Living ReconciledSample

Day Four: Courageous Attitude 4—You See Others As Brand-New

Here is the reality: two different people can go through similar circumstances and end up with very different results. One will be bitter, and one will be empowered. One will be stressed, and one will be energized. One will be defeated, and one will see opportunity. One will be annoyed, and one will be at peace. Why? The secret is “Christ in me.” Christ lives in you even in the tension and the conflict you are experiencing.

Don’t get me wrong; when circumstances are tough, just saying, “Christ is in me” doesn’t seem to make it easier. But for your soul, for your eternal perspective, I want you to grasp this concept: in the midst of all your circumstances, Christ lives in you. The Creator lives in you. The miracle worker lives in you. The Resurrected One lives in you. The Redeemer lives in you. God lives in you. This makes you God’s possession. You are owned by God. He bought you. He paid the price for you. And He is with you in the midst of your circumstances.

So what does this have to do with living reconciled? While you can, and often must for the sake of clarity, tell the person you are in conflict with how they have hurt you, at the same time you will present this conversation totally differently depending on how you view them. If you view them as the old creation, you will most likely call them out for their poor choices, labeling and dissecting their behavior to point out their flaws and failures. If you see them as brand-new creations in Christ, you will find your focus changes to calling them to act more as God would have us all act. You are humbly pointing out that God has a better plan.

But here is the most important thing about this: you must first call out your own sin before you can call out their sin. This is challenging. When I am in conflict, I want to think about the other person’s fallenness and my own redemption. Instead, I should focus first on my fallenness and Jesus’s redemption of the other person. Never forget that living inside of you is the redemptive, transformational power of the Holy Spirit.

God’s Word says that those in Christ Jesus are brand-new creations. The reason it is so important to see others how God sees them is because of how God treats you.