A conversation with our mirror

It has been interesting to hear leaders like J.D. Vance speak boldly and nationally about Charlie Kirk. I listened to Vice President Vance’s interview on Fox and heard the gospel message presented to anyone listening. It is truly a unique time for our nation and hopefully an important time for God’s kingdom purpose. As Vance recommended, every Christian can use this time to “look in the mirror,” examine their own lives, and consider their witness to others. We all have sinful tendencies that, if left unexamined, can produce wrong actions. Christians, however, also have the unique ability to function under the Holy Spirit’s direction. It isn’t difficult to know who is in control of our thoughts and words. Is it self? Satan? Or is it the Spirit?

We can begin by asking our mirror: Am I sharing my faith as a regular, normal part of my daily conversations?

Witnessing isn’t just something we do; it is who the Holy Spirit creates us to be

Acts 1:8 clearly states that we “received power” when the Holy Spirit entered our lives and we became witnesses at that moment. The word in Greek literally means we “were transformed to be” witnesses everywhere we go.

If the Spirit controls our lives, He will lead us to share our faith as naturally as we might share a story we heard on the news or information about a mutual friend. So many hesitate, fearing they don’t know what to say in that moment. That’s actually a good thing. We should hesitate before we share the gospel because in that moment, we should be careful to pause and ask the Spirit of Christ to share the gospel through us. We aren’t supposed to create the words only from our thoughts and ideas. Jesus wants to say some things through us.

When last did you share your faith in Christ with someone else as part of a normal conversation? If you are prepared to yield your thoughts and words to the Holy Spirit, you will find yourself sharing the gospel or an inspired thought from God more often.

The Holy Spirit entered your life and you were reborn – as a witness, everywhere you go.

Can we describe ourselves like Paul described himself?

I love the book of Titus. Paul wrote that letter to a slave owner, and the style of Titus is a classic Greek “persuasive” message. Paul wanted Titus, the slave owner, to welcome back Onesimus, his runaway slave, as a fellow Christian and brother. 

Paul opens his letter by describing himself as “a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ to further the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness” (Titus 1:1). You might say that Paul was offering his personal mission statement. If we substitute the word “apostle” with “disciple,” those words become an important mission statement for every Christian.

Can we describe ourselves as “a servant of God” and a disciple of Jesus Christ? Is our mission “to further the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness?” If that were our personal goal each day, how often would we hear ourselves sharing a thought or a message about Christ?

How is the Holy Spirit at work in your life to speak biblical truth as a regular part of your conversations?

Share what you know and allow God to do the rest

In his interview, J.D. Vance told Jesse Waters that Charlie would be so happy if one of the outcomes of his death were that “people would return to church” and Christian values. He hoped that more and more people would begin “speaking the truth about Christ.”

We know:

  • Jesus died to pay the price for everyone’s sins. 
  • All are invited to join the Christian family of faith.
  • “All have sinned” and fall short of perfection and God’s glory.
  • All can repent and invite Jesus to be their Lord and Savior.
  • We can all trust Jesus and receive his promised salvation if we will “call on his name.”
  • All who come to faith in Jesus will receive the “power” Jesus promised through his Holy Spirit.
  • All Christians are born again as witnesses to the gospel message.

But not all Christians live like the new, born-again person the Spirit wants us to be daily. That is the conversation we all need to have with our mirrors.

The conversation with our mirrors

We use our mirrors to ensure we present an improved self to the world. A good God conversation with our mirrors will likely enable an improved witness to others. 

  • An honest assessment of ourselves will likely provide the grace we need for others.
  • Honest gratitude toward God will create excitement in our discussion of Christ.
  • True repentance leads to the joy-filled knowledge of our own salvation.
  • Trust in Jesus leads to hope for eternal life.
  • The joy of our hope in Christ is something we will naturally want others to have as well.

Our mirrors can provide us the honest view of ourselves that we need to humbly share the good news of Christ with genuine grace, love, and compassion. Paul ministered to people every day, knowing who he had been and knowing who he had become.

And Paul’s witness changed the world. 

Who will our witness impact today? Let’s take some time with our mirrors and gain an honest, Spirit-led spiritual assessment of ourselves. Those moments of quiet contemplation will allow God’s Spirit to minister to our lives so he can use us to minister to others.

Let’s remember that our mission is like Paul’s: “to further the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness” (Titus 1:1). I hope it’s a wonderful, Spirit-driven day for all of us.

Pray that God will do what God has done

How do we pray for Israel? How do we pray for our own country? What should we be asking for specifically?

