Greetings to you, child of God, in the wonderful name of Jesus Christ – THE Risen Saviour! This is the day that the Lord has made for us, so let us be thankful for the blessing of life today and may our gratitude overflow into all aspects of our day…especially into the lives we get to touch! I trust that you had a blessed weekend and Monday with good health, strength, and a happy heart! Today I will be praying for you, asking Father to make His presence known to you in a way that totally makes sense to you and in a way that you can respond to.
This morning I had one of those humbling moments when I learned a valuable truth. I have been sharing with God’s people how they were called to be part of the “royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:9) and as such were to carry the presence of God like the Old Testament priests did, only they carried the Ark of the Covenant while we carry the Holy Spirit. As you think of it, what an honour and responsibility. Therefore when we interact with people and speak words of encouragement-instruction-direction-knowledge, we are doing so as God’s spokespeople. So, how people respond to our words has the potential to bring life to the relationship or death. This is like the priest, Uzzah, who saw the Ark of the Covenant slipping off the ox-cart, reached out his hand to steady it…which was against the directions of God, provoked God’s anger and he died.
The New Testament teachings have over 59 ‘God-structions’ of how we should relate to “one another”…and it is my belief that as we follow those instructions as they relate to “one another” we are in a sense relating to the presence of God in each other So when someone accepts your words or actions in our divine interactions there is the potential for ‘life’ or ‘death’.
So, this morning one of God’s servants was giving me a word of encouragement – sharing the presence of God with me, and I did not respond properly…I kind of reached out my hand and touched it. What had the potential to be a beautiful moment “died’ and these moments cannot simply be ‘resurrected’. I know what it is like to have a moment ‘die’ and as I processed what I had done, God humbled me. Now that taught me a further lesson – it is far more satisfying and productive to humble yourself than it is to have God humble you.
I pray that you will have a blessed day!