Christ’s Ambassadors
Does it seem like the main character in the following story could have been you? If so, I hope you can learn from my personal lesson. Someone I knew needed prayer. I tried to pray, but, with justifiable reasons, had absolutely no faith that it would do any good. After all, I had prayed many times for this person and ministered the Word repeatedly, seemingly without any lasting results. Yet, when I prayed this time with such a lack of faith, I knew the trouble was not with them, but with me. I asked the Lord to help me understand, and He made it so clear to my heart: What I know keeps me from praying with faith. I am not to pray from the foundation of what I know, but from the foundation of Who I know. You see, because I was looking with just my natural eyes, I had given up on this person. God, however, saw them through His eyes of love, so giving up on them was not in His thoughts at all!
2 Corinthians 5:14-20 “. . . 14 For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. 16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.” NIV
God hasn’t called us to be judges. He has called us to be Christ’s ambassadors, bringing His message of hope and help – reconciliation to Him and then to others – even in our time of prayer. It’s so important to keep this in the forefront of our minds. We are to come in the humility of Christ, lift up the person to the Lord, ask for His help, and trust Him with the results. It takes no faith to “remind” God of someone’s faults, for they are easily seen with natural eyes. We are to pray in faith for their good, however, knowing that God’s desire is reconciliation. He will help us see them through His eyes, and then lead us to pray so that they can be set free from the work of the enemy, fully reconciled!
You know, I really think the Lord has kept this person in my life not just for their reconciliation, but for mine, as well! I have been reconciled to God through the blood of Jesus, once for all, glory to His name. He sees me through that blood, through His eyes of love. When I have walked out of that place in Him, as in this case, and my eyes need to be readjusted to see things His way, I humble myself and repent, letting Him draw me close once again. Then, as I am reconciled, I am once again Christ’s ambassador for reconciliation.
© Copyright 2009 Kay V. Stocking
