Highlighting – “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.” (v.10)
“Let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.” Emphasis added. When I read these verses, I immediately asked God to reveal to me where I fall short in treating all people good. As Christians, our response to those who hurt us should be to still demonstrate love to them (trust me, I know this is not easy). If we want to be more like Christ, we must always do good, even when we don’t want to. I believe in order to do good to all people we must allow the Holy Spirit to transform our minds and renew our hearts to be like Christ and fulfill God’s will in this regard (Philippians 2:13). We must also ask God to remove any pride in our lives that keeps us from doing good to others. The Word of God says, “in the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). We must remind ourselves that we are representing our God and will only be able to bring others to Jesus Christ, if we represent Him the right way. Even more so than unbelievers, we should be good to our brothers and sisters in Christ. If you were honest with yourself today and how you behaved towards other believers at your church, could you say you do this well?
Time to self-check and ask the Lord to make us more like Him daily.
Dear Father, prune me to make me more like You. I desire to truly be a light in this world and set apart for Your good works. Help me to be an example to others of what Jesus Christ represents. Help me to be good to all people as Your Word says. In Jesus’ name I pray, amen!
This one is hard for me. Church folk have been the ones I have seen fight more than those I know outside of church. It’s reshaped my thoughts on church people, including myself. I don’t go to a church building much anymore but I do pray and seek my connection with Him. I try my best to share positivity to ppl but when someone does something bad to me it’s hard to give back a Godly kind of love. So I think after reading this I need to think of ways I can change my thoughts so that I think love and then act love. First thought should be God knows why they are treating you this way. It might be part of his plan. Embrace this situation/person with love if you interact and it will take a way the stress.
This is hard but I will try.
I’m happy you’re willing to try. God will do the rest by transforming your heart and mind to be more Christ-like. You must be willing to crucify the flesh (your pride), and submit to His Spirit, to love the way He desires we love. We’re all a work in progress. The purpose behind my blog is to say we’re in this together, to help one another grow in godliness, so I’m grateful the devotion helped you self-check and recognize where you need to grow deeper in Christ. Thanks for sharing!