You have no business blending in!

This is what the word of God says about you;

“You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden.” 
[Matthew 5:14].

If the bible tells you that you cannot be hidden, then please tell me why you spend so much time ‘fitting in’?

Some of us have come to believe that the best way to get through life is to follow the norms and just do what everyone else is doing.
So even though our light is there, we ourselves have covered it up by failing to embrace the differences in us that we actually ought to use to proclaim Christ and make Him known to others.

What I’m getting at, is the fact that as children of the Most High, we haven’t been called to look and live like everyone else;

“But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.”
[1 Peter 2:9]

Therefore, we need to start getting comfortable with standing out, standing proud, and in some cases, standing alone…

I get it, it’s good and fun and nicer to have company as we work our way through this journey of life, but let’s be reminded that pleasing God is much more important. And in fact, when we wholeheartedly live to honour and stand for Him, He provides us with peace and boldness to do so!

Now let’s make sense of the title of this post…

Daring to be Different isn’t about making a scene.

It isn’t about seeking attention or seeking to be noticed and praised by others, but rather it’s about plucking up that courage to step away from the things that displease God, even if it’s the most popular trend, or the ‘in thing’ according to the rest of the world.
It’s about loving God enough to let go of our fleshly desires and the worldly pleasures that we’ve become used to, and focus our hearts on the things above.

“Don’t copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”
[Romans 12:2]

This verse is one that is popularly quoted amongst believers and I want us to pay attention to the faithfulness of God in this verse…

It tells us that God does the transforming. And I believe we ought to find comfort in the fact that this means that He doesn’t leave us to figure it out on our own, or struggle with the temptation that comes with trying to get rid of our old ways.
This verse tells us that if we can shift our focus away from the world and sin, and unto God, then He will work in us and renew our minds.
He Himself will teach our hearts what His ways are; enabling us to develop a better understanding of how to live for Him.

Now we’ve spoken before about standing out and standing for God, when we looked at the story of Daniel, in the post titled ‘Can they See you?’

Daniel stood out in quite a bold and outward way, and in some cases, we will need to do this in order for us to show others who our God is.
But whilst looking at this topic further, what God showed me is that sometimes our ‘standing out’ needs to be in terms of the smaller things, the inside things, and the intimate things…

Daring to be Different transcends all the way into our private lives and the things we do in secret that no one else (but God) sees…

Maybe we skip paying our train fare.
Maybe we’re engaging in fraudulent activities.
Maybe we stream music and movies illegally online.
Maybe we’re engaging in sexual intimacy in our pre-marital relationships.

The things that we could never tell anyone openly, but we know each time we do it, we get an itch about it being wrong.
Yes friend, God is asking us to take the right Stand for these things too, even if it means standing alone.
In fact, it’s with some of these smaller and more intimate things that we may feel like we’re losing out or missing out more, initially.
These ‘behind closed doors’ things that have become so deeply embedded into our lives may actually be the ones that hurt to give up most.
But over time we’ll see that the more God transforms our minds and our beliefs, the more we’ll understand and embrace the beauty of doing what is right and pleasing in His sight.
The more we’ll appreciate the pain it took to stop these things and Stand for God in the first place.

Please understand that I’m not calling you out, but I want us to be convicted today by the Holy Spirit and the word of God;

“My son, do not walk in the way with them,
Keep your foot from their path;”
[Proverbs 1:15]

“Blessed is the one
who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners takes 
or sit in the company of mockers,” 
[Psalm 1:1] 

Do not set foot on the path of the wicked
    or walk in the way of evildoers.
Avoid it, do not travel on it;
    turn from it and go on your way.
[Proverbs 4:14-15]

Some of us have been hearing that ‘Stop it’, for so long, but have allowed ourselves to become okay with ignoring God’s voice.
Let today be the day that you take the BOLD step to make the change.

I want us to chase God and chase His ways.
Crave God and crave His ways.
See sin, despise sin, and choose to Stand for a True and Living Christ.

Understand this, we aren’t doing it to prove that we’re better than anyone else, but it’s simply to show Jesus that He means everything to us and that we are preparing our hearts and our lives for His second coming.

You will see, that your Stand will inspire, encourage and push others to draw nearer to God, and even cause unbelievers to want to know Him.
When people see a Difference in our attitudes towards life, our reactions and our mannerisms, one day they’ll be forced to enquire about this Jesus that we choose to honour.

I’ll end by telling us this –

“You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor? Can you make it salty again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless.”
[Matthew 5:13]

We have a responsibility to season this world with Christ – let us Dare to be Different, Confident and Firm in the things of Christ, and trust that the world will follow us and move towards the things of God too!

Keep the Faith, Don’t Stop Believing
God Bless you.

#DareToBeDifferent
#MoreThan100PeoplePraying