As christian I hear the term Life giving all the time. Sayings like:
“Are my words life-giving? My actions?”
“Is your home life-giving?”
“Are you creating a life-giving environment?”
On the surface we can hear that and know exactly what that means and respond, “yes! I love the Lord and am life-giving to those around me.” Which may be true but I want to look deeper and challenge us.
To be life giving is to give life. Sustain it. This means our words, actions, homes, and environment would be giving others life. Breathing a new life into them. Something, beloveds, we simply cannot do.
We, alone, do not have the power to breathe life into others.
“And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.”
Ezekiel 36:26
However, We serve a God who does. We serve a God who, through Jesus, has breathed a new life into us.
If it is God who is Life giving, then why does everyone keep telling me to be life giving?
Because beloved, you carry the Gospel in your heart. You house the Holy Spirit. You hold Gods Word in your hand.
It is when we speak Gods word through the Holy Spirit that we become life giving. And it is important to recognize we are simply the vessels. God be the Glory when life givingness occurs.
This would mean that in order for my words and actions to be life-giving all the time, I am intentionally living and speaking the gospel. My actions towards others stem from Gods word. My words towards others stem from Gods Word. All the while EXPLICITLY sharing the gospel. Sharing with others that, “I am in fact broken beyond any mans repair. However, God saw me and said, ‘that may be so but you are not broken beyond my repair.’ So He sent Jesus to be the lamb so that I can be atoned wholly therefore having a place in eternal life.” Friends, we need to be saying this to those around us. Not in a wait and see round about way, in a very real, loving, explicit way.
This also means that Jesus becomes the center of our home and everyone who comes into our home hears who He is and what He’s done for us. When someone walks into our broken home but sees wholeness, they need to know why. Why is it that these broken people who have broken pasts can have a whole home? Jesus. That’s it. The Life giving lamb.
This means the environment I create is in community with others who are choosing to be life giving to those around them. Causing the community to out pour to others around us. It means we, as a community, are putting our time, effort, and hearts into others in our community. We are taking care of them the way Jesus did when he walked here. And we are turning others to Him to Justify our words and actions. He is our life-giver. He is our justification for being able to do the life-giving miracles we do.
Friends, by this definition of life giving, I am falling short. So if you’re up for the challenge, join me in asking God for forgiveness for not being the vessel He has called me to be and lets intentionally be life giving together.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
2 Corinthians 5:17
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