Christian Participation in Nation Building
1 Samuel 10: 1-9
V6-7: The Spirit of the Lord will come powerfully upon you, and you will prophesy with them; and you will be changed into a different person. Once these signs are fulfilled, do whatever your hand finds to do, for God is with you. Growing up in a traditional Malayalee family, I was always told that church was the most important thing. I never fully understand the meaning of going to youth fellowship meetings, going to Sunday school, or even going to church. Around the age of 13, I attended my first youth retreat and after realizing who God was and what He had to offer me, I was blown away. I accepted Christ into my life, and everything started making more sense. Sunday School was a place for kids to come learn more about the Bible, youth fellowship was the process of becoming more of mature and sharing this word of God. Going into high school, I never realized how soon I would begin to share about how much I loved going to church and how my weekends I always spent at church was fun. I was able to tell one of my friends just how much God blessed me and the love that was so unconditional that he gave to me and they accepted Christ into their own life. From that day moving forward, I realized just how much our words can impact other people’s lives. We may think that we don’t have the abilities to make much difference in our society today or that it involves us to have authority or have some kind of power, but God calls us to start within our own lives and families first.
In verse six, we can see how it says, “you will prophesy with them, and you will be changed into a different person”. It doesn’t say that we do it for others, but we will be blessed with the Spirit of the Lord. In a time like this with racial discrimination, the coronavirus pandemic, it’s so easy to just let the world run its course and we just take a backseat but we as Christians are called out to help in that process. Whether that be signing petitions, continuing to pray for the world and all its leaders, we are making a significant difference. We are merely stewards, but God blesses us with not only the knowledge but the ability to be the difference for someone else. In the bible, Jesus says, “Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ” Galatians 6:2. Even just by carrying each other’s burden, we are doing just more than being a helping hand, we are helping our nation as a whole. By praying, giving to various charities, we continue to build our nation, even if we may think what we’re doing isn’t doing much. God looks at our heart and our intentions, not how much success we may have but rather the reason why we are doing it. As Christians, we are called to be a helping hand wherever we are, whether it’s a job we may not want to have or even being in school and just being a student, we are a helping hand even when it may not seem like it to us. PRAYER
Father God, would you teach me to be patient to your every call and teach me that I can make help regardless where I may be in life. I pray that you would watch over our nation, our cities, our homes, that we would put you first and build each other up to only grow your kingdom further. Amen.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
“Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing.” - 1 Thessalonians 5:11
Sajan Thomas, Long Island MTC
Christian Education Forum, Diocese of NAE of the Mar Thoma Church | 
