Living Wisely
What do the non-believers in your life think about your faith?
Verse of the Day
‘Live wisely among those who are not believers, and make the most of every opportunity. ‘
Today’s Devotional
I am about to start a nutrition course that teaches me how to fuel my body effectively. Basically, it is a program of clean eating, which is vastly different from the unhealthy junk I have eaten most of the time for the last few months. I have just wanted things to be easy and not require any effort.
Suppose that I go “all in” with this course and start eating really clean all of the time, in an effort to fuel my body for maximum health and energy levels. Then I have a one-on-one with my nutrition coach, and we get together for lunch. I order grilled chicken and veggies, but she orders a pizza, onion rings and a huge piece of chocolate cake. When I raise my eyebrow in questioning her choice, she says, “Oh, I don’t have to eat the way you do. I am teaching YOU how you need to eat, but I am naturally skinny and fit so I can eat however I want.”
Ummmm….what???
That is not attractive behavior. That’s hypocrisy. But I am guilty of the same kind of hypocrisy all the time. I write everyday about following Jesus with my whole heart, but there are times when I behave in a way that is not consistent with the Gospel of Jesus. But here’s what this verse is saying to me today: I am going to mess up in how I live out my faith, but when I am around unbelievers, I need to be especially aware of how I act and speak so that my faith will be evident and attractive. The way I act and speak should portray to any non-believers that I have accessed a Power greater than myself to help me live my life in a way that looks like something that they want for themselves.
That means I need to be kind. It means that I cannot allow other people’s bad behavior to affect my behavior or speech negatively. (That one is especially hard for me.). It means that I need to be the most non-judgmental person someone has ever met. I need to make people feel loved and welcomed into my life.
To do that, I have to look at how Jesus treated people. He LOVED them. He used every opportunity to speak to them about what was going on in their life. He helped them to recognize their own value. He helped them to have a truth-based perspective. He also met their physical needs in order to make those kinds of conversations possible.
I cannot control how someone responds to the message of Jesus. But I can do everything in my power to make that message look attractive by the way I live and speak. It’s not easy, but it goes back to being a good representative. And that’s how I want to live.
Journal Prompts
Answer only the questions that seem relevant to you today.
How can you seek out a non-believer today to make them feel loved, welcomed and accepted exactly as they are.
How has God done that for you?
How have you been hypocritical in the past? How would you do it differently today?
Ask God to help you to make the most of every encounter with non-believers in your life.