Thursday—How High is Your Bar?

Happy Thursday and here we are in the down side of another week. Have you been able to share the Good News this week with someone who needs to hear it? Someone who doesn’t know if the Savior? I ask you that often, don’t I? Well, I read Colossians last night. Paul wrote this letter to the Christians at Colosse about AD 60 (about 30 years after the resurrection of Christ) during his first time in the Roman prison. I especially love this passage in chapter four giving us basic instructions on how we should live our lives each day. 

“Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart. Pray for us, too, that God will give us many opportunities to speak about his mysterious plan concerning Christ. That is why I am here in chains. Pray that I will proclaim this message as clearly as I should. Live wisely among those who are not believers, and make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be gracious and attractive so that you will have the right response for everyone.”

‭‭Colossians‬ ‭4:2-6‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Obviously, Paul wrote this letter from prison while he was in in chains. I can’t quite get my mind wrapped around what that had to look like. Yet even in those horrible, smelly, filthy, miserable and how-many-ways-can-you-say-awful conditions, his main thoughts were to ask for prayer that he might share the gospel in the most understanding manner. I’m not sure I could do that just to be really honest with you. When I’m miserable, I’m just miserable and it’s pretty hard to think about anything else and I want pretty much everyone around me to know how miserable I am! Paul set a pretty high bar, I’m thinking. 

As I read and re-read that passage I kept thinking “How low have I set my bar?” Have I set my standards by trying to “live up to” what the world sees as a good person and gone over the top by doing good things? Did I just stop there or have I really prayed through to the level that my main concern is that I might share the Message clearly? That’s one of those tough questions we don’t want to ask ourselves, isn’t it?

Today, join me and read that passage a few more times. Put it somewhere that you’ll trip over it. And pray that we will live wisely among the unbelievers and that we will share the Message clearly. 

Love you dear one,

Pam

PS. To my Tulsa area friends, I’m going to be at Oolagah speaking Friday night and Saturday morning. 


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