Sunday, March 05, 2006

I Showed You So

Have you ever had a conversation with someone that ultimately resulted in an “I told you so” moment? There have been many times in my life where I have given someone advice on how they need to handle a situation and, even though they wanted my advice, they chose to do the complete opposite. Many times, after the situation had passed, they’d come back to me and tell me that they wished they had followed the advice I’d given them. Sadly, many of these conversations have been with people who are not followers of Christ and they ultimately make a huge mistake that they wouldn’t have made if they would have listened to the advice I’d given them from the Bible.

Since it is God’s Word, the Bible is the source for guidance on how He wants us to live our lives. Every word that you read from the Bible is useful for learning (2 Timothy 3:16-17) and shows you how you need to live your life. God promises us that He wants what is best for us (Jeremiah 29:11, Romans 8:28); all we have to do is live according to His purpose.

As Christ-followers, we already know that living our lives according to God’s will is the path to a more abundant life through Him, but the concept of living by someone else’s purpose is a hard one to accept by those who haven’t experienced the life-change Christ brings about.

Many times we try to talk with non-Christians about the difference there will be in their lives if they would just accept Christ, but our words prove to be useless in bringing them to Him. We become frustrated because we want them so badly to see that Christ is the way, but they continue to think that the message of Christ is foolish (1 Corinthians 1:18).

Proverbs 23: 9 says, “Don’t waste your breath on fools, for they will despise the wisest advice.” No matter how hard we try, no matter how long we hold our breathe, there are just some people who are so hard-headed that they will not listen to the loving advice we give them about Christ. It’s in these cases that we have to live a Christ-like life so that they will see the difference in us. Instead of constantly telling them that they need to accept Christ, show them the life-change they are missing out on. Show them Christ through how you act in your every day life.

If someone that didn’t know you tried to guess whether or not you were a Christian, would they be confused as to where your allegiance was? If someone had been told all of their life that Jesus was the way, yet they constantly refused to accepted Him, would the image of Christ through you be the key to the door of their heart? When our words are considered useless, we must rely on the way Christ is perceived through us to lead people to Him. Live your life according to God’s standards for you and remember that “I showed you so” will ultimately reach more people for Christ than “I told you so”.

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