Do you know what I have come to believe is one of the biggest differences the presence of the Holy Spirit makes in the life of a follower of Jesus Christ? It’s that, over time, we begin to see people the way that God sees them. When you begin to see people the way that God sees them, as people of immeasurable value to God, you have taken the first step in learning to respond to them the way that God has responded to them.
The Bible tells us, as well as common sense and our own experience tell us, that everybody you meet is somebody for whom our Savior Jesus Christ died. Imagine the difference in the outcome of our relationship with people if we kept that front-and-center in our thinking. Shouldn’t that become the grid through which we make our relational decisions? Our relational decisions in restaurants, at the dry cleaner, at home, at work, at play?
When we were children, we learned it this way: “Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight.” That’s a word we don’t use much anymore: they are precious. In other words, you are surrounded by people who are precious to your heavenly Father.
You see, at the cross, God declared our value. At the cross, God declared the immeasurable value that each of us has. Throughout Scripture, we are called to this standard. We are called to view every relationship through this lens: everybody you lay your eyes on is somebody for whom Christ died. Bill Hybels said it this way; he said, “I’ve never been eyeball-to-eyeball with anybody who didn’t matter to God.”
There are no ordinary people. Everybody you lay your eyes on is somebody for whom your Savior died.
In the name of the One who can do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine,
Bruce Jones, Pastor and Co-Creator,
Imagine Church of the Carolinas
