It’s Time to Get Out of Bed!

Last week I wrote about the persecution in the Middle East against Christian and other minority religions. Almost immediately a friend texted and told me she felt led to pray and fast. Another friend committed to donate 100% of her August profits from her home business to charities that work in the Middle East.

These are great ideas, and I’m sure many of you also sought ways in which to help. Only you know what God would have you do. Pray? Yes. Is there more you can do? God will tell you! And, when He does, your responsibility is to obey.

What if the thing God tells you to do is to simply live your life every day, right here in your own neighborhood, office, church, home or school the way He would have you live? Are you willing to do that? How hard is that?

It is very hard! Living the way Jesus tells us to live means living like Jesus lived. It means taking a stand for what is right. It means loving our enemies. It means praying for them. It means returning good for evil. It means turning the other cheek. It means speaking the truth in love. It means making a difference in the world because you are living differently.

We need to heed the wake-up call, but we also need to get out of our beds of complacency and get to work. We must not be afraid to stand for Jesus.

“For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline. So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord… Rather, join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God.” – 2 Timothy 1:7-8

We don’t have to be timid about being Christians. We have the power of God inside us, the power that raised Jesus from the dead! Who can defeat that? No one. Not the devil. Not ISIS. Jesus has already won the victory.

Living for Jesus means we take Jesus with us wherever we go. We live such beautifully godly lives that everyone we know will desire to know more about the Jesus we live to serve. We shouldn’t have to seek opportunities to witness, because every moment of our lives should be a testimony to the power of God in us.

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters… It is the Lord you are serving.” – Colossians 3:24

Living for Jesus doesn’t mean preaching to people about the sin we see in their lives. It means bringing Jesus’ love into their lives.

When we are the calm one in the storms of life, people will want to be near us. When we are the wisdom in calamity, people will listen to us. When we are the first to offer help to someone who is hurting, doors will be open to us.

“For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body… If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.” – 1 Corinthians 12:12-26

We need to live in such a way that God is made famous, not infamous. We need to live in such a way that no one can say anything bad about us, because there isn’t anything bad to say.

We are called to walk blamelessly before God. Walking: how we live our lives, the day to day routine of getting up, living and going to bed. God calls us to live daily for Him.

Are you wondering what you can do to stop the evil that is rampant in the world? You can’t stop it. But, you can hinder it where you live. You can slow it down. You can fight it.

“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” – 2 Chronicles 7:14

God may call you to the mission field. He may call you to give financially. He may call you to organize fasts and prayer days. He may not. He is calling you to live for Him today. Will you?