Your Witness Becomes Real When People See Jesus Through You

14 What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone? 15 Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, 16 and you say, “Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well”—but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do?17 So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.
James 2:14-17
One of my favorite songs by William McDowell is “My Desire”, in this song he quotes Jesus in John 10:37, "Don’t believe me unless I carry out my Father’s work." It’s so easy to say- trust God for a miracle, God will provide, I’m praying for you, but what if their miracle, their provision, their word of encouragement is in your possession?

From day one, Jesus knew He was supposed to be about His Father’s business (Luke 2:49), that He was on assignment, that His life was filled with purpose, & that His gifts & His life was tied to the destiny of others. When we decide to accept Christ, we too become a child of God who is on assignment, filled with purpose & gifts that are tied to the destiny of others.

As a Christian we should desire to be like Jesus, people should see Jesus in us. Often times people see our religion, but they don’t see Christ. They see our church hats, our Sunday’s best, us lifting our hands, speaking in tongues, our titles, but not our love for humanity. We sometimes get so wrapped up in saving souls, that we forget to love on souls. We try to beat them down with scriptures, instead of overwhelming them with love.

“Sometimes Christ can’t be explained through your words, but through your actions.” -Pastor Nate Green 

In Matthew 22, the Pharisees (religious folks) asked Jesus what is the greatest commandment, His response was to whole-heartedly love God while simultaneously loving your neighbor as you love yourself. In other words, keep God first & treat people the way you want to be treated. God commands us to love & love is a verb, it is an action. We can love people with our time, our money, our support, our encouragement, our words, our gifts, our skills, our talents, our service. So what is the Holy Spirit moving you to give?

Sharing the Good News should go beyond the message from the pulpit on Sunday; our lives are the message! Do people see Jesus when they look at me, does my life reflect the spirit leading me, am I using what God has placed in my possession to glorify Him?
God Blesses us for 3 Reasons:
  1. For Him
  2. For Others
  3. For Ourselves
He blesses us for Him because we are made in His image, He blesses us for others because He commands us to love, & He blesses us for ourselves because we are His children. 
Our lives should be a snapshot, an image of the glory of God for believers & non-believers. “Don’t just go to church, be the church.” Be the answer to someone’s prayer, to someone’s struggle. Don’t keep the gifts (money, talent, time, resources, connections, skills, service, etc.) God gave you to yourself, definitely don’t downplay them either, everything in His kingdom is useful & meant to be used, including you.

Let God PROVIDE THROUGH YOU!

Preaching to myself,
Imani Nailah

Imani Brooks

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