Before He ascended to heaven, Jesus promised to send His Spirit so that we, His followers, should be His witnesses. Not just go witnessing or do evangelism, but be witnesses. Today’s excerpt from Joy to Your World! is found on pages 19 and 20:
“[W]e need to make sure our own lives make sense, that the way we live supports the reasons we might give for why we live this way. The joy and peace others experience in us must be accompanied by the righteousness that comes from Jesus Christ alone.
“This is just another way of reminding us that Jesus has given us His Spirit to know Him, so that we might be like Him and be His witnesses to the world. As we daily seek the Lord in Scripture, and as His Spirit brings us into His glory, we want nothing so much as to be transformed into the image of our Lord Jesus Christ – to become like Him more and more (2 Cor. 3.12-18).
“We want the Spirit daily to search our lives – heart, mind, conscience, words, and deeds – and to lead us to repent of anything that doesn’t make sense according to the Gospel. Thus we may continue to increase in the knowledge of God and the life of salvation. As we begin to speak of Him Who is the Source of our hope, Him Who is the very Reason of God, and the source of our joy, we want to make sure our lives give evidence that this Word and Reason of God is alive in us.”
For reflection or discussion
1. How would the people you see each week be able to know that you are a witness for Jesus?
2. Where do you need to improve in this calling to be a witness to the Lord?
Christians are new creations, wrote the apostle Paul. We need to live up to that fact and work day by day to bring more of the newness of the Lord into our everyday lives. The more we experience of the Lord’s newness, the more His joy will fill us and overflow from us. Forward today’s podcast to a friend, then get together to discuss your work as witnesses for Jesus. Order your copy of Joy to Your World! from The Ailbe Bookstore.
T. M. Moore
