All Eyes On You
So life can get a little crazy, I think we all can attest to that! We get caught up in school or our jobs or whatever life entails and it's easy to forget that we constantly have an audience. Believe it or not, almost anything you do or say and almost every move you make is seen or noted by someone. And even for the moments and actions that are not seen, they eventually are discovered because whatever you are doing alone, behind closed doors, eventually will manifest in your heart and will in turn manifest in your actions and attitude around others. Either way, besides the fact that every move we make is seen by the Big Man upstairs, we constantly have an audience.
Last year, as a requirement of attending Baylor University, I was placed in a Christian Scriptures class. Turns out that it ended up being one of the hardest and greatest classes i've ever taken and that I ended up being placed in a class with one of the greatest and most influential teachers i've ever had. Towards the latter part of the semester we started to cover the books Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and I will never forget the day in his class that changed my life. As he began reading the passage about Jesus being hung on the cross, each class member was looking down at their books following along.. and all of the sudden I hear a slight crack in his voice followed by a pause in his reading.. at this I look up to see tears in his eyes as he stops and apologizes as he tries holds himself together. This absolutely hit me to my core. I am sitting here just reading along about the same old story of Jesus dying on the cross for us that i've heard a million and one times, and here is a non-emotional, grown man standing in front of me, with tears streaming down his face because his love for Jesus and his relationship with Him was so intimate and so strong that he was absolutely crushed over seeing the love of his life being beaten and dying right before his eyes.. because of something that HE did. WOW.
I just remember sitting there in awe trying to comprehend what was happening and just saying to myself over and over.. "I want THAT."
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SO LETS ASK OURSELVES:
When was the last time that our love for Jesus was so evident that it made someone say
"I want THAT"
I mean, if we're being honest with ourselves, most of us probably spend more time complaining, or talking about our job, or our activities, or even food more than we talk about God each day. Think about it! Let's just consider daily conversations right now. In the conversations that we have with people every day, do they display our love and our desire and our thankfulness and our awe of Jesus? Or does it display our fleshly thoughts and desires, our complaints and our own personal glorification?
Being a follower of Jesus Christ means that we strive to live and love like Him more and more each day. That we seek to glorify Him in our actions and our words and that we spend our lives pointing every single person around us back to the only one that has any worth pointing to or any power over our lives here on earth. As we interact with the people around us that see and know that we are Christians, what does it say about our God when we praise Him and are joyful and seek the hearts of others in the good times, but in the hardships are full of complaints and anger and don't actually practice what we preach when we don't look to God during our hardships? What does it say about our God when school or our jobs gets overwhelming and we are freaking out and full of anxiety and fearful right along with the rest of the crowd rather than trusting and soaking in the peace and security that God provides to those who love Him and those who seek Him? What does it say about our God when we say we love God, but the people around us can clearly see that we are not obedient to Him?
Now, let me clarify, this applies to me as much as it applies to anyone else! And I'm not saying that we have to be perfect. There have already been many times and there are going to be plenty more where each and every one of us are going to mess up and fall short of the glory of God. But what I am saying to you is that as Christians, we are not called to live a life that when people see us, that they see the flesh and the things of this world.. But instead, we are called to live a life that when people see us, that they see Jesus! That when people see us, that we do not show them ourselves, but instead that our actions and our words point people back to and display Jesus!
The matter of fact is that:
WALKING WITH JESUS LOOKS COMPLETELY DIFFERENT THAN WALKING WITH THE REST OF THE WORLD
Jesus Christ is such an amazing and powerful and incredible God that when we choose to love Him and follow Him and RELY on Him, our life looks differently than others. In this dark world, it's not the darkness of someone else that people notice, but it's the light of Jesus shining through someone that people take notice of. A life with Jesus means that when satan comes knocking and fear strikes those around us, that we stand firm in peace and security knowing who it is that is providing for us right now. It means that when everything around us is going wrong and everyone turns to anxiety and hopelessness and anger, that even when we are beaten down, we have hope and strength knowing that Jesus Christ is much greater than our troubles and our struggles and that He is mightily going before us, leading us to the greatest future possible.
Now, i'm not saying that if we're not hopeful and peaceful and secure and positive all the time that we're not followers of God. But what I am saying is that, if we love God and we create a firm foundation in Him and rely on and find our completeness in Him, that we will bear the fruit of the Spirit and it will be evident to everyone else around us in the way that we live and the way that we interact with others that we love JESUS.
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One of my favorite chapters in the Bible comes out of the book of Psalms in chapter 91 where it says,
"Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.[a] 2 I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”
3 Surely he will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence. 4 He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. 5 You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, 6 nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday. 7 A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. 8 You will only observe with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked.
9 If you say, “The Lord is my refuge,” and you make the Most High your dwelling, 10 no harm will overtake you, no disaster will come near your tent. 11 For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; 12 they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. 13 You will tread on the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent.
14 “Because he[b] loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. 15 He will call on me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. 16 With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.”
ALL EYES ON YOU
The world is watching. And more importantly, those who are broken and suffering and thirsting for something more, something to truly complete them and satisfy them and make them whole, they're watching. So what are we going to do?
There's two kinds of lives that I believe there are to live. Theres the average one, where we point to ourselves. We seek to gratify our own desires and live selfish lives. We reveal our achievements and our beauty to the world around us. We look for how people can please us and easily conform to the world around us, taking on the actions and thoughts that everyone around us has fallen into.
OR
There's the extraordinary life. The one where we point to Jesus. The one where we seek to glorify the Lord and soak in His incredible peace and love. The one where we strive for obedience and constantly lay down our lives and our desires in order to live the life that God has placed before us. To be the strength in the midst of weakness and might in the midst of powerlessness. To reveal to those the stronghold for the weak and the hope for hopeless.
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When people look at you, what do you want them to see? When people interact with you, do they walk away the same way they encountered you, or do they walk away refreshed and with a taste of the love of Jesus Christ? All eyes are on you. What are you gonna show them?
