Transcript
The plan of God, the purposes of God, the move of redemption marches on. Nothing can stop God's plan. And as I was thinking about this, I was thinking that, in this moment, calls us as God's people beyond survival, beyond our own safety, it calls us once again to remember that we are not just the recipients of God's work of redemption, we're the instruments of that work as well - that we're called to be His representatives.
Called to Be His Ambassadors
I love this one word that's used in 2 Corinthians 5. It says that we have been called to be His ambassadors. An ambassador is a representative. What an ambassador does is make visible the will and the way and the purposes of a king who's not visible where he is. And so I've been thinking about two things that mark out our Lord, two things that are so important to represent during this hard time.
First, His generosity. The Bible is a generosity story. It could be summarized by these words: "God so loved the world that He gave." We serve a giving God. He was generous at creation. He's generous in the giving of His Son. He's generous in grace. He's generous in love. He's generous in mercy. He's generous in faithfulness. He's generous in forgiveness. He's generous. And so we ought to represent His generosity. Who in your life could you respond to with generosity? Who are needy people around you that some act of generosity would bless, would encourage? You can be generous without even leaving your home. Order groceries for somebody who needs them. Send a card to somebody who needs it. Give an extra $100 or $50 or $10 if that's all you can afford to that delivery person that comes to your door. Look for ways of being generous. Be an ambassador of the generosity of the Lord.
The second word that comes to mind is tenderness. The Bible calls us to be kind and tender-hearted. We serve a tender-hearted Lord. You would be amazed what can happen when you respond in tenderness to somebody who's discouraged, who's wondering if they'll ever have a job again, whose family is suffering, who's finding it hard to be stuck in a place that's difficult for them to be. Who could you encourage by your tender-heartedness? How about a FaceTime call? How about an email, a text, a card where you represent God's tenderness in the life of someone else.
Here's what I want to leave you with: God makes His invisible generosity visible by sending generous people to give generosity to people who need generosity. God makes His invisible tenderness visible by sending tender people to be tender with people who need tender-hearted encouragement. May you not just settle for survival. May you represent your Lord, represent His generosity, represent His tenderness. God bless you as you do that.
