Our church participated in a huge outreach event last month and it had a big impact on us. We saw people in need respond by the hundreds. It changed us and we were pumped up about it at church. I found myself praying for God to give me more OIAM opportunities but in my daily routine. To give me eyes to see people the way He does. I love this familiar verse…..
Hebrews 13:2 Do not forget to entertain strangers for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it.
I’m sorry but my first thought is, “Oh crap, how many angels have I given the cold shoulder to or shut the door on or honked at?!” But then I pull myself together and come to the conclusion that I have not yet dissed an angel. Or at least I hope I haven’t.
But what got my attention recently was the verses right after the candid camera angel part. It says this:
Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.
It’s the whole “put yourself in their shoes” comment that every one of us have heard before. Who knew it had Biblical roots!
So I am praying lately that God will give me eyes to see people the way he does. To put myself in other people’s shoes. When they are hurting to hurt with them as if I was the one going through the pain. And to have the spiritual discernment to know when the Holy Spirit is telling me to meet a specific need of a stranger. Or would that be an angel unaware?
I am finding that when we ask God to do this, He does. Because it’s his heart for us to show His love by taking care of those who have needs.
It will look different every time. And it will most likely never look like what you thought it would. But you will know that God was the author of that divine appointment. That brief but powerful God moment where he spoke through you, loved through you, met a need through you. All because you asked Him to use you. To give you opportunities to show the love of Jesus. Because you chose to remember the prisoners as if you were one yourself.
More on what this has looked like for me personally over the last six weeks in the next blog post.
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