January 2017 Devotional
“For we are taking pains to do what is right, not only in the eyes of the Lord but also in the eyes of man.” 2 Corinthians 8:21.
The apostle Paul is reminding us that our integrity is not only important to the Lord but it’s also crucial that we also shouldn’t confuse people with our lives. The world would tell you a very different truth and maybe you have fallen into this trap. Have you ever said the following phrase? “I really don’t care what people think about me”. Well apparently according to scripture you should care quite a bit what other people think. Why? Because there is a Biblical truth that convicts me on a daily basis and I would like to challenge you to apply it to your life today. We may not always live what we profess, but we uncontrollably live out what we really believe. How you and I live is what we really believe because we may say one thing and do another but our lives and the way we live our lives is the truth.
I was talking with a brother one day who was justifying why he and his child were not going on a mission trip to a foreign land. The man told me that when his daughter wanted to go on the trip, he pointed to a nearby apartment complex and told her that there are plenty of lost people in the complex that needed to hear about Jesus. This was absolutely true, so I asked him the following question “So is that what you did? Did you take her to the complex and start knocking on doors?”. He looked down at his shoes and had no answer. So I concluded that he really didn’t mean what he said because he didn’t actually live it out in his life. So what about you? When you say that you are a follower of Christ does your life validate that statement or is it in conflict with that claim?