Model

​This morning a woman climbed into her car.  She stopped by a Starbucks to get her caffeine jolt for the morning.  Later she pulled into the parking lot at work and said “hi” to a few other employees who also just arrived.  Once inside the building she encountered many people who work there—some of whom she engaged in conversation while others she passed by because they were busy.  During the course of her day she will lead or serve many different people.  She may talk on the phone, send and pick up email messages, and converse with her boss, those who work for her, and others nearby. After work she will drive home, have dinner, possibly call someone special, relax in front of the television or read a book before going to bed.  

​Each day the routine is similar.  This woman we all know will go through life with lots of questions and far fewer answers. She will ponder who to date and who to avoid.  If she marries she will learn how to relate to a spouse and whatever extended family he is connected to.  If she has children, she will wrestle with how to teach them values and provide them a moral compass.  This may lead to a quest to find a religion that offers relevant answers and meaning to life.  Whatever spiritual decisions she makes will be based largely upon what she has experienced and observed in life.  
 
Meditation
1 Peter 2:12-- Conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles, so that in a case where they speak against you as those who do what is evil, they will, by observing your good works, glorify God on the day of visitation.
 
If you know Jesus and sell coffee what kind of service do you render?  If you radiate the love of Christ, every morning grouch whom you serve will notice.  Some day someone will decide to put off work to find out your secret of joy.
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When you go to work do you look for opportunities to model love?  If you do, then you understand when people approach you and say: 
Why are you so happy?
Where did you get the strength to handle that tragedy?
Why don’t you swear like the others?
How come you don’t gossip?
What is it about you that makes you different?
They are really giving you an opportunity to share about Jesus and the change He has made in your life. You are a godly example.
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Perhaps Jesus is the Savior you have never shared because you concluded:
            I wouldn’t know what to say if someone came to me for answers.
            That’s the pastor’s job.
            No one notices me, what I do isn’t important.
            I don’t have anything to offer, I’m just ordinary.
Reject such nonsense.  Every moment of every day you and I are with people we have the chance to model what we believe by our conduct, our character and our communication.  It’s not Billy Graham’s job to reach our neighbors, family members or co-workers for Jesus, it’s our responsibility and deep privilege.  The Holy Spirit will give us the words to say to the wounded seeker who needs compassion and truth.  The Holy Spirit will provide us opportunities to minister if we will just listen to His quiet urging and have the faith to believe He can use us.  
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The Christian life is not about a relentless thirst for precious mountain top experiences with God.  Those are exceptional gifts God occasionally gives for our benefit.  It is in the every day living of life in ordinary places surrounded by ordinary faces that we have the extraordinary opportunity to model Jesus. Stop moping or feeling inadequate! Take joy in the reality that God reached inside your heart and made an eternal difference.  His love is what the world needs now.  He could have designed a talking rainbow or conducted a live telecast from the heavens with His thundering invitation.  Instead He chose to entrust His work to us!  You and I can make a difference and an awful lot of people are hoping we will!  “How can people have faith in the Lord and ask Him to save them, if they have never heard about Him?    And how can they hear, unless someone tells them?” (Romans 10:14 CEV)  
 
Inspiration
The majority of us are unnoticed and unnoticeable people.  If we take the extraordinary experiences as a model for the Christian life, we erect a wrong standard without knowing it, and in the passing of the years we produce that worst abortion, the spiritual snob—an intolerable unlikeness to Jesus Christ.—Oswald Chambers in The Ministry of the Unnoticed
 
©1998 Daniel York  ARR. Reveration is the weekly devotional ministry of First Cause.  If you would like to receive these devotionals go to www.firstcause.org and click on the “Click here to receive weekly devotionals” box.  Unlimited permission to copy this devotional without altering text or profiteering is allowed subject to inclusion of this copyright notice.      
 
Ecclesiastes 12:10-The Teacher sought to find delightful sayings and to accurately write words of truth.  (Holman CSB)