Word for the day by Christian Education Forum

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People of God: Ambassadors of Christ

Teena Philip
St. Johns MTC, NY

12 The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, you mighty warrior.” 


As we spend some time in meditation on the Word of God and focus on the topic and title of this devotion it seems very simple. We are the people of God and therefore Ambassadors of Christ. However if we keep repeating this phrase a few times (as I did), it’s apparent that walking with Christ is not a task for just one person. The tasks cannot be done by just one individual. It’s a collective effort of each and every Christian, their faith, their abilities and specifically their inabilities which work in harmony that completes the tasks of being an ambassador of Christ.

When we read Judges 6 from the beginning we realize that the Israelites are being oppressed by the Midianites because of all their evil deeds. And the Israelites are crying to God to save them. This is when an angel comes down to remind them everything that the Lord has done for them and yet they continue to do evil things. As the passage continues Gideon who seems to be the weakest in his family and from the weakest tribe of Manasseh is called to save the Israelites.

There two things here that we as the Ambassadors of Christ today, do not do enough of and do the most of:

1.We do not trust the Lord enough to believe that He will be with us through our journey.

2.We do the most to make sure God, the one who created us, understands that we are incapable of the task He is assigning.

As People of God, how can we not believe that He will always provide and He will constantly be with us? All throughout the Bible His promise to all His Ambassadors is that He will be there for us. Sometimes we forget that it also means He will send us resources, a team, an advisory group so that we collectively can complete the mission. Many of us take the burden of the cross on ourselves and think it needs to be done alone and I think we forget He has called all of us as Christians to work for Him in harmony and in unison, as “People of God”.  

What we continuously do is remind God that we are incapable of doing the task God is calling us to accomplish. We sell ourselves short and more importantly we sell the knowledge that God has about us short. He created us and knows our story before we were even born. How then can we say God, "How will I free the Israelites from Egypt" or in Gideon’s case from the Midianites, I’m the weakest. God choose people not for their merit. He uses our weakness to only make sure stronger and mighty warriors and Ambassadors of Christ. He unites us through our many flaws and shortcomings to make a solid team to defeat evil.

PRAYER

Dear Lord our heavenly Father, help us to remember that You have promised us Your presence and Your army for what You have called us to do. Help us to take up this calling and be Your true Ambassadors. In Your Holy Name we ask all of this, Amen.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:
“God does not call the qualified, He qualifies the called.” – James Snyder 

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