How can we become people who can have a significant impact on people’s lives just by living our lives in their presence?
Action Steps
1. Be a person who is given to hospitality.
First of all, we must make ourselves available for those opportunities. We must take initiative, as Jesus did in John 1:39, and invite people into our lives and our homes. We must become people who are “given to hospitality” (Romans 12:13; 1 Timothy 3:2).
Paul insisted that leaders and overseers “must be hospitable (loving and a friend to believers, especially to strangers and foreigners)” (Titus 1:8 AMPC).
Likewise, Peter exhorted us in 1 Peter 4:9 (AMPC) to “Practice hospitality to one another (those of the household of faith). [Be hospitable, be a lover of strangers, with brotherly affection for the unknown guests, the foreigners, the poor, and all others who come your way who are of Christ’s body.] And [in each instance] do it ungrudgingly (cordially and graciously, without complaining but as representing Him).”
**2. You must *****become *****the person who you would most admire. **
This is similar to the idea attributed to Mahatma Ghandi, “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” Can you think of a time when someone emulated or imitated you, and you didn’t even realize they were watching you? People are observing how we live our lives all the time. Determine in your heart that you will BE the person with the character qualities that you would most like to see in others. Don’t wait for someone else to model the Christian life. YOU purpose in your heart that YOU will be that person. God is looking all over the world for someone like that.
“For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him.”—2 Chronicles 16:9 (KJV)
“Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil.”—Job 1:8 (NASB)
What is one thing you could change about your life, starting today, that would make you more of an example of what you believe a true Christian should be?
3. Be changed into the image of Christ.
“For those whom He foreknew [of whom He was aware and loved beforehand], He also destined from the beginning [foreordaining them] to be molded into the image of His Son [and share inwardly His likeness], that He might become the firstborn among many brethren.”—Romans 8:29 (AMPC)
We are changed into His glory as we “behold”—meditate, think upon, dwell upon—God’s glorious character—Who He Is—as revealed in His Word.
“And all of us, as with unveiled face, [because we] continued to behold [in the Word of God] as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are constantly being transfigured into His very own image in ever increasing splendor and from one degree of glory to another; [for this comes] from the Lord [Who is] the Spirit.”—2 Corinthians 3:18 (AMPC)
The Word of God is sometimes referred to as a “glass” or mirror. As we gaze into God’s “mirror,” the Word of God transforms us more and more into the image of Christ until what we see in God’s “mirror” of His Word matches who we have become.
“For now we are looking in a mirror that gives only a dim (blurred) reflection [of reality as in a riddle or enigma], but then [when perfection comes] we shall see in reality and face to face! Now I know in part (imperfectly), but then I shall know and understand fully and clearly, even in the same manner as I have been fully and clearly known and understood [by God].”—1 Corinthians 13:12 (AMP)
But this is not a passive transformation. It is only as we respond and obey what God reveals to us in His Word that God’s transformation of us into Christ’s image can be perfected.
“But be doers of the Word [obey the message], and not merely listeners to it, betraying yourselves [into deception by reasoning contrary to the Truth]. For if anyone only listens to the Word without obeying it and being a doer of it, he is like a man who looks carefully at his [own] natural face in a mirror; For he thoughtfully observes himself, and then goes off and promptly forgets what he was like. But he who looks carefully into the faultless law, the [law] of liberty, and is faithful to it and perseveres in looking into it, being not a heedless listener who forgets but an active doer [who obeys], he shall be blessed in his doing (his life of obedience).”—James 1:22-25 (AMP)
This passage exhorts us to the necessity of acting on and applying God’s revealed Word, not just reading it or hearing it.
We must devise action steps to engraft God’s Word into our lives, like grafting a fruit-bearing branch into a living tree, so that we can produce the fruit of God’s living Word.
We must develop and follow a practical plan to engraft this Word of God into our lives, through memorization, meditation, and obedience, so that it can transform us into His image. This is an essential life-long project.
“So get rid of all uncleanness and the rampant outgrowth of wickedness, and in a humble (gentle, modest) spirit receive and welcome the Word which implanted and rooted [in your hearts] contains the power to save your souls.”—James 1:21 (AMP)
You can start small, meditating on one short verse at a time, but it is important to start.
I personally have a plan to choose passages of Scripture which are meaningful to me, memorize them, and meditate on them throughout my day and as I fall asleep at night.
I love the Anki phone app. It is a flashcard app that I use to help prompt me to memorize and meditate on Scripture. I add the Scripture reference on one side of a flashcard and the text of the verses on the other side. The app keeps track of my progress so that verses I have thoroughly memorized come up less often than those I haven’t yet committed to memory. My phone is almost always with me, and so I can use any break between activities to meditate on Scripture.
I strongly encourage you to make this an essential life-long project. Develop a plan that works for you. Start small, and build over time. Make it your goal is to be transformed into the image of Christ through regular daily mediation on His Word!
