I myself am convinced, my brothers and sisters, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with knowledge and competent to instruct one another. Yet I have written you quite boldly on some points to remind you of them again, because of the grace God gave me to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles. He gave me the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

Am I, as a follower of Jesus, standing in the way or in line with God’s Kingdom work and his will for my life? Will I take rebukes that come, to help correct my actions or thinking …. as God’s love for me?

It is fascinating to me to see these old cars go by on the street. Some have just been picked up from someone’s backyard and are in a complete state of disrepair. Others are in the process of being remodeled and worked on, both on the inside and the outside. And finally, we get to see the end product, some of the classics our parents or we grew up with, fully restored and operational and driving down the road. I admit that I do not understand all the time and skill and effort that goes into this process; but I imagine it must be significant. First, a person must find the year, make and model they are looking for. Then, they must do an assessment of what needs to be fixed and repaired. A third step of finding the parts needed for the repairs is followed by step four, finding the right mechanic and body shop to execute the repairs. Then, five, the initial work begins. Step six is, during the process, identifying new parts or repairs needed that were not readily apparent on the outside and fixing those areas. (And I probably missed a few steps here.) After many hours of skilled work and effort, it could be years, finally, the finished product is ready.

I think, in a similar way to an old beat up car that needs repairs, we are all in this state before we accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of our lives. And when his Spirit comes in to dwell, he is focused on fixing our hearts, our minds, our attitudes and our bodies. He is fixing them up to become a wonderful offering of praise to God, a vessel useful for his Kingdom-building purposes. And this is happening with new believers each day throughout our lifetime. But over time, many of the old believers have allowed worldly practices and evil ways back into their lives. They have become quite lazy in their faith. They too, just like the new believers, need help and a renewed direction and motivation in life. Some have slipped into the worldly comparison game, instead of seeking solely to glorify God.

Paul is calling out these older Roman Christians, in some ways, in the book of Romans. He says he knows their hearts are good and they have knowledge to instruct one another. But he had to be bold to help them get the heart repairs needed in order to move on with God’s plan to save the Gentiles. They were, instead, pointing out the flaws of God’s plan — pointing out the ways these people were not worthy of spiritual effort. So, Paul reaches out to them by acknowledging God’s work in them. And he calls them to join him and warns them that he will not stop in seeking and saving lost Gentiles (so they best not get in his way).

‭‭So how does this apply to you and me? We must seek to follow after God, accept his rebukes of our heart, and join him in his work. We cannot sit on the sidelines and look good by comparison. Those “Christian sideline dwellers” will require major discipline from the Lord. The prophet Isaiah prophesied of Jesus’ coming and the newness God would bring through his Son: “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”
‭‭(Isaiah‬ ‭43:18-19‬)‬‬

Lord, thank you for working on my heart today. Open me up to serving you however you desire. Help me to focus intently on your kingdom work and let my insecurities and pride fade away. It is all for your glory!