P is for People

Isn't it funny how there is a lesson in most situations. If we are conscious of it, we are given opportunities to grow. One such lesson for me was seeing God working through people I know.

I saw the movie, “God's Not Dead”, a couple months ago. One of the main points that stood out to me and has stuck with me ever since, was how we as people are all connected. Believer's, baby Christians, the unchurched, even atheists – our network of people, (the people around us), is made up of all kinds of people with different levels of faith or even no faith. Family, coworkers, friends, FaceBook friends, people you attend church with, or school functions, groups that you belong to, as well as people you see along your day, the nice lady that works at the thrift store you like to go to, and so on... These people form a network of individuals who you have contact with. Hopefully it is positive contact. but it can be even negative at times. Through this network, we go about living our lives interacting with each other within our levels of faith.

So what is faith? Simply put, faith is belief in God. I would venture to say that everyone is at their own level of faith – some growing in their beliefs, some growing with leaps and bounds, some stagnant and some without any faith. Our faith levels change constantly with what we are putting in our minds. If you are in His word daily, giving God something to work with, faith grows. If you're not, then it's growing with what you are putting in your mind.

The church is God's network. It is God's finely laid out plan of caring people. “There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all. There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord. God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us. A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other.” 1 Corinthians 12:4-7. That is how God designed His church to be. Each believer having been given a gift or talent from His grace to help each other with Jesus as the head of the body, the leader of the church. For His people to help each other and to reach out to those that are not yet believers, so that they too can start their walk through this life with faith.

God showed me a glimpse of this in action. A family who were unbelievers were being ministered to in two separate ways by two of my friends. I was the only person who knew all of the people. Maybe we will never know the dots that we connect in our networks but God does. With His Master view, He sees the connections that I need to make to fulfill His master plan. Lord, help me to connect the dots with your people!

Encourage Someone Today!