In His Name Devotionals
WE’RE BEING WATCHED!
In His Name Devotionals
WE’RE BEING WATCHED!
Christians need to be aware that someone is watching us all the time.
No, the reference is not to the all-seeing eye of God. In some forms of religion, the notion that He is always watching seems to be stressed for the sake of striking terror into people. The ever-lurking-to-catch-you God isn’t the one that David, Paul, or Jesus spoke about and trusted.
Consider instead the people around us at work, in school, or even in our families who know us as believers—and who question the validity of Christian faith. They’ve heard somebody make the utterly irresponsible claim that the historicity of Jesus is not certain. They’ve heard attacks against the Bible or Christ’s resurrection. They’re pretty negative toward what they perceive as the judgmental and/or hypocritical people they know who go to church.
There are lots of these people who would genuinely like to believe there is something to Christianity. They know it makes promises about a future with God—a future that is otherwise an empty void for them. They would like to believe in the here-and-now aspects of faith too—rather than feel alone in a cold cosmos that is unaware of their presence. They would like to believe in God—the God who loves them and watches them because He is concerned about what happens in their lives.
Those people are watching us. They are looking at us daily with the sincere hope of finding us authentic and faithful. They are acutely sensitive to phoniness, pushiness, and hypocrisy. But genuine faith registers with them and communicates more than arguments and sermons ever could. What someone sees in us will either trip her up or catapult him forward in his spiritual quest.
More people have been moved to a positive attitude toward Christ by the spirit of His messengers than by their eloquence in articulating the gospel. On the other hand, more have come to hate Christianity because of some glaring inconsistency they have observed in a professing follower of Jesus than by any hard doctrine of Scripture.
Too often, people hear one thing from Christians and see another. They see a church member sing about love on Sunday and treat someone abhorrently at work the next week. They know someone who cites the Golden Rule only to turn around and behave as a racist, sexist, etc.
No unbeliever has the right to expect or demand perfection of us, but everyone has the right to see us live with integrity before God. They’re watching. You can count on it. So what are they going to see today?
