to Christ after an event that challenges who we are as children of God?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Merciful God, forgive me when my words or actions fall back into my sinful nature. Help me to grow in spirit and character to be more Christ-like when facing life’s challenges.

         There is a fundamental principal to being faithful in a relationship.  There is — of course — the obligation to be honest — to avoid deceit, lies, and secrecy.  There’s also the need for understanding.  All of these qualities lead to image we present both publicly and privately.  Ultimately, it’s the image we present to others that determines our faithfulness to Christ.  It’s fairly easy to tell people we’re Christian.  But if our life and living doesn’t match the words we say, then the image we present to others as a Christian and our faithfulness to God as servants of Christ becomes highly suspect.  And if we’re honest, it’s the contradiction between what and who we say we are and the life we live that most often leads people to see the hypocrisy in our lives.  And saying, “We’re not perfect, just forgiven”, is the phrase most often used when we want to justify our humanity rather than our spirituality.  Faithfulness requires that there be an agreement between what we say and what we do that allows people to notice that we’re being true to Christ and living a life of faithful service to our God.

• We all fall short of faithfully living into what it means to be a Christian and a servant of God. What corrective measures do you take when you find yourself not living in faithfulness to the image of a trusted servant of Christ?
• What areas of Christian faithfulness do you most need to grow in?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving and faithful God, teach me what it means to be true to Christ as a faithful servant. Help me to live up to and into his image as a trusted and reliable servant.

         So much of the power we have from God comes from our willingness and our courage to claim what God has done for us.  Sadly, most of us live in fear that if we tell others of what God has done to deliver us from the worst of ourselves, it will speak more to the frailty of our human condition than to the power of God’s Spirit in us to help us to overcome our weaknesses.  And so, we live more comfortably telling people that “we’re only human.”  Yet, that’s only half the story.  The other half of the story comes from a God who empowered us to become children of God and has given us the Holy Spirit as a sign of that relationship.  The other part of the story comes from a God who —through faith — enables us to gain access to the kingdom of God.  The other part of the story enables us to draw power from God to overcome life’s challenges and to rebuke Satan in Jesus’ name.  The other part of the story gives us access to a grace that has the power to remove the stain of all sin through our faith in Jesus Christ.

         At some point, to claim our power in God, we will have to tell of God’s power live in us and do it publicly.  At some point our power will be displayed in our confession faith in Jesus Christ.  At some point, will must claim and proclaim our power as children of God and the grace that we so humbly receive, that God so generously pours out from day to day.

• Why do you believe we so quickly claim our humanity as a sign of weakness rather than claiming our power as children of God?
• What might change in our relationship to ourselves and others if we claimed, “I’m Spiritually connected to the power of God”?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Merciful God, give me the courage to tell the great congregation the glad news of Your deliverance of me; of Your faithfulness, salvation, and Your steadfast love.