Different is as Different Does… But It Don’t Come Easy!
Luke 6:32-35 If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners in order to receive back the same amount. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men.
IT AIN’T EASY to be different, especially being the kind of different that MAKES a LASTING DIFFERENCE in the lives and memories and ways of those around us. God’s kind of different!
WHO impresses you and inspires you to be or do more than you have already accomplished?
WHAT sets a person apart from the crowd?
WHERE do you go to become the difference?
WHEN do you start to make a difference?
Lots of people stand out from the crowd. Lots of people have an impressive resume and to-die-for life. Lots of people can win the race before most of us get our shoes tied. Lots of people set out to be the best of the best. Lots of people are expert (or claim they are) king makers.
Different IS as different DOES is true for all of us, until we get to the WHY would you want to be different and HOW different do you want to be?
WHY would you want to be different?
Over the years, I’ve had several reasons/incentives for going beyond what comes naturally to me. Most of them (if not all) had more to do with MY DESIRE than being the fearfully and wonderfully creature God planned me to be. Even after my Damascus Road encounter with Jesus, who gave Himself for my destination to heaven rather than the hell I was racing toward, I still took it upon myself to determine the difference (kind and depth) I was going to do!
James 1:22-24 But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was.
It took me YEARS!
I HEARD the Word but I LISTENED, but with a faulty hearing aid. I listened to myself and others offer our best interpretations of what the WRITER of the WORD intended. We studied, and conversed, and observed our mentors. We desperately wanted to be the good child! So, we looked in the mirror, not God’s, our own and our favorite friend’s mirror, to see if we “looked like” someone we could be proud to be, then walked away while God made it so.
THANK GOD! Isaiah 55:11 So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; it will not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.
Different is… being.a.doer… OF THE WORD! In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1) The Word who became flesh and dwelt among us, (John 1:14) A doer of God!
Thank God, His thoughts are not my thoughts, nor are my ways His ways,” (Isaiah 55:8-9)God gave me, not only new hearing aids but new EARS to hear HIM SPEAKING, and not only His MIRROR to look into, but new EYES to look beyond my natural face.
WHY would you want to be different? Because It is God who is at work in me, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. (Philippians 2:13)
HOW different do you want to be?
Different, God’s difference, isn’t in the DNA of natural man/woman. Nor is it honored and celebrated by the achievers of this world.
A Doer of DIFFERENCE must choose the race – World’s Not Quite So Different Marathon or God’s Discipleship Difference For Eternity Run – that meets both the destination and prize desired. A Doer of Difference must decide if they can agree to the rules and run the race to the end. A Doer of Difference must be ready to encounter the various trials, the many friends and enemies of the race, and themselves before, during and at the end of the race they choose.
Can’t decide? James 1:5-8 But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him/her.
But…
He must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For that man/woman ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man/woman, unstable in all his/her ways.
Do I want to be so different that everyone I know will see Jesus and I will be labeled a Jesus Freak!?
Do I doubt that running God’s Discipleship race will indeed change me into His Jesus Freak!?
Do I look in the mirror and see a Jesus Freak Wanna Be but leave surfing the world’s oceans to see if I can have it ALL?!
Different IS as Different DOES…
Matthew 22:37-40 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.
Love… God’s Love… was/is/and always will be the difference that makes you different!
**All Scripture quoted comes from the “Bible Gateway” app and is the NASB version of the Bible unless otherwise noted.