A dear friend shared words with me that stopped me in my tracks: \u201cMay Jesus be seen in me, in spite of me.\u201d Isn\u2019t that the truth?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Because let\u2019s be honest, sometimes \u201cme\u201d gets in the way. My impatience can flare up quicker than my smile. My opinion can jump out of my mouth before kindness has a chance to catch up. My humanness \u2014 that stubborn \u201cself\u201d \u2014 loves to fight for center stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But what if people didn\u2019t walk away impressed by me at all? What if instead they walked away transformed by the Christ in me?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Paul wrote it so clearly in Galatians 2:20: \u201cI have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.\u201d That\u2019s the goal \u2014 less of me, more of Him. I don\u2019t want others to see Donna\u2019s best attempts at patience or kindness (believe me, that\u2019s a shaky foundation some days). I want them to see Christ\u2019s love, peace, hope, and mercy flowing through me \u2014 even when my \u201cself\u201d wants to hog the spotlight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Think about it: Jesus didn\u2019t win hearts because He had perfect hair, smooth speeches, or a social media following. He won hearts because His life radiated the Father\u2019s love. People didn\u2019t just hear about grace \u2014 they experienced it in His presence. That\u2019s the kind of light I want to carry into a room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So how do we get there? By daily surrender. By whispering, \u201cLord, less of me, more of You.\u201d By laughing at ourselves when we stumble, and then choosing to get back up with God\u2019s help. By remembering that the same Spirit who raised Christ from the dead is alive and well in us (Romans 8:11).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the end of the day, my prayer is simple: may people not remember my witty comeback or my to-do list victories. May they remember a moment of grace, a glimpse of mercy, a taste of hope. Not Donna\u2019s version \u2014 but Christ\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Because when Jesus shines through us, the world doesn\u2019t just see us\u2026 it sees Him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Less of me. More of Him. May others not be impressed by me, but transformed by Christ in me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
#ShineJesus #Galatians220<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A dear friend shared words with me that stopped me in my tracks: \u201cMay Jesus be seen in me, in spite of me.\u201d Isn\u2019t that the truth? Because let\u2019s be honest, sometimes \u201cme\u201d gets in the way. My impatience can flare up quicker than my smile. My opinion can jump out of my mouth before…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22779,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1210,1769,1392,5414,39,29003,40,25245,2046,1236,17991,4520,44,934,520,139,32446,610],"class_list":["post-22778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-blog","tag-christian","tag-facebook","tag-galatians-220","tag-hope","tag-impatience","tag-inspiration","tag-jesus-in-me","tag-kindness","tag-mercy","tag-opinion","tag-patience","tag-peace","tag-self","tag-social-media","tag-surrender","tag-transformed-by-christ","tag-truth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22778"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22778\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22785,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22778\/revisions\/22785"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}