ARE YOU MISTREATING JESUS?

BIBLE PASSAGE:
For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat,
I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I
was a stranger and you invited me in.
(Matthew 25:35)

MEDITATION:
Have you ever thought about how you
are treating Jesus? You may think,
    “What are you talking about? I am not around Him.”

Well, that’s not exactly true – Jesus said that He is always
with us when we are doing the work He wants us to do.
    “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing
     them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the
     Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have
     commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the
     very end of the age.”
     (Matthew 28:19-20)

You may be thinking,
    “I try to keep Him first in my life, what more should I do?”
Certainly it is admirable to keep Jesus in His rightful place, but
there is more. The way we treat others is an indication of what is
in our heart. Others see what is visible in us, but Jesus reads our
hearts, so He knows why we do what we do; He knows our motives
and He knows our motivation.

If the things we do for others is a means of feeding our ego or
enhancing our image to others, then we are doing them for all
the wrong reasons. When we do what Jesus wants us to do, we
should be motivated by a genuine concern for others and a
desire to be more like Him.

When Jesus was in human form, He was limited in what He could
do, because He was just one person. Today however, He has many
‘agents’ to continue His ministry. The word ‘Christian’ implies
that Christ is living in us.

If He is Who Christians represent, then we should be doing the things
He would do. It means that we help others as the need arises. When we
do that, it shows the content of our heart is a sincere desire for helping
others. Whenever we offer to help someone, it isn’t just ‘talk’ to make
us feel good about ourselves, or to make others think more highly of us.

No, when we offer to help, we fully intend to make whatever sacrifice
is necessary. Our personal desires are replaced with the needs of others.
We don’t care if others know we are helping someone – our commitment
is to help, and not for recognition.

Jesus says how we treat others
is effectively how we would treat Him.
    “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever
     you did for one of the least of these brothers and
     sisters of mine, you did for me.’
     (Matthew 25:40)
We wouldn’t give Jesus an insincere,
or half-hearted offer to help, would we?

Conversely, there are others that do not treat others as Jesus would.
    For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat,
    I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I
    was a stranger and you did not invite me in
    (Matthew 25:42-43a)

Jesus also reads our hearts
and knows when we are selfish and self-centered.
    He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not
    do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
    (Matthew 25:45)

So what happens to those who treat others righteously, and those
who do not? Jesus says that those who treat others as He would,
will have eternal life, but those who do not, will experience eternal
punishment because they failed to become genuine Christians.
    “Then they will go away to eternal
     punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
     (Matthew 25:46)

ACTION:
When is the last time you offered to help someone. even though you
knew if they asked you, it would require you to make a sacrifice and
be inconvenienced? Some will give ‘lip service’ to helping others, but
are really secretly hoping they will not be asked to help.

As Christians, when we offer to help, we should assume the person
will need our help. With that mindset, we have already planned to
make whatever sacrifice we need to make. Christians should embrace
opportunities to help others, and not hope that someone else will step
forward so we don’t have to be their helper.

One effective way of helping others without expecting praise from
them or others, is to pray for them. Sincere prayer for someone is
something others may never know about, but it is something that
Jesus sees us doing.

Does that mean we should not let the person know we are praying
for them? Silence wouldn’t be a way of encouraging others, would
it? It is important for us to be sure others know we are praying for
them. Why? Because sometimes when people are hurting, they can
go into a ‘silo’ of isolation from others; maybe not physically, but
emotionally they hide their hurts.

But we need to remember that even though we have what we think
is good advice for them, we are not them, so they may respond to
an emotional, or physical pain much differently than we would.
What does that mean to us? It means that sometimes it is better
to keep our advice to ourselves, unless they ask us for our thoughts.

Most people ‘do not care how much we know’ until they ‘know how
much we care’. When we sincerely care about others, we will make
special efforts to check on them, and assure them we are praying for
them and their situation.

If we think of something that might benefit them in some way, we
should consider starting a sentence with, “What do you think…”,
instead of “You need to…”. This communicates to them that we
are making a suggestion for them to consider, rather than showing
them how much we know.

As an example, we might say something like,
    “I realize we are different, but I tried this and it
     helped me, do you think it might be worth trying?”
as opposed to something like,
    “You need to use this, because I know it works”

The first comment is in the form of a suggestion, whereas the second
comment can appear to be authoritative. As mentioned earlier, the
best way to let others know we care about them is, to check on them
often, let them know we are praying for them, ask if there is anything
particular they want us to pray about, and then…spend time praying
for their needs.

Pray,
“Heavenly Father, I now have a better understanding of
what You expect of me. I realize that when I treat others
as Jesus would, it is a reflection of my heart. Forgive me
for the times I have failed to offer help to others. Teach
me to change my priorities so I will have a greater concern
for others and will let them know I am praying for them and
their needs. Father, I pray that you would transform me to be
more like Jesus, and give me an insight to the needs of others.”

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