Day 25 - A New Competence Scripture Reading: 2 Corinthians 3:1-6 - The Message Does it sound like we’re patting ourselves on the back, insisting on our credentials, asserting our authority? Well, we’re not. Neither do we need letters of endorsement, either to you or from you. You yourselves are all the endorsement we need. Your very lives are a letter that anyone can read by just looking at you. Christ himself wrote it—not with ink, but with God’s living Spirit; not chiseled into stone, but carved into human lives—and we publish it. We couldn’t be more sure of ourselves in this—that you, written by Christ himself for God, are our letter of recommendation. We wouldn’t think of writing this kind of letter about ourselves. Only God can write such a letter. His letter authorizes us to help carry out this new plan of action. The plan wasn’t written out with ink on paper, with pages and pages of legal footnotes, killing your spirit. It’s written with Spirit on spirit, his life on our lives! I like to think I have lots of competencies. I used to work for a plumbing supply store, so I know a few things about the building trades. I spend a lot of time with computers, so I know a little about installing programs and watching for viruses. We often base our worth on our competencies. If we’re good at a lot of things, we feel good about ourselves. We avoid things we’re not good at. But when we live as new creatures in Christ, we realize that our worth is not dependent on our competence, but on his victory over sin and death. Paul did not look to commend himself on the basis of what others thought of him, but on the work of Christ that had changed his heart and the hearts of his readers. The truth is, there are plenty of things we are not competent to do. I can’t fix a car. I can’t sink a basketball jump shot consistently. My limited knowledge of computers won’t help me fix yours. Many people feel the same way about teaching others to follow Christ. We know how inadequate we are to offer hope to suffering people. It’s easy to do nothing. But God promises his new creatures competence: we are ministers, not of ourselves, but of Christ. We proclaim his competence, his worth, not ours. What a freeing truth! Oceans: https://youtube/watch?v=dy9nwe9_xzw Prayer Lord Jesus, give us confidence. Help us to face the needs and problems around us with the hope of our Savior’s competence. In your name, Lord Jesus, we pray. Amen. (I choose this song because it reminds us that with God we can do anything! We just need to remember that it is God who calls us and we need to fix our eyes on him for that confidence.)
Posted on: Sun, 25 Jan 2015 13:13:01 +0000
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