I heard a message long ago that was titled Worship & Witness by one of our local megachurch pastors Robert Morris. It has been a sermon I have clung to for personal wisdom since the day I heard it. The premise is very important for what I know God is teaching me today:
Robert explained that if you look at Old Testament Israel you would see that Israel as a whole was designed to do 2 major things: Worship & Witness. When in an epic war, which Israel was in a vast majority of the time, their troops would regularly rotate from the battle lines back to the Temple to worship God. That they needed to fill up personally with God constantly so that they could return to the battle with a fresh revelation of God. The actual warring was what Robert referred to as Witnessing, since the primary purpose of Israel was to prove that their God was the only God. For us this translates that as we come out of the presence of God our entire lives are a fight to prove to the rest of the world that our God is who He says He is.
Now that you have the background info, I want to relate this to our conversations and relationships with the people around us. We must go into the presence of God on a regular basis so that we can get a fresh perspective of who He is and how much He loves us so that we can come out to do battle for Him in this world. The problem is that many times we don’t realize we are in a battle at all. My biggest battles that I lose tend to be the ones where I have unspoken expectations of how I think others should treat me. When these expectations are not met, whether by a passing stranger, or by a close friend, I feel like one of two things happens: either I am frustrated and upset because the other person clearly has problems or negative pieces of their personality that prevent them from seeing my obvious awesomeness (LOL) or I feel like I have somehow overestimated my own worth and that clearly I am not as awesome as I thought. I think as women, we fall into these traps a lot, I know I do:
- when I take special care to put together a really cool outfit, do my hair, where makeup to where I think I look really good, and no one seems to notice or comment. Expectation: unmet.
- when I have gone above and beyond on something and when I think I am about to hear a gushing overflow of appreciation, the words that come out are instead a reproach for something minor. Expectation: unmet.
- when I am working hard to encourage someone who I know is going through a tough time and I feel like I am sometimes their only supporter, then that person says something critical of me, their supporter! Expectation: unmet.
- when I take extra care to make sure that my words to my husband are kind and loving, but my reputation precedes me and these words are still heard in a negative way. Expectation: unmet.
I know your list of ways in which the people of this world disappoint you may look very different from mine, I know you have them. Why? Because people can’t be perfect! But I am learning that the problem does not lie in the other person’s inability to see my awesomeness, the problem is that I care so much that they see it. These are the ways that I lose battles that I forget I’m fighting…Because all of the interactions listed above are interactions I have with people I trust, or think I should be able to trust. I need to realize that when I come out of the presence of God that means I am FIGHTING until I get back into it. Don’t get me wrong, I am NOT saying that I should be fighting against the people that I trust! I am saying that I should be fighting to keep my self worth inside Jesus Christ. That I should be fighting the prince of the air over this world to not be distracted by how awesome other people think I am, or think I’m not. Fighting to make sure that the only expectation that I should have with interactions with the world around me is that I would forget about what people think about me, and begin to care about what they think about my God.
You see, every interaction we have with anybody on this planet can only do one of two things: either bring the other person closer to God, or not. If you take a closer look at the Old Testament you will notice that many of the miracles God performed for the Israelites were not just so that the rest of the world would know He is God, but also so that His people would be drawn closer to Him and would get a fresh witness of His power. Therefore, it should be my goal in every conversation, regardless as to whether those I’m talking with are saved or not, to witness and share the amazing, and powerful love of Jesus Christ to them.
If I could be more focused on following my rotation of Worship and Witness inside my interactions with others, not only would I save myself countless pity parties, frustrations, and self-esteem valleys, I would also bring others closer to Christ.
Lord, help me to remember that this world around me is a fight to draw others closer to You, not a fight to be more successful or the prettiest, or the smartest. Help me to draw my attention away from my own expectations and to intentionally encourage those around me. I know that as you draw me deeper and deeper into Your presence you will help me to find my worth in You and You alone.
~Laura
