March 14^th, 2018

2 Corinthians 5: 18-21

^“18 And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. ¹⁹ For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. ²⁰ So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” ²¹ For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.”

I read these at a time of heartbreak. There had been a couple recent instances in my life where people close to me were not following the will of God on there life. The night before I read this I remember thinking that I wasn’t sure if I should talk to one of these people and confront them on what I thought God was pressing on my heart to tell them. The issue was that I was afraid though. I didn’t want to lose a relationship with this person or seem as if I was coming off self righteous. I was wagering back and forth on what to do. I finally decided that yes, I probably should say something. Then the next morning I read these verses. They take about how as Christians it is our duty to keep each other on the path of righteousness, that we are to reconcile others back to God. We are the ambassadors for Christ. This concept was new to me. I never thought that it was necessarily my job to call others back to God, couldn’t he do that himself? It says in verse twenty that God makes His appeal through us, we speak for Him when we plea come back to God. He uses us and our testimonies to glorify himself more. God loves to use what was intended for bad to be used for good, He exposes our worst and darkest places and fills them with light so that others may see that light and turn to Him. With this fresh perspective I realized this was the answer I was looking for, it is my duty to Christ to bring others to Him.  No more fear of losing those close, for without God they are already lost.