Devotion 4: Reach the World
“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience - among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” Ephesians 2:1-3
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9
As Ephesians says in chapter 2, we were once dead; we followed what the world said was right and did whatever we wanted. Paul reminds us that we have been saved by the grace of God, and our faith in Him has granted us eternal life. However, this is not something that we have earned by “being good.” In fact, we are the complete opposite of good. We have never once done something to deserve the freedom that the Lord has given us, and we never will. It is by His unconditional love and forgiveness that we will spend eternity with Him in Heaven.
In Matthew chapter 28, Jesus tells us to go out into all the world and preach the Gospel. He does not tell us, “Stay where you are comfortable, whisper my wonders, and hope that people will hear you.” We are to tell anyone and everyone and shout it from the rooftops! This includes our neighbors, the people at work we do not really care for, and even the random people we encounter at the store or on the street. We are not to be shy about our faith. If other people had been quiet about theirs and kept it to themselves, would you have heard of the love of Christ and joined His family? Maybe, but it may have been years later, and you may have gone down a terrible path of life before coming to Christ. You could have missed out on so many years of building a relationship with God and experiencing His love.
We do not know when our last breath will be, so live your life like today is your last. Share the many wonderful things that God has done in your life, and tell everyone you know. Show people the love that He has shown you, even the people you do not like, and even in a hard situation when someone hurts you. This is what Jesus did and what God tells us to do. In 1 John 4:19-20, it says, “We love because he [God] first loved us. If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar.” If we say we love God, this insinuates we love all people. So, if we say we love God but treat others terribly, we do not really love them, which means we have broken God’s commandment. If people see us acting this way, they will feel hurt and sometimes just write off Christians altogether, which means we are not reaching the world as we have been commanded. We want to love people, to care for them, and to show them how much Jesus wants them to be a part of His family. In order to reach these people, we have to become uncomfortable.