"Remember Whom You Are And Whose You Are"

By: Zach Wood

Colossians 4:6 (NASB)

Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt,

so that you will know how you should respond to each person.

 

 

Last night, my wife and I were reading one of our couple's devotionals series and this Scripture was the main verse.  As I concentrated on the verse, I thought about how hard it is for me to control my speech at times.  I am always reminded, in some way no matter where I am, that I am a Christian and I need to represent Christ.  Even though the human part of me sometimes wants to rant and rave and throw out revengeful words toward someone, I must remember that I represent Christ.  I remember, through all my years of working with youth groups in the past, the prayers I would offer up and prayers I heard offered up before and during our trips.  I remember the phrase, "Please Lord, help us to remember that we not only represent this church, but we also represent You."  Now, if we would just live that phrase! 

 

No matter where we are or what we are doing, we need to be very conscious of whom and whose we are.  We are not owned by ourselves.  We have been bought at a price and are commanded to honor God with our bodies.  We are owned by Christ and we are His children.  We need to remember whom we are:  we are all Christ-followers.  We also need to remember whose we are:  we are all children of God.  Are we following Christ's model of love and remembering in our minds and hearts that we should be using our speech to bring glory to Him?

 

If you are anything like me at all, you might have problems dealing with certain people and how you are responding to them, whether it be at home, work, school, church or some other place.  For me, I am finding myself struggling with my speech almost everyday that I am at work.  I know that God is testing my patience and my love condition for others each day.  I find myself struggling with knowing what words to say and how and when to say them.  Or better yet sometimes, knowing when not to say things.  We all have different personalities and we get on each other's nerves sometimes.  That is just a part of life!  I know in my heart that I need to be loving toward others no matter how hard it can become.  I am praying for strength each day that I will not spit out words, that have not been interviewed by my brain and heart, before leaving my mouth.

 

My challenge for you and I is to be very conscious and aware of the things we say when we are around others.  It is easy to be loving and easy going when we are around those we enjoy being around.  However, it is harder when we are surrounded by people who we are not comfortable talking to or working with.  No matter where we are, who we are surrounded by, or who we are working with, we must remember whom we are and whose we are.  Christ calls us to be His followers and to follow His commands.  Are we being faithful and loving followers?