Consider the following:
• An older man, not a deacon or an elder, prays for a young man to be healed of cancer… he is.
• A young couple befriends the parents of their daughter’s school mate. In a few months the school mate’s father makes a decision to turn his life over to Christ.
• A policeman displays a godly temperament and patience in his duties.
• A teenage babysitter reflects a godly lifestyle and the child’s parents begin investigating Christianity. The parents get saved, grow in God, start a home group, and eventually become church leaders.
• A family takes in a homeless single mother, she gets saved.
• A grieving widow is full of joy despite her circumstances.
• A teenager is involved in a tragic accident, some believers at work befriend him, he turns his life to Christ and is now a leader in his church.
• A godly and responsible but unemployed husband believes God to provide money for the rent. With no foreseeable reason to expect anything, he simply trusts Him. The rent gets paid.
• A woman overhears a conversation in the produce department of a grocery store by two others discussing where they could find a good church. She invites them to hers and within a couple months one of them, a 70 year old grandmother gets saved.
• A nurse reflects the mercy of God and a consistent life in her workplace.
These are just a few of hundreds of real-life scenarios played out in one local church. In them, we see the supernatural power of God working itself out in the lives of regular people. You could simply say it’s “ordinary people behaving extra ordinarily.”
We can be normal, regular people, yet live in something that is not normal – it’s “above” normal. We can participate in an existence beyond the visible observable universe. We don’t have to be stuck in what’s usual, expected and accepted. We don’t have to “suck it up” and put with just plodding along in this life scratching out our meager existence.
How Can Regular People Behave Extraordinarily?
1. KISS: Keep It Simple Saints !!
James 1:27 (HCSB)
Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
James is really on to something here. He’s telling us to quit playing games, quit acting spiritual, and start living what we believe. Make that phone call you’ve been putting off.. Restore that broken relationship. Invite those neighbors over for dinner. Feed the poor. . . really.
2. Use Our Gifts To Serve Others
What is your gift? Are you an encourager? Do it! Do it with God’s help. Do it in the power of His Holy Spirit. Ask God to enlarge and expand you so that you may receive a word of knowledge for someone. Then you’ll be using your natural abilities beyond what you’d ordinarily be able to do.
Do you have a great smile? Make friends and point them to Jesus. Do you know how to fix things? Help out a widow who cannot do those things. Whatever your gift, use it to serve others.
1 Peter 4:10-11 (NLT)
God has given each of you a gift . . . use them well to serve one another. . . . then everything you do will bring glory to God!
3. Be Yourself
Don’t try to be someone else or emulate their gift. Be your self. Use the gifts God gave you. If you pretend to be someone else and you are “successful” in the world’s eyes, then they’ve fallen in love with a phony. Just be yourself, accept and appreciate the person God designed you to be.
Paul says in Romans 12:3 (NLT) “As God’s messenger, I give each of you this warning: Be honest in your estimate of yourselves, measuring your value by how much faith God has given you.”
4. Find Common Ground
Be like Paul who said in 1 Cor. 9:22 (NLT) When I am with those who are oppressed, I share their oppression so that I might bring them to Christ. Yes, I try to find common ground with everyone so that I might bring them to Christ.
Do you excel at sports? Use that to reach others, it’s easy! Are you a fisherman? Invite a friend to go fishing! It’s a natural thing to do. One man I know has a 4-wheel drive truck and has access to lots of firewood. So, he delivers firewood to those who have need. Because he is doing what he loves, he does it with joy and represents the generosity of God.
You can find some way to relate to people. Don’t be a fake or a phony. Do what you’re comfortable with. When you get better at that, ask God to stretch you a bit with something more difficult. You’ll soon find that you’re joyfully serving God.
Finally, let’s be people who are serious about letting God use us in very simple ways to make HUGE differences in people’s lives. It can be done. Ask God to help you represent the Good News of Jesus through you. Say: “yes, Lord.”
Steve.