Being Real

It’s time to be real.  That’s what I hear the Lord saying this week.  Looking at Luke 12:1- 2, we find Jesus surrounded by a crowd so big the people are trampling one another, but before He addresses them, Jesus turns to His disciples and says, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.”  Jesus is telling his students, you’d better be real because one day who you truly are will be revealed.  I believe the Lord is putting His finger on the possibility that many of us lead double lives.  We love the Lord and we honor Him with our worship and our praise.  We spend time each day in His presence through prayer and Bible study.  But when we walk out our doors, we put on our anonymity and go about our business as if we were just nice people.  We may say “God Bless You” if someone sneezes, but we don’t often reveal the hope that we hold in our hearts.  I don’t know about you, but lately this has begun to bother me. 

Colossians 4:6 says, “Let your conversation always be full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.”  I began to ponder what it meant for my speech to be seasoned with salt.  What makes our speech salty?  I believe it is talking about our Lord Jesus.  We go bland when we remove Him from our vocabulary and just try to be “nice”.  Please understand, I’m not advocating preaching everyone you meet a sermon!  I am just talking about being real.  When you are really in love, you can’t help it – it shows.  The same is true of us.  It may only be a few words, but I think it is time for us to be unafraid to speak the name above ALL other names.  Recently the Lord led me to give my lunch to a man on the side of the road.  As I drove away, I realized I had missed an opportunity to speak the name of Jesus.  It was easy to say, “God told me to bless you.”  Saying, “The Lord Jesus told me to bless you” would have been a whole new ballgame.  Something dynamic is released when we speak His name.  Somehow there is also a powerful reluctance to speak it.  I’m not sure why that is so, but I know I have experienced it.  In fact, I just took a break to go to the grocery store and I stood in the checkout line contemplating this very thing.  Just thinking about it had me nervous and embarrassed.  I realized I had to come back and update this thing.  Girls, doing this thing is hard - I know!  I think part of the problem tonight at the store was that it just wasn’t the right time.  If it had been, I think there would have been grace to speak up despite being scared.  Being sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit is key.  My prayer for all of us is that the Lord Jesus will give us the sensitivity to know when He is giving us an opening to speak of Him and the courage to step up and do it.

Abba Father, please give us grace to love You more, to love our Lord Jesus more.  Fill us with such an awareness of Your love and mercy on us that we cannot help but share it.   Teach us to be salty in a way that causes the seeking lost ones to realize You are Who they long for.  In Jesus’ Name, Amen.