There is someone who will read this today that thinks they have lost what makes them unique. Our uniqueness is not defined in individuality but just as each snowflake that falls is different so are we, whether it lie in our strength, personality or being. The crazy thing is that God knew all of this before you were born. I mean, WOW!
By the time we recognize ourselves reflected in the behaviors of other people, it seems to take some traumatic event such as a break up, an illness, the loss of a friend or worse that snaps us back into the reality that we are not the people that God created us to be. He doesn’t take us down dark roads to teach us lessons. We make those choices ourselves. It’s only then that we seek to find something to bring back to us the uniqueness of which we were born. In the meantime, we are launched from one lifestyle to another almost on a whim, in an attempt to have people think that we are something that we are not. We’re not bad people. We’re just not God’s people.
Then Jesus comes along and really screws up our thinking. I know that sounds weird but where we think that we have it all together, we are really no different, better or worse than anyone else. Jesus shows us a need to change, to transform into His likeness. This is the doctrine that takes us out of that world that we conform to naturally. Imagine being transformed from undisciplined, untrusting, unloving and unsaved into a world with Him where who we really are is valued in our worship, in our prayer lives and in our relationships.
We should become people who see in others the gifts that God has given them come manifest in their lives. We have intercessors, singers, preachers, teachers, administrators, evangelists, all with gifts that God has given them based in their uniqueness, not in their conformity. A relationship with Jesus is based in what’s real about us. It’s honest. It’s sincere.
I want to warn you though that it is the focus on what makes us unique that keeps us from dragging the things of the world into our Christian relationships as well. Believe me, this isn’t easy. Answering the call of Jesus to repentance and obedience will be the biggest commitment that you will enter into. This is why YOU must decide what your priority is going to be. Don’t take it lightly. Christian obligation comes before everything else in your life.
If you'll do that, you’ll be on your way to being who God wants you to be. If you are transformed into who He needs you to be, you’ll become what people need you to be. Rather than what they may want you to be.
In Jesus Name.
-Pastor Butch
