April 8th, 2022

Bearing the Marks of Jesus

Galatians 6:17 NIV

"From now on, let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus."

      Scars tell a story. Some stories more intricate than others. For example, I have a scar on my right wrist from trying to put the girl's bunny back in her pen. She wasn't having it that day and I got sliced by her sharp claws in the process. On my knee, I have a scar from wrecking my bike as a little girl. I didn't just wreck my bike, though. Long story short, the breaks had gone out on my bike on my way to the shower house while camping with my family. I lost control of the bike and almost flew off of the biking path. In my best efforts to either stop or remove myself from the bike, I ended up wrecking on the pavement, busting my knee open pretty badly. When I went to recover my bike, I had discovered it hanging from a branch just off of the steep, rocky embankment that I would've rode off of had I not wrecked.

      Like my scars, we believers bear scars of faith. Scars that are marks of the life we live in Jesus. Scars on our body are signs that damage has been done to our flesh, but through time and healing, that skin is made new-stronger than before. Scar tissue has been proven to be stronger than ordinary skin. When we look at our physical scars, we reflect on moments in our life when God has brought us through something unharmed, healed and the new skin that covers the wound is stronger than before. We may go through hard things, face struggles, face persecution for our faith, face temptation and even fall down; but so did Jesus. When Jesus walked the earth, he faced things that we also face today, but he overcame even death with faith and confidence in God. We are called to live in likeness with Christ and serve as his disciples. This means we must start denying the urge to act in the flesh and start working towards overcoming evil through the spirit. When we do this, we not only show the world, but also ourselves, that we have been marked by Jesus Christ. That we are living for him and not for this world. That we have been through tough stuff, but we're not going to face trials the way the world does. That God has healed us and made us better than we were before. That, my friends, is true discipleship. 

Do you have bear the marks of Jesus?