Andy and Gina Elmes had a different analogy (or metaphor, if you prefer) which I found rather interesting.
Correct alignment is important
2 Corinthians 6:14, NKJV
Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?
Any Chiropractor or Physiotherapist will tell you that correct alignment in your body’s frame is very important for good health and optimum physical performance. I believe that God thinks the same about our whole lives – physical and spiritual – and is ever at work to bring correct alignment to the various areas of our lives that may have fallen out of alignment or become misaligned.
Naturally speaking, your body only has to be slightly out of alignment for it to cause great discomfort to your life. So it is with the unseen parts of who we are also. We can be out of alignment in our beliefs – you only have to be slightly wrong in what you believe to fall into a state of deception that can harm you and others. The Holy Spirit is constantly teaching us truth to bring good alignment to what we believe, so don’t resist His correcting hands. Relationally, bad alignment can be a very real issue too, especially when it comes to relationships being out of spiritual alignment.
Because God loves us and wants us to walk in correct alignment He can come sometimes like a Chiropractor to bring a healthy alignment to our relational structure. This can involve strengthening certain relationships, other times adding new ones, or even removing some. I have seen the Lord uncouple me from different relationships at different times, and though at the time it seemed confusing and uncomfortable it always brought about health and wellbeing a little later.
We often refer to God’s hands as the hands of the Gardener, or the Potter, but will you allow His hands to be like those of a Chiropractor in your life today, shifting and resetting things for your good? Don’t be surprised if you hear the sound of cracking and popping around your life at this time – that is merely the sound of things coming into better alignment. As it is in the natural, so it is in the spiritual. You may well be sore for a couple of days during the process but after you will feel stronger and fitter. Commit yourself to His hands and trust Him to align your life correctly – He knows what He is doing.
Bring correct alignment to our lives, Lord. Amen.
Because their devotionals are shorter, we’re bringing you a bonus installment today!
Responding from a different spirit
Matthew 5:38-45, NKJV
“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also. And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away. “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven;”
So we have established that, as Christians, we are people of a ‘different spirit’ and that when we realise this we can make the decision to respond to people and situations we face differently to those around us who don’t know Jesus. It’s this I believe that causes us to stick out in life, not the big Bibles we carry or the stickers on our car bumpers! It’s when people see us responding differently, or from a different spirit, that we catch their attention and cause them to want to know what it is that makes us different. This is a good thing that can point them towards the Jesus we love and serve.
Our text … is a sobering one, and is embedded in a section called The Beatitudes, which are the teachings of Jesus concerning the attitudes we should have as followers of Him. Notice that they specifically call us to be different in our responses, that when we face things that seem to strike us, take from us or put unreasonable demands on us, that we are to respond in a way that is completely different to how the world we live in trained us to respond. This, I believe, is where the rubber hits the road with our Christianity. If we just respond to situations mentioned in today’s verses in the same way as everyone else then we really are no different to anyone else. Yet the truth remains: we really are different, His Spirit now lives in us to enable us and empower us to do and respond like we could not do before. When, by faith, we tap into His Spirit within us we will be amazed at what we are capable of, in the way we handle things and respond.
Our standard must be Jesus
Let’s face it, none of us will ever face what Jesus did: the beating, rejection and humiliation He faced over the period He was judged and crucified was horrific and beyond anything we could fully comprehend. Yet, moments before He gave up His Spirit, listen to what He said concerning a humanity that did not deserve Him or what He was doing for them:
Luke 23:34, NKJV
Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.”
Even when it’s tough, even when it seems unfair, let us keep Jesus as our standard and example of how we are to respond. Let us dig deep and draw on His Spirit now within us to do what we never thought we could. As we do we will most certainly stick out and catch people’s attention in a world where people are desperately seeking something that is authentically different.
To get these sent to you by email, go to Great Big Life and click on Breakfast of Champions.
Christianity 201 
Leave a Reply