A Privilege and an Honor

I think sometimes as Christians we fall into the “duty” rut. We lose the wonder of what it means to be a Christian because we see everything as an obligation. We have to go to church. We have to do devotions. We have to pray. Christians should be the best people to be around, but sadly that usually isn’t the case. I’ve heard stories, many stories, of people saying how they dislike it when Christians come into their store because they are the worst customers. Why is that? We as Christians have the honor of being ambassadors of Christ; God has given us the privilege of being the ones to represent His Son to this world, and we are prone to act as if that is the worst job anyone could have given us. Or, we forget that’s our job and live like it isn’t. Would we act like that if we were given the job of representing our country as an ambassador? I doubt it. We’d probably treat it as an honor. Why? Because someone thought that we would be the best one for the job and would give the impression they wanted others to have about our country. I hate to break it to you, but Christ didn’t choose us because we were the best ones for the job. In 1 Corinthians 1:26-28 says, “For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are.” We were the foolish, the weak, the base, the despised. And yet, we were the ones He picked. I’ll never understand why Christ chose me, but I am so thankful he did, and I’ll do my best to live my life to bring Him glory because that’s what He deserves. Nothing He asks me to do should be a burden because I was dead and Christ gave me life, not because I deserved it, but because He loves me. Does that seem like a bad trade to you? Christians sometimes carry around the “I can’t enjoy life because I have so many things the Bible says I have to do” attitude. That’s wrong. We don’t HAVE to go to church; we GET to go to church. We don’t HAVE to do devotions; we GET to do devotions. We don’t HAVE to pray; we GET to pray. We get to live this life with purpose and peace and we have the privilege of knowing the God who created it in the first place. Could we really ask for more?