When people observe the way act and treat others. What do they see? Do our actions align with the words that we speak? This is probably one of the hardest issues we have to face both as people and Christians. We are held to a higher standard because we are Christians. I wonder how often people see us and say that just by observing us they can tell we are men and women of God? My hope is that our actions are matching what we speak so that others will see that we are people with good character. Our actions must match our words.
So often times we see a person in public or on television that claims to be very spiritual and one day they do something that totally discredits them. If I were a nonbeliever, I know that I’d be pushed further away from God by this hypocrisy. As believers and leaders, we need to be especially careful of this happening to us. As we become more mature in our faith, the likelihood of this happening to one of us is lessened, but it will always be something we need to watch out for.
1 John 3:18 say's. Dear children, let us stop just saying we love each other; let us really show it by our actions.
This is one of Satan’s favorite traps for Christians. If we’re driving on the highway and someone cuts us off, do we give them grace and forgive them immediately, or do we fuss and fume for even a minute. If we don’t forgive immediately, we’ve done it wrong and because this particular example is so common, it is one of Satan’s best opportunities to trip us up.
If we don’t forgive immediately or we happen to return the hand gesture that they gave us, Satan has then harmed us spiritually. We are no longer in good standing with God. This is the devil’s objective and we cannot allow him an inch of space to come in and harm us, the consequences are at times major. If someone knows we’re men and women of God, and they see us behave that way, do you think that telling them that the devil made us do it will make it alright? It was a choice and the wrong one was made. In my terms we need to “walk our talk” and if we don’t, our character will be constantly in a state of repair and it will not be a character that others will look upon with favor.
People that see us as Christians will constantly be looking at our character. Do we live the way we tell others too? Do we treat our family the way we preach to others? Do we conduct ourselves in a manner that is beyond reproach? I know that the answer in many cases is no we don’t, and since that is the case we need to become more conscious of our actions and always hold ourselves at a higher level. When this becomes routine, we’ll find ourselves “walking our talk” without any thought at all.
Spiritual maturity and Character are the key things that others will evaluate us on. If we are lacking in either area, our opportunity to be effective ministers to them will not be at its peak. It is so easy and natural for us to do what we want to do instead of being obedient to God, but we cannot live worldly lives and then expect God's power to be available to us when we feel like using it (such as laying hands on a sick person, for example). We cannot pick and choose which parts of the Bible we want to obey and which parts we feel like ignoring.
It's really quite simple when you think about it. If God says to do something then we should do it. If God says not to do something then we shouldn't do it. It's that simple! Unfortunately, we all have a "flesh nature" which often keeps us from knowing and doing the will of God. The process of maturing requires us to begin putting our "flesh" to death on a daily basis by making the hard choices that excellence and integrity and obedience demand. Many of us tend to rely almost exclusively on our own reasoning abilities, especially when we are wronged and we end up doing what we "feel" like doing.
Our reasoning’s and our feelings are part of our godless human nature, and we are commanded to crucify that fleshly human nature. In Romans 8:7-8 we are told that. Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. That person ignores who God is and what he is doing. And God isn't pleased at being ignored. Our goal should be to live according to our spirits, not according to our "flesh," because we will not make any real progress in spiritual maturity and authority while we are slaves to our "flesh nature."
Every time our "flesh" (our minds, wills, and emotions) starts to rise up within us with feelings like anger, impatience, being judgmental, and so on, we have a choice to make. Are we going to let our flesh rule our lives (perhaps at the unseen urging of the devil), or are we going to take the "higher" road and be obedient to God by putting our flesh to death? When you catch yourself becoming angry or offended or impatient (and so on), try swallowing your pride and taking authority over your flesh by telling yourself something positive. “I will do what is right just because it is right, whether it makes sense to me or not, whether my flesh likes it or not, whether I feel like it or not, whether it will embarrass me or not, whether it will cost me some pride or some time or some energy, I will do what is right because that honors the Lord!”
I invite you to pray this with me.
Heavenly father, thank you for your patience and forgiveness of our shortcomings. We make mistakes and I pray that we would all learn from the mistakes that we make, so that we don’t make the same mistake a second time. Lord God, we know that the best way to be effective in our market place is to be of good character and be spiritually mature. Father please help us to become more mature in your word everyday, and help us to be more aware of our actions, so that they always reflect our words. This way we preserve our integrity and our opportunities to minister to others with the power and authority that you want us to have.
In Jesus Name I Pray
Amen
God Bless You All
“The Sharpshooter”
