WHAT DO YOU BRING?
06th Nov 2019
You have been invited to someone’s home, you arrive at the front door, you ring the bell and you are welcomed. So, what do you bring? You may well be carrying some flowers or a box of chocolates, but what do you really bring?
The friends you are visiting will have needs and challenges which are common to everyone, so what are you really going to bring? When Jesus visited the disciples on the day he arose from the dead, they were behind locked doors and full of fear. John 20:19 says, “Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!”
When Jesus commissioned the 72 disciples and sent them out to heal the sick, and preach the good news of the Kingdom, His first instruction was, “When you enter a house, first say, “Peace to this house.” So what happens when you go to visit friends and family? Do you bring “Peace” into whatever situation you find? Or, do you get involved in the strife and fear that may be dominating the circumstances you encounter.
God sent Jeremiah with a message for His people who had been living in captivity, “For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11) God has good purposes for all of His children, He is the redeemer and the restorer, He wants to replace fear with faith, despair with hope.
As believers we carry a message of peace and hope, we are to bring encouragement and blessing, we are to lift up not to cast down. We have a great privilege of ministering faith and love wherever we go, with the possibility of leaving friends better than we find them.
Your mandate is this - “May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him..." (Hebrews 13:20-21)
by Charles Sibthorpe
