Weekly Devotion

March 01 2020

2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10 (CEB)

Anita Lawson

 

 “We beg you as Christ’s representatives, “Be reconciled to God!” God caused the one who didn’t know sin to be sin for our sake so that through him we could become the righteousness of God.  Since we work together with him, we are also begging you not to receive the grace of God in vain.  He says, I listened to you at the right time, and I helped you on the day of salvation.  Look, now is the right time!  Look, now is the day of salvation!

We don’t give anyone any reason to be offended about anything so that our ministry won’t be criticized.  Instead, we commend ourselves as ministers of God in every way.  We did this with our great endurance through problems, disasters, and stressful situations.  We went through beatings, imprisonments, and riots.  We experienced hard work, sleepless nights, and hunger.  We displayed purity, knowledge, patience, and generosity.  We served with the Holy Spirit, genuine love, telling the truth, and God’s power.   We carried the weapons of righteousness in our right hand and our left hand.  We were treated with honor and dishonor and with verbal abuse and good evaluations.  We were seen as both fake and real, as unknown and well known, as dying---and look, we are alive!  We were seen as punished but not killed, as going through pain but always happy, as poor but making many rich, and as having nothing but owning everything.

Reconciled means to restore a friendship or harmony; settle, resolve; to make consistent or congruous; to cause to submit to or accept something unpleasant; to check against another for accuracy; to account for. (Merriam Webster Dictionary)

Joe and I took our granddaughters to see the movie “Sonic the Hedgehog”.  The hedgehog lost his parents at an early age and was raised by an owl.  People were seeking to capture the hedgehog for the powers that he had.  He spent his time defending for himself.  He had no one that he could trust.  He met a cop and they became companions and went on an adventure to protect the hedgehog.  As they traveled together and experienced any difficult situations, they became friends.  At the end of the movie, the hedgehog decided that he would use the powers that he had to protect his friends rather than use them one himself alone.  The hedgehog was reconciled to use his gift of powers for good rather than using them just to protect himself.  He had to change his direction and answer a better calling.  

In the text above, we are asked to be reconciled to God.  May we keep the words of the definition of reconcile in our minds and resolve this Lent season to be reconciled to God and share his gift of love, grace, joy and peace with others. 

 

Just as the hedgehog used his gift of power for good.  May we use our gift of salvation to share God’s love with others that they may be reconciled to God.  We have to be willing to change our way of thinking.  Go and share the greatest love ever shown…God’s unconditional love.