The days after Christmas can be so tiring, can't they? After a long day with family, eating, chasing little cousins around the living room table, etc... I found myself in a daze yesterday, very sluggish, and trying to motivate myself to do anything - even to pray. Yes, that's right! Praying doesn't always come easy does it? This can be a great invitation to offer a beautiful prayer of sacrifice to the Lord. By sacrifice, I mean sacrificing what I "feel" like doing (sitting on the couch and watch TV) in order to do what I know is best for me (spending some time in prayer with Jesus.)
Yesterday we celebrated the life of Stephen, the first martyr in the church's history. Luke tells us about Stephen in the Acts of the Apostles. "As they were stoning Stephen, he called out
'Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.'" - Acts 7:59 Can you imagine the faith it must take to be a martyr - to die for your faith in Jesus? Well we can't begin to imagine giving up our whole lives for Jesus if we can't even give him that moment when we don't feel like spending time with Him in prayer. These moments come everyday where we have the decision to choose Christ or say "no." Choosing Christ in the little things is a way that we "die to ourselves" and allow Christ to live in us. "Dying to ourselves" simply means that we accept what the Lord desires for us, even when it is contrary to what we want at the moment. By doing this over and over again we become martyrs in the ordinary circumstances of life.
The words martyr comes from the Greek word "martus" - which means witness. In order to be a witness to Christ, the Lord asks us to offer the little things to Him. When we don't want to clean the dishes, we do it anyway. When we don't want to spend those ten minutes in prayer, we do it anyway. When we don't want to get our sister a glass of water because "she can get it herself," we do it anyway. If we can't offer Christ these little things each day, how could we ever offer Him our life? A true martyr (witness) is born from the small sacrifice of the daily grind. So the next time its just been a long day... persevere and remember to say "YES" to our Lord, no matter how long the day has been.
-Tim Hanley
Hard as Nails Ministries
Newark, NJ
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- Hard as Nails
- Hard as Nails Ministries is a youth and young adult ministry program designed to bring the message of Jesus Christ in intense and dynamic ways. Hard as Nails Ministries develops teams of youth all over the United States and beyond, to travel with a Hard as Nails minister who leads them and challenges them to grow into amazing witnesses of Jesus Christ.