When you meet someone new, what kind of impression do you want to make?
When you interact with people over the course of your life, what impression do you want to leave with them?
During the course of his senior year of high school, my son Daniel started coming with me to the men's Bible study that our church hosts each month. Each evening at the end of the study, we take some time to pray for any needs or concerns that are present in the group. When he was asked if there was anything the group could pray about for him, his answer was always the same. "I'm in the final months of high school and I'm praying that the Lord will help me to finish strong. Most of my friends have no relationship with Jesus and no interest in spiritual matters. I'm asking the Lord to help me shine like a light in the darkness to my friends who don't know Him."
Is it your desire to shine as the light of Christ in a dark world? Do you ever wonder how best to go about doing that?
One of the things I have discovered in my interactions with others is that there are a lot of stereotypes programmed into the minds of the people the Lord has brought into my life. They believe inaccurate information about followers of Christ because of the ways they've seen us portrayed in the media. I see this most often when people find out that I'm a pastor. They don't know what to do with that information, so I honestly do my best to keep it to myself until I give new acquaintances the chance to get to know me a little.
Sometimes I get comments like, "You're actually funny," or "I have to admit that I'm surprised that a pastor actually likes good music." What I've learned is that they expect me to be harsh, continually serious, and disconnected from real-world experiences. They aren't prepared for the fact that I have experienced the same ups and downs in my life as them. They're shocked that I can sympathize with what they're facing because I've gone through some of the same things. But I must admit, I love upending stereotypes.
Does demonstrating genuine sympathy for the struggles and challenges of others help point them to Christ? I certainly believe it can be one of the ways in which the Lord shines the light of His gospel through us. In fact, I see that mindset illustrated in the sympathy Jesus continually shows us.
““For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” ”
During His earthly ministry, Jesus was tempted in every way possible. He was tempted by the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life, yet He didn't give in to those temptations. And when we come before Him, we can be confident that He understands our struggles. He sympathizes with our weaknesses. He looks at us with compassion because He fully understands what it's like to walk a mile in our shoes.
Jesus knows what life on this earth is like. Our earthly experience isn't a mystery to Him because He inserted Himself into it and endured it willingly. Now, as His followers, we're invited to walk as He walked. We can certainly go through life embracing the mindset and behaviors that the rest of the culture embraces, but Jesus gives us His power to aim higher than that. His Spirit empowers us to live a godly life in the midst of a godless culture.
““For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,” ”
By the grace of God, we who have received the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ, are being actively trained by the Holy Spirit to show this world a picture of the heart of Christ. The Spirit is preparing us to renounce the values of this world that we once embraced. He's showing us that our greatest passion should not be for the lusts of our flesh. He's empowering us to live with self-control among people who act like they're out of control. And He's filling our hearts with hope as we wait with the confident expectation that Jesus will be returning very soon.
The Spirit of God is using your life to paint a visible picture of the miraculous change He has made within you. He's causing you to react to people who test you, and circumstances that try you, in a brand new way. You who once walked in darkness are now being divinely enabled to shine as the light of Christ in a very dark place. The darkness is dispelled as the light of the gospel brings illumination.
The psalmist made a point to emphasize the ways in which the Lord shines His light through His people when he wrote, "Light dawns in the darkness for the upright; he is gracious, merciful, and righteous." (Psalm 112:4). As the children of God demonstrate the heart of God, insight is brought to the unaware and understanding is brought to the ignorant.
I love how the Holy Spirit inspired the psalmist to highlight three specific ways an upright person can make the nature of God visible to those who are observing their life. Those who have been redeemed by Christ have been empowered to show this world the grace of God, the mercy of God, and the righteousness of God.
Grace
The grace of God is shown to us every time He blesses us with a gift we don't deserve. The air we breathe is a gift. The soil we walk upon and grow our food in is another gift. And if we want to be even more specific, the ability to understand our need for a Savior, and the gospel that reveals Him to us, is also a gift of grace.
How can we as recipients of the grace of God freely dispense that grace so that Jesus may be seen within us and receive the glory?
Recently, I was listening to a radio show and one of the callers asked the host for advice on how to do something uncommon. He and his wife were acquainted with a family that had a teenage daughter who demonstrated a high degree of competence and character. They didn't know this family very well, but they knew it might be a challenge for them to afford the expense of putting their daughter through college.
They believed the Lord put it on their hearts to help this family cover their daughter's college expenses, so they asked the radio host for his advice on how to tactfully offer this family a five-figure financial gift to help fund those costs. They didn't want anything in return. It was their desire to give and bless without any recognition. As I heard this story, I saw the grace of God being demonstrated in their generosity.
Who can we bless without asking anything in return? What opportunities has the Lord been putting right in front of us and prodding our hearts to act upon?
Mercy
In addition to demonstrating the grace of God, the upright are also empowered to make His mercy visible through the lives they're leading. The mercy of God is seen in all kinds of circumstances whenever we don't receive the punishment or condemnation that we really deserve. Most clearly, the mercy of God is shown to us through Jesus Christ who took our condemnation upon Himself at the cross.
““Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.” ”
“ “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.” ”
If the Lord wasn't merciful by nature, we would be without hope. But because He delights to show us His mercy, our hope is secure. We who once lived as His enemies are offered adoption into His eternal family. We who were once under condemnation have found liberation through Jesus.
Now, our Lord is calling us and empowering us to emulate His example. There are people who have set themselves against you as enemies, but in Christ, you can show them mercy. There are people who excel at getting on your last nerve, but Jesus reminds us that there is greater happiness is responding with a spirit of mercy than there is in responding with a spirit of spite.
I'll never forget one Saturday afternoon working at my father's grocery store when I was about ten or eleven. A woman who seemed to have some difficulty walking had just paid for her order at the cash register and was wheeling her abnormally full cart toward the front door. My father said, "Stop what you're doing and take that cart to her car for her."
There was only one problem with what he instructed me to do. There were two steps that led from the front door of the store down to the sidewalk and I made a very big mistake as I tried to push that heavy cart that was bursting with groceries out the door. I should have pulled it down the steps, but because I pushed it, the cart tipped over and everything in it dumped all over the sidewalk. Cans started rolling into the street. Glass jars smashed. It was a total mess and I was completely embarrassed. That woman would have been completely justified in expressing anger and frustration toward me, but she was merciful instead, and she even mixed a little grace into her reaction when she gave me a seventy-five-cent tip.
As a recipient of God's great mercy, look for opportunities to show it to others. Don't wait until you think someone deserves it. God showed it to you when you were living as His enemy.
RIGHTEOUSNESS
And in addition to grace and mercy, the psalmist tells us that the upright person demonstrates righteousness because the Lord has made him righteous. We're not talking about self-righteousness here. Self-righteousness is a form of personal idolatry where we act like we don't need a Savior.
The kind of righteousness the person of character learns to demonstrate is the outpouring of a supernaturally changed heart. When we become a new creation in Christ, our motives, goals, and priorities change. Where we once valued wickedness, we now value integrity. Where we once prioritized vanity, we now prioritize holiness. This is so because the righteousness of Christ was deposited into our life when His Spirit indwelled us.
““For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” ”
Your demonstration of Christ-empowered righteousness in the midst of this fallen and depraved world will stand out in ways that might surprise you.
Our desire to live with unshakable character is not a desire that originated within our own thinking. That's God's desire for us, and the pattern for holy living that He wants to see exemplified among His children is demonstrated in Psalm 112:4. Take this example to heart. May believers and unbelievers who observe your life be able to confidently say, "I see Jesus in you."
© John Stange, 2022
