Ephesians 4:1 Therefore I (Paul) , a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God.
My Thoughts
We had a new to us man to teach Wednesday night in Pastor Keith's absence. He taught on the "unknown man" in Genesis 37. There was so much to learn about this unknown man. His roll in the history of the Jewish people was huge, even thought his action was seemed so tiny if you never stopped to think about it. That lesson made me very aware of the two words in this verse that teach us so very much. Those words are "a prisoner."
In this verse Paul says to "lead a life worthy of your calling, you have been called by God." We so often in love wonder what we can do as one person, we wonder how our busy, simple lives can even matter in the big scheme of things. How can we/I make a difference. Paul made a difference in the lives so so many, even us today. And he was a prisoner locked away behind four walls. A prisoner locked away behind four walls with only a pen and a piece of paper. Yet his words still teach us today how to live better loves for our a Lord Jesus.
The unnamed man in the field in Genesis 37 was working in his field. All he did to be mentioned in God's word is be kind, kind enough to give Joseph directions that lead to a chain of events that brought the Children of Isreal out of slavery. What he did mattered. It was so important that he was mentioned in God's word. And it was one act of kindness in the mist of his normal, busy day.
If a man plowing his field can be a part of freeing the Children of Isreal and a prisoner behind four walls can start a Christian movement with a pen and a piece of paper, what can we do? We have been called by God to lead a life worth of Him, how can we take action?
The unknown man was kind and took a minute for a stranger. Paul was locked away but used the power of words. Sunday we learned from Pastor Kevin that 3/4th of the world live on $300 dollars a year. ripoff we make more than $300 a year we are richer than 3/4 of the world. We have resources, we have the world at our finger tips through media. We have the ability to be kind, to give a stranger directions. Each of us probably have more than one Bible on the shelves in our homes. A book full of wisdom and love, full of instructions on how to make lives better. A book that is right at our fingertips. Words that God promises will not return void if we just read them. We have the ability to make a difference!
We don't have to find our purpose, our purpose is to lead a life that God Gould be proud of. We can do that right in the places He has put us. When we do all we can, for Him, with what He has I trusted us with He will then be able to entrust us with more.
As I think about this I begin to realize that if there is a place in my/our loves where we don't see fruit we are probably not using that part of our lives for God. Do we struggle in relationships? Are we treating those relationships how God would want us too? Do we struggle in our finances? Are we using our finances the way God ask us too? Are we struggling in our alone time? Are we using that time the way God would ask? Paul sat in prison and prospered because he used that time to grow others. I have no doubt that the unnamed man in Genesis had a harvest he could not have imagined in his field after he took a few minutes of his day to be kind and give direction.
We, right where we are can make a difference! We may be like the innamed man and never know, in earth, what we did. But if our lives are being lived for God we need not have one minute of doubt that we do matter in the lives of the people we come into contact with each day. YOU MATTER, I MATTER, WE MATTER.
