The Word — Attention on God not man

Published 9:00 am Sunday, April 24, 2022

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As a Christ Follower sometimes we forget people are watching us and listening to us. In 2020, I was able to share the gospel with a doctor I was seeing who ended up referring me to another specialist. The doctor said that he would think about what I said. Then the pandemic interrupted service. Forward in 2022, everybody on the planet knows how hard it is to get specialized doctor appointments. It has been a journey filled with wasted time.

Being a Christ Follower must make us aware why we are following Christ. We are sharing the love of Jesus Christ as the Holy Spirit gives us opportunity. The Word says that we must live godly lives, “… You shall be holy, for I am holy.” (I Peter 1:16) It would be easy to say, “I am not there yet” and that may be true, but we are still without excuse. Here again we see, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10) “So that we would walk in them” means we are able to do what God wants us to do.

Through the course of my journey, I spoke highly of one of my brothers — that he was a godly man, he prayed with his clients, he only wants what is best for them…not knowing that he was struggling to operate godly within his own profession. By the time we ended our journey, my words came back to me. The assistant called me and said, “I remember what you told me about him” he has not lived up to your description. Sadly, his behavior was not a good testimony.

At times we talk about testimonies with great admiration. Look what God has done in my life. That is wonderful when God gets the glory from it. However, when the focus is on the wrong man it can go badly. I have learned a great lesson in communication, and I hope by sharing this it will help someone else learn as well. God is perfect and He will never let us down. Humans are learning to be like God, but it is on-going. It was OK for me to talk kind about this man, but I should have made sure God was the focus in the conversation – not the man. I apologized to the assistant for her work being so hard to accomplish and that it would not happen again. I never mentioned the man.

May we continue to be watchful and mindful as we share Jesus with others, Amen.

Yvette Perrin can be reached at theword2yvette@ gmail.com.