Wednesday December 17, 2014

Read Colossians 4:5

Every day you meet and engage with dozens of people. Many of these are probably non believers. Think for a moment who you interact with on a normal week day. Of course there are your work/school colleagues. There are the people you travel with if you take public transport. There’s the people you engage with at the shops and the petrol station. There’s the people on your touch footy team and so on. Have you ever thought that God’s plan could be to have these people come to a saving knowledge of Christ Jesus through you?

Unfortunately, Colossians 4:5 could sound like a clanging bell that brings forth an irritating headache after hearing it too many times. Like the proverbial dripping tap that causes no end of pain, many people claim that they’ve heard it all before so many times.

But have you heard Colossians 4:5 in its context? Colossians 4:5 is a command literally to walk in wisdom towards the outsider or non-believer. What does that mean in everyday life? How do we put that into practice? Vs 2-4 show us that it’s by praying. If we look even more closely and seriously at the context then we see that it’s by preaching the Gospel – the very prayer that Paul wanted his readers to be praying for himself.

Contextually it makes a lot of sense. If we are wise then we are walking in the ways of our Lord then our lives will be attractive and/or challenging to non believers. Wisdom is more than just knowing God’s will in our heads. It’s living it out. Thus as we live in God’s will and do God’s will we interact or engage with non-believers in a totally different way. They will see Christ in us. They will be challenged by our way of life. To make the most of every opportunity we must prayerfully seek to speak or preach Christ to them. Through this some will be drawn to Christ.

This view opens up a whole new perspective on life. You can pray that doors of gospel sharing will open. You can pray that you’ll declare it fearlessly as you should. You can think intentionally and engage intentionally about every person you meet throughout each and every day. But when we talk about intentionally sharing or preaching the Gospel, many believers immediately think of Bible bashers and  insensitive door knockers who have a hidden agenda to score brownie points. This is at the opposite extreme of what Paul is advocating. A life of wisdom is attractive to people and when the Gospel is combined with a godly lifestyle, it’s a powerful combination for drawing people to Christ.

Having a gospel focus and a heart felt desire to see people saved is what gets this kind of intentional living started.

Take time to examine your heart and to allow Christ to change it so that you are ready to make the most of every opportunity.

  

Prayer:

Based on today’s reading spend time in...

Adoration:

Confession:

Thanks:

Supplication:

à Pray by name for each person you want to be saved. Ask the Lord to open doors for you to preach the Word to them this Christmas.

à Pray that each person in your congregation would be seeking to intentionally share the Gospel with people in their lives.

 Word Moment:

Verse 5 will inevitably be put into practice if you read the Word of God and put it in practice in your own life.