Laced With Grace – Christian Devotions

Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

By Laurie August 8, 2011 Character, Devotion

I live in an old neighborhood. I don’t mean old as in historic or even old as a retirement village. My neighbors are old because all of us have lived here forever. So it seems. My neighbors directly across the street and to the right side of me have lived here for over 2o years, as long as us. Thru the years we have gotten to know each other well. But to the left, that is a different story.

You see on that side of the street, there are a couple of rental homes, and it seems people come and go too often to even get a chance to get acquainted. Whenever I see the moving truck pull up to one of those homes, I wonder what they must of thought of this old neighborhood. We didn’t even get a chance to get acquainted and here they are moving already.

I was reading in Isaiah about the Israelites at the time of the exile. While facing God’s judgment in Babylon, I wondered what kind of witnesses they must have been to their neighbors?  I’m thinking that they may not have been the best by the number of people who decided to remain in Babylon.

ISAIAH 43:10 “You are My witnesses, says the Lord, and My servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe Me, and understand that I am He, Before Me there was no God formed, nor shall there be after Me.”

God doesn’t say that they WILL be witnesses or that they USED to be witnesses, He said they ARE witnesses!

I think that from time to time we just might forget that this also applies to us. We are to be witnesses to our neighbors. Our neighbors aren’t just the ones that we live next door to. Our neighborhood encompasses even those places that we are not familiar with. Just like the neighbors that I did not get to know, there are many people that we rub shoulders with that we may not be very well acquainted with but yet God is asking us to be neighborly to them. To witness to them.

We forget that everywhere we go God has said we ARE witnesses. When we are on the freeway, in the checkout line, waiting in the doctor’s office, sitting in the weekly sales meeting…AT ALL TIMES, God says we ARE
witnesses to those who see us and hear us.

I recently heard a story from a friend… She had met a lady who lived in the same neighborhood of someone from her church. My friend went on and on to this person about how nice this family was but to her surprise her new-found friend disagreed with her. What she heard next was almost unbelievable! The neighbor did not find my friends church acquaintances to be very friendly at all. In fact, she reported to my friend that they were just downright unfriendly and rude.

This story had me thinking about that rental house across the street from me. What kind of a neighbor am I ? Am I found to be friendly or unfriendly? Am I pleasant or rude? Do I wave or do I hurry in the house?

“When witnessing…use words if necessary!” A great preacher once said that to me.

I think he is right, the greatest witness we can have is our actions. I remember the song that said “They will know we are Christians by our love.” So I have to ask myself, “Do my neighbors know that I am a Christian?”

God isn’t asking us to be neighborly; He is telling us we ARE to be neighborly! He wants us to be a good witness.

One way or another we are all witnesses, either positively or negatively.  So what kind of neighbor have you been?

Visit my blog www.womentakingastand.blogspot.com for daily devotions!

6 thoughts on “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”

  2. TiAnna Mae

    Amen! Oftentimes our actions are all that we have, because we can’t talk to every single person we ever lay eyes on. When my family first moved to our new house, we had people bring us homemade pastries and welcome us. I decided I would do my best to welcome other new people to the neighborhood. I typically don’t have time to make pastries, but I’ll knock on their door and introduce myself or I will spark up a conversation when I see them outside.

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