Think Again!

Chapter 7: The Son’s Potential • 71

He invites us to be the continuation of his work by telling us to “be strong in the Lord and the strength of his might” (Eph. 6.10). Satan offers a yoke of slavery (Gal. 5.1), but Jesus offers a yoke that is easy and light (Matt. 11.30). Jesus outfits us to resist the enemy’s theft, murder, and destruction by giving life in its fullness. But that fullness comes only through obedience and submission to Jesus’s lordship, a willingness to be forged into his identity. This abundant potential is not meant to be kept to ourselves. It is meant to be multiplied for the benefit of others. Prosperity teachers talk about blessing for personal consumption, but Jesus wants to bless others through us. We are God’s workmanship, his creative expression, created for good works in Christ Jesus (Eph. 2.10), appointed to bear fruit on his behalf (John 15.1-8). Paraphrasing C. S. Lewis, God wants creatures whose life will be qualitatively like Christ on a miniature scale, where each person exercises their will to conform to Jesus’s identity. God wants not only servants, but sons and daughters. He wants a world full of beings united to him but still distinct. Jesus longs to reproduce his life all over the whole world, through people who would do even greater works than he did (John 14.12). In short, God wants to form us into little replicas of Jesus. 40 Compassion for Others One way we deliver the Son’s potential is by showing gentleness toward others. Realizing that every single person on earth is victimized daily by the enemy’s personalized schemes has caused me to see how unfairly critical I can be. I can look at someone else and determine how easy it would be to avoid their temptations. But as I do, I need to remember that my struggles are not difficult for them. Knowing that Satan’s individualized schemes are designed to destabilize each person helps me to be less harsh towards the failings of others.