LifeLink Devotional for Friday, July 19, 2024

Colossians 3:17 gives us a lifelong challenge to live every moment to honor and glorify the Name of Jesus.  “And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

Today we move to the next word in our acrostic on the NAME of Jesus. It is Attributes. The big picture question is this: “Are we living in such a way that our life reflects the attributes of Jesus.”

When I was a young boy, my father was the pastor of a church in Michigan. It was customary in this church for the pastor and his family to be invited out to dinner at someone’s house on a regular basis. On those nights that we were headed to our host’s home, I remember clearly something my dad always did. As I and my two brothers would pile into the back seat of the car in our usual rowdy way, fighting over who had to sit in the middle, dad would already be in place in the driver’s seat. He would reach up and tilt the rearview mirror down so he could see us, and he would say, “Now boys, don’t embarrass me when we get there.”

I’ve thought about that statement a lot. It had its positive and its negative sides. From the negative perspective, it assumed that we were both capable of embarrassing him and likely to do so. Be realistic. Imagine three boys ages 5, 6, and 7 together in a home of adults with nothing to do but sit still and behave. Yeah – that’s possible. We were by nature rowdy little boys, with expectations of adult attributes thrust upon us. Dad knew it, or he wouldn’t have told us his expectations before we even left the driveway.

On the positive side, dad was trying to help us grow up. We all want our children to emulate the attributes that we believe are important for maturity. Any word or action that doesn’t reflect those attributes is an embarrassment, both to the parent, and hopefully to the child who really wants to be the best they can be. Every kid wants to measure up. If motivated by love, that’s a good thing. If motivated by a lack of love so that it becomes a performance to earn value, then that’s dysfunctional.

Measuring up is a biblical concept. The Apostle Paul says in Ephesians 3: 19, “…that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” Then in the next chapter he says, “so that the body of Christ may … become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”

Christ is the perfect model of maturity for our lives. When we are motivated by love for Him, we will strive to emulate His attributes. When we don’t, it will be an embarrassment to us.

It is not practical to attempt to consider all the attributes of our wonderful Lord and Savior in one short devotional today. So we will spread it out over a few days a look at how some of the attributes of God affect our choices in life.

For today, consider the words of the Apostle John, the one whom our Lord Jesus loved, as he wrote to Christians around the world. He said in 1 John, “See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming. If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him.”

Wow! According to these verses, it is possible for us to be ashamed and embarrassed before our Lord because of the way we have lived our lives. So, according to those verses, what’s the key to not being embarrassed? Remain in Him and continue in Him. What does that mean? Very simply, it means to live according to His attributes.

Our lives are to be the constant reflection of the characteristics of Christ. He is our model. He has sent His Holy Spirit to bring the fullness of His life into ours. We do not live in obedience to a set of laws and standards. We live as an expression of the life of Christ in us. Anything less than that is an embarrassment.

Pastor John