Change of Thought

How many of you are in accountability and/or discipleship relationships? And in those relationships, how often do you seek to honor the Lord through holding each other accountable in an area such as purity?

In my personal experience, a common question I ask in these relationships is "How are you doing purity-wise?" I'm beginning to discover, though, that that's missing a huge aspect of how we should be encouraging each other...

While purity and living righteously are both very important, I have been thinking about these topics in the wrong way. By asking "how is your purity?" or "have you been struggling lately?", I'm encouraging my friends to abstain from sin. This is not bad by any means, but it misses the part about living a holy life to please God!

My Dad speaks about two different ways of getting to heaven: 1) walking away from hell (in the direction of heaven) and 2) walking towards heaven. Two blogs ago I wrote about "fixing your eyes on Jesus", and this is obviously the second way to get to heaven. When someone is walking away from hell, they are saying to themselves "Hell is a terrible place, I don't want to go there. Oh man- I better not sin! Sinning is bad, so as long as I don't sin, I can get to heaven." Whereas walking towards heaven sounds like this: "Jesus, how wonderful and Awesome you are! I want to glorify You in every possible way here on this earth so that Your name and fame will be spread throughout the nations!" They both seek to avoid sinning, but with two different mindsets.

I may be the only person that asks that question in accountability relationships, and now I propose a different question be asked: "How are you reflecting Christ in your life?" (be it in your bf/gf relationship or just regular friendships, etc) In asking this, you are encouraging your friend to think and worry less about not-sinning and more about what you can do for God's kingdom on this earth. We will also approach relationships with a totally different mindset! Instead of doing our best to not mess-up, we will be doing our best to shine Jesus.

How can we shine Jesus? Through serving each other as Jesus served everyone around Him (John 13). Through forgiving and loving each other. Through blessing each other.

Remember- in Galatians 5, Paul didn't just say "the acts of the sinful nature are obvious" and list them out. He also added "but the fruit of the Spirit is Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-Control..." We are not called to just abstain from sin, but also to live holy and God-honoring lives. Think of what this change of mindset can do for the body of Christ world-wide!

How are you reflecting Christ to those around you?

Oh Lord, be honored through our lives, not just in abstaining from sin, but also in living to please You. Amen.