Representative

Devotion for the week...

I am Canadian, so I had no vote in the US election last week. Like a lot of other people, though, I was watching coverage of the candidates leading up to it. I looked at the two presidential candidates through the lens of 'who would I choose to represent me?' Meaning, as they went about their work both domestically and on the world stage, which of the two would I be happy to say was speaking for me? This is one of the things our elected government leaders do, after all, no matter which country we are in. We elect them to represent us as "the Canadian people," or "the American people," or "the whichever-country people." They become a stand-in for us with people who don't know us personally.

Unbelievably, God has chosen us to represent Him. Colossians 3:17 says, "And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father." We are a stand-in for God with people who don't know Him personally. You've likely heard it before, but another reminder never goes astray: everything we say and do can be seen by the people around us as a representation of how God Himself would act in those situations. 

That should make us stop and think carefully about what we say and do.

Psalm 145:8-9 says, "The Lord is merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. The Lord is good to everyone. He showers compassion on all his creation."

Would people say we are merciful? Compassionate? Slow to get angry? Filled with unfailing love? Good to everyone? Showering His creation with compassion? If not, we're not doing a good job representing Him, because He is all of those things.

 If, as is often said, we are the only Bible some people will ever read, what are they learning about God from us? Are we representing Him accurately, in a way that would want to make them know Him better?

Thankfully, we can rely on the Holy Spirit to help us represent Him better. Through prayer and sensitivity to His leading, He will cause the fruit of the Spirit to grow in us. "Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control" (Galatians 5:22-23) are all excellent ways to represent God to the people around us!