(A paraphrased letter from Jesus based on Romans 12:1-19)
PREPARED BY MICHELE HANSEN
Dear Beloved,
My servant Paul has written My words to you so that you will be able to be My representatives, My ambassadors. Just because these words were written over 2000 years ago, doesn’t mean they aren’t applicable today.
In light of that truth, I strongly encourage you, as a result of My sacrifice for your unity, give yourselves willingly to the sacrificial worship of God the Father. Don’t get sucked into the shiny glitz and tempting ways of the world around you. It is not serving Me and will end in hollow misery. Immerse yourself in the truth of My scriptures and allow the Holy Spirit to saturate your mind with His Holy Power. Then you will know, for sure, God’s perfect and satisfying will.
Don’t be thinking you are all that and a biscuit, either. Look yourself in the eye and assess yourself compared to Me, not each other. Trust Me to show you what you may not be able to see. I put you together as a family, to work together as My hands and feet. Much like your bodies were created to work together, supporting the whole, so you should work together as the body of Christ. I have gifted you individually in many ways, but you were meant to use those gifts to elevate the whole body of believers and to bring Me glory. Give to the utmost extent that you have grace to give.
Your love for one another must be genuine, not dishonest or hypocritical. Don’t pretend to love others, really love them with the love I have poured out in you. If you elevate, in love, those around you, someone will be elevating you. Keep pressing on in your excitement for serving the Lord. Keep joyfully hopeful, rock steady and prayed up. Help each other out when you see a need, don’t think someone else will do it. Be that friendly hand up without expecting reciprocation.
Turn the other cheek.
I know full well how hard that is. I was mocked and scorned, made fun of, beaten and killed. When I ask you to do something, remember that I have gone first. In light of that reality, remember, you cannot control what other people do, but you can control how you respond…so respond on My behalf. I will deal with each situation according to My perfect will.
Darkness cannot drive out darkness:
only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate:
only love can do that.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
As the final sigh of 2024 comes and we say good-bye, let’s remember that we are all equal at the foot of the cross. May we be willing to step into the new year full of holy expectation and unreserved faith to seek the will of the Father in Spirit power and unmovable truth. God’s amazing love in tandem with our obedience creates the cure our world desperately needs.
