Speaking for God

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE

SPEAKING FOR GOD

Luke 10:16

16 "He who listens to you listens to me; he who rejects you rejects me; but he who rejects me rejects him who sent me."

NIV

Jesus was telling these seventy and it certainly appears he is telling us as well that they were speaking for God. He was also assuring them that if their message was rejected those who rejected it were actually rejecting God, not them. Sometimes we take rejection personally when someone we share the good news with says no thanks that is not for me. There are many forms of rejection other than a flat out no. Some tells us or seem to insinuate they are Christians just to stop us from going on with the message. But the point is when they do not want to hear about the good news, they are rejecting God and not us, although it seems like at times, some of them actually do reject us as well. They sort of shun us or at least keep their distant and that is fine, as we did our part and their blood is not on our hands. The greater truth here in these words of Jesus is the fact that as we talk about the kingdom, the good news, we are talking for God. To these people we are that mouth of God. That is a powerful thought. To speak for God. To be his voice to people. If we consider that, if we ponder on that, mediate on that for a moment, perhaps our message might be a bit more like what God says and the way he says it, than how we say and the way we say it. How would God tell them about his kingdom? Would he tell them anything other than he loves them and he wants to give then eternal life, if they would just believe in him, accept his Sons sacrifice for their sin? How would he say it? Would he be condemning, judgmental, firm, or would he simply show them his love? The answer to any of that type of question is in how he spoke his love into our lives. We only need to do the same. What we need to always be aware of when we talk about the kingdom, is we are the voice of God to the world. Of course when we are not talking about the kingdom we might still be the voice of God, which is of course if those people know we are believers. They are watching and listening to us all the time to see if we live our words. So even in that sense we are the voice of God. Our lives are the voice of God in action. This is when actions speak louder than words. Yet we still need to be speaking the words.  How do we speak for him?