My husband Jim was recently speaking about the issues surrounding the conflict in Israel. Truthfully, peace seems to be an impossibility unless God intervenes. I watch the news reports from some of our significant college campuses. Many of these schools are considered “Ivy League,” and one reporter called these disturbances “Poison Ivy.” 

How do we pray for nations of people to unite when unity isn’t their goal?

First, pray for God’s priorities to become yours.

Jesus taught his followers to pray saying, “Your kingdom come, your will be done,” and then said “on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). Jesus was teaching them to pray that God would be the ruler, the king of everyone on earth, just as he is the king of heaven. 

God can’t change the hearts of people until they submit to him as their sovereign king. In heaven God is the only king. On earth, we must make the daily, moment-to-moment, free-will choice to make him our king. Even after we have asked Jesus to be our Lord, we must yield to him as Lord while we dwell on this side of heaven.

In other words, the thing we should be praying for when we pray for the nations is that they would realize there is one true God who because of his great love, gave us his only Son. While Jesus was preparing to die, he prayed for the unity of the body of Christ and for all people (John 17). 

We should pray for what Jesus prayed so that God will do what God has done. The book of Acts describes the early Church, the body of new covenant believers, saying, “And all who believed were together and had all things in common” (Acts 2:44).

Second, believe that God will do what God has done.

American Christians tend to underestimate the value of faith and over-estimate the value of hard work. Both are important, but faith matters more. Why?

The author of Hebrews wrote, “And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him” (Hebrews 11:6).

This is a tricky life lesson that I had to learn the hard way. As a busy preacher’s wife, I spent a lot of time doing the work of the ministry. I believed if I was busy, then I was serving God, and he must be pleased with my efforts.

In my personal testimony, I speak about the time I almost died of pneumonia because I just had too much to do to stop and go find a doctor to help me (we had recently moved to Atlanta and I had not yet found a doctor). I just assumed I would get better and kept going with my busy schedule filled with responsibilities I had decided were God’s. 

It took a month to recover, and I spent that time with God. I remember praying a broken prayer. I was working hard but lacked the joy I saw in the book of Acts. I was willing to serve but what was I supposed to be doing? I knew I had been given the Holy Spirit, but I didn’t know if I was Spirit-led. I had godly intentions, but I had placed my faith in my ideas about God rather than trusting his voice to lead.

One of the most important times of my spiritual life was that month I spent learning that God was the king of my life and the director of my path. My ideas had placed me on a treadmill, and I was running hard but never moving forward with God’s plan. My entire life and ministry were changed as a result of learning to place my faith in God’s ideas and not my own.

If we want to learn how God works, look at how God worked in Scripture. He told Moses to step into the Red Sea and trust him and start walking. He told Joshua to step into the flooded Jordan and all would be well. He told Jonah to go to the worst, most violent city and tell his enemies that they were all wrong. He told the disciples to walk away from their profitable fishing business and become fishers of men. 

Why does faith in God matter most? Because God asks us to do some things that we would never do ourselves, apart from our faith in God. If you have never experienced a faith assignment, you are missing out on the most significant joy this life can provide.

God still does what he has done in the past.

Finally, trust God to do great things, because he has done great things.

The conflict in Israel and the conflicts we see on our college campuses seem to have no lasting solutions. That is exactly what the disciples must have felt when the stone was rolled in front of the entrance to Jesus’ tomb. 

The disciples lacked faith, but only until Sunday. They didn’t have the proof that you and I enjoy. But, have we allowed biblical history to guide our faith? Have we trusted in our own thoughts more than God’s? Do we work for God, or do we allow him to work through us?

How will God answer our prayers for the leaders in this world? God will do great things we cannot imagine.

After Stephen’s stoning the church was scattered (Acts 8:1). The young man who was surrounded by the cloaks of others became the great persecutor, the great terrorist, of the New Testament. Saul of Tarsus, with amazing energy and intellect, served his ideas about God rather than God himself. Then Jesus showed up on the road to Damascus and changed everything.

How do we pray for the world leaders of today? How do we pray for the young people on our college campuses? How do we pray for today’s terrorists?

We pray for Jesus to meet them in a miraculous way, just like he met Saul of Tarsus. We pray for the Light of the world to chase away the darkness from the minds of people. We pray for God’s people to be Spirit-led followers of their king. We pray that faith will drive our thoughts and ideas because we know that God wants to do, and will do, what God has always done. The great terrorist of the early Christian church became the great theologian of Scripture. 

How do we pray for our world today? We pray that God will do what God has done.