Do they see Jesus Part 2

"I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which your were called; with all lowliness and gentleness, with long-suffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."              
                                                                                            Ephesians 4:1-3.  NKJV

The Apostle Paul talks about:
Our calling
When I was very young, my aim in life was to be a vicar. But my motivations for this was in question. I wanted to be a vicar because, they only worked one day a week - Sunday; the rest of the week was their own. I was only five at the time but that was my observation. How wrong I was. Someone, not long after that told me, that their's was not a job but a vocation and they needed a calling from God for this ministry. It took a little time for this to sink in, but I finally fathomed it out.
To serve God, He calls us out; rather like when He spoke to the early disciples by saying to them, 'Follow Me.' (Matthew 8:22). If we're willing to serve Him, he will take us up on it, but it will not be an easy road. It takes all we've got.

Lowliness
God expects us to follow Him and do what He asks of us. This is not a time to get puffed up because we're serving Him, but an honour and one that we should take very seriously. He trusts us enough to ask us to follow Him. When amazing manifestations of the Holy Spirit accompany our walk with Him, it is Jesus who needs to take the glory, not us. Our reward is being grateful that Jesus Himself, has asked us to go along with Him.

Gentleness
Everything about Jesus and the Holy Spirit, is gentle. There is never hustle and bustle; stress or division. He is a gentleman and treats us with respect and kindness. He expects us to do the same to all we meet. The world offers disunity. Jesus offers unity and that is what we should be striving for- togetherness. When we work at things together, things go comparatively well. When we're divided, and out of step with each other, things can go haywire. Be gentle as Jesus is gentle.

Long-suffering/Bearing with one another
Long-suffering has the power to take revenge, but never does. It is forgiving and generous. This can be difficult when people are rude and arrogant to us and when we are used and abused. Jesus doesn't want us to be a doormat, but equally, He doesn't want us squaring up for a fight every time someone wrongs us. We see how fiery Peter was in the early days of his calling. However, as he spent more time with Jesus, gaining more and more experience and then the baptism of fire at Pentecost, Peter was never the same again. But this takes time. Until then, we are in training.
Bearing with one another is very similar. We're all different, with different personalities. Some are laid back, some charge into a china shop like a bull. We're totally different. However, we serve the same God and He looks upon us and sees no difference at all. He has no favourites and wishes that we don't either. He hates little huddles where the elite are invited in but others discouraged. At times, it can be like the scene from the cowboy films, where a stranger walks into a saloon bar and suddenly everything freezes, even the music, as everyone stares at this person. It can be very much the same in some churches. This shouldn't be and God would have us change this and bear with everyone with an attitude that all are welcome.

For people to see Jesus in us, He wants us to stay humble; God is our source and no one else. Every step that we take must be synchronised to the beat of the Holy Spirit as we serve and obey Him out of gratitude. Finally, He wants us to deny temptation; beating our bodies into submission and not be promoting our own agendas but Gods.

If we can get this right, people will begin to see Jesus in us wherever we go.

Copyright 2019 Grahame Howard 

dailylifewithjesus@protonmail.com