“They
Glorified God Because of Me” by Melanie Rigney
Then I went into the
regions of Syria and Cilicia. And I was unknown personally to the churches of
Judea that are in Christ; they only kept hearing that "the one who once
was persecuting us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy." So
they glorified God because of me. (Galatians 1:21-24)
Guide
me, Lord, along the everlasting way. (Psalm 139:24b)
“Martha,
Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only
one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.” (Luke
10:41-42)
Piety
Lord, help me
to get out of the way while You work through me and others.
Study
We like to
sit in judgment of them, the people whose pasts have given birth to today’s
ministries: The convicted drug dealer who now works with others who struggle
with addiction. The woman who had abortions who counsels pregnant women not to
do what she did. The divorced man who counsels and leads retreats for those whose
marriages are in trouble. Seriously? Are they
in a position to give advice?
Imagine then,
how we would have gossiped and whispered about Paul—you know, the guy who was
present at Stephen’s stoning, the one who dragged Christians out of their homes
and had them imprisoned, not once, not twice, but over and over again. Now all
of a sudden he’s got him some Jesus and we’re supposed to say hallelujah and
embrace him?
Well, yes.
And not just
Paul, but all who experience conversion moments. Are those moments sincere and
lasting? We don’t know. We can’t know. But we do know from personal experience
that when we take those first tentative movements away from the past and into a
Christ-filled present, it’s easier to stay on the path if we see His
encouragement demonstrated through the love of others. We do His work and
humble ourselves when that work involves helping others turn away from the dark
and toward the light. We go down an entirely different road of destruction when
we question the ways in which He uses others.
Action
Focus on what
God is calling you to do, not the sincerity of how others are responding to His
desires.
Image Credit is Valentin de Boulogne [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.
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