Be reconcilers

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We tend to live in a way that exposes what we truly believe about ourselves. That woman whose personal worth was shattered through years of physical and verbal abuse will find it hard to believe she deserves anything better. That man who believes he is beyond redemption will most likely remain there unless a fundamental change in his thinking takes place. “For as he thinks within himself, so he is…” the proverb goes. Happily, this is where a reconciler can step in.

The Apostle Paul wrote “From now on, then, we do not know anyone from a worldly perspective. Even if we have known Christ from a worldly perspective, yet now we no longer know him in this way,” (2 Corinthians 5:16 CSB).

Here we catch a hint of how to help change someone’s self-belief. Like Paul, we can set the example, choosing to know them as they could be (if only they believed in Christ) not as who they are in the flesh at any given moment. Viewing people in this light, we can show it is often what people believe about themselves that is the biggest obstacle to faith.

Become a reconciler instead of a ‘list-keeper’ of iniquities; an advocate instead of prosecutor or judge. Learn to think like Paul who wrote,

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come! Everything is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed the message of reconciliation to us. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf: “Be reconciled to God.” He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that we in him might become the righteousness of God,” (2 Corinthians 5:17-21 CSB).

by ​Toni Babcock
Minnesota, USA - info@grace-lines.net