Are we indifferent?

Romans 8:10: “And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” Most people have earthbound imaginations whereas Christ proved us otherwise. As a follower of Christ, you are living only because you have willfully allowed Christ to live in you. Otherwise you are dragging a skeleton behind you – lifeless. Only Christ’s righteousness can reveal your unrighteousness. And it is all because of His love for us. Are you allowing Christ’s righteousness to deal with you severely continuously? We live  in an imperfect world. All of us know that. There are lots of people out there who are lost and it is our calling to stand along with them enveloped by the love of God and strengthened by the suffering of Christ for us. It is not easy to love those who hurt us. There will be times when you say: “I just don’t get this God.” Many times in our walk with the Lord we run around the same block and still God embraces us in His love. Can you fake what you actually know and feel in your heart? God looks at our heart and man looks at our countenance says the Bible. So, in the light of that love, can you afford to stand indifferent to the empty people around you? You might say: “I can’t do this. It’s so difficult. What am I supposed to do? I am powerless.” We do not always know how God works and God’s plan. Those are the times when we cling on to the Word of God and trust Him for guidance and to make the right decision. Jesus said: “…I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). The secret of abundant living is to trust God in the new areas of your spiritual growth. This is based on the truth that we can know God’s love not only for today but for eternity also. That is a very big assurance. Paul takes us deeper when he says that he counts all things loss to win Christ (Philippians 3:8). Are you counting as Paul does?
When faced with pressures and challenges in life, things become distorted. Teaching your heart to love God is one of the biggest enemies you will ever face because the heart does not want to forgive those who hurt us. For example, a girl sexually abused by her father or relatives grows up with fear and unforgiveness. It is hard for such a person to trust people around her. Jesus clearly demonstrates that without suffering there is no compassion – much deeper, love. People compare the bondage of unforgiveness with the ancient practice of forcing a murderer to carry his victim on his back as the body decomposes in the process. Consequently, the murderer also dies due to the diseases of the decomposing victim. Are you carrying somebody on your back? To forgive or not is a choice and love can help us make that choice. Are you scared to forgive them?  The reason why you are scared to forgive may be exactly because you want to forgive them. Doctors have also found that there is a big relationship between health and forgiveness. Why forgive? The only reason being that we have been forgiven. We may ask: “Why do they deserve forgiveness?” To this Jesus would reply to us: “Did you deserve forgiveness?” Ephesians 2:8-9 clearly states: “For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast.” So, if we think that they do not deserve forgiveness, we did not either! Knowing that Christ has forgiven us makes us forgive others.
From Genesis till Revelation we see that God always turns towards us. God is love. Jesus wept over Jerusalem (Luke 19:41) – a sign that God does not leave us. Have we hurt or left God? Of course we have! So, does it make sense to turn away from those who have hurt us? Have we not hurt people around us? We have hurt a lot of people along the way. But above all, we have hurt God. Psalms 5:4 testifies the nature of God : “For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness, nor shall evil dwell with You.” So, what does it say? It says that evil does not dwell with God. God turns bad things into good things. We can turn unforgiveness into forgiveness. But how? We have been forgiven to forgive because the process of forgiveness did not end at the Cross. Following Christ is having a heart of constant repentance. God called David ‘a man after My own heart’ (1 Samuel 13:14). David had a repentant heart. Repentance literally means making a willful decision to turn away from sin. There is a will involved in repentance. To forgive also involves a will to act. Forgiving someone itself is also repentance.  Jesus said: “But Jesus told him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead”” (Mathew8:22). It is said that the Jews used the word ‘dead’ often to express a sense of indifference toward a thing or that that thing has no ‘influence’ over us. So, Jesus was hitting the heart of indifference that people had. Are we indifferent?