744 What Time Is It? 2 Corinthians 6:2

What time is it? How often do you ask yourself that question? 

Hi, I'm Mike Henry Sr. with Follower of One. Thanks for joining me again today on the Follower of One podcast. Yesterday, we talked about the word today and today I want to talk about now. 

I'm reading 2 Corinthians 6:1-2 from the English Standard Version. “Working together with Him then we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain – for He says ‘At a favorable time, I listen to you and on a day of salvation, I have helped you.’ Behold, now is ‘the favorable time’. Behold, now is ‘a day of salvation’.” That's 2 Corinthians 6:1-2 in the English Standard Version.

I actually spoke about 2 Corinthians 6:1 in episode 655 of our podcast. And I talked about not receiving the grace of God in vain, but now in verse 2, the apostle Paul is quoting Isaiah and he says “In a favorable time, I listened to you in a day of salvation, I have helped you. Behold, now is the favorable time. Behold now is the day of salvation.” The key word here is now, and that's what time it is for us as marketplace Christians. It's always now. 

Now is a favorable time for listening to the Lord and doing what he says. Now is a favorable time to be saved and to live as members of the Kingdom of God. Now is our called moment. We are called to now. 

The next thought that pops into my mind is “so what?”. Why is it important that now is the moment, now is the day of salvation? Now is our opportunity to make a difference in the lives of other people. We don't have opportunities in the future and the opportunities in the past are gone. We can't do anything about them. Focusing on now puts us in the moment we're available to trust God and to do what we believe He says we should do in the lives of the people around us. This is not about the future or the past. It's about now. 

Each interaction that we have, one moment at a time, one person at a time, one interaction at a time – in our workplaces – is the opportunity for us to make a difference in the lives of other people. It's the opportunity for us to live like we belong to the Kingdom of Heaven. Now is the favorable time. Now is our opportunity. And so in continuing from yesterday, today is the day. Now is the time. 

Let's take a look around, ask God what he would have you do in the lives of every person that you meet and immediately your life kind of goes to a new level. It goes to this level where we live with Jesus and we take direction from the Holy Spirit and He puts us to work in the lives of the people around us. We can each make a difference in the lives of a coworker or a customer or a vendor, family member, or friend today.

Now is the favorable time. So, I wanna challenge you today. Let's ask God to put us to work. Again today, we can ask God to put us to work. It's not work. I almost use the air quotes when I say that, because we have to deny the lie that tells us that doing what God wants is painful and doing what we want is painless.

What we want creates the pain and what God wants creates the joy and the peace and the grace for us. Let's step into that joy and peace and grace today. Here I am, Lord, put me to work. Show me what you would have me do today. Help me to be present in every conversation and in every activity so that I can remember that now is the favorable time.

Thank you so much for being a marketplace minister. Thanks for making a difference with your faith in the marketplace. You matter, and your actions following Jesus matter and what you do because you follow Him can matter forever. So let's step into that. If you want to join a community of people who are pursuing God, check out community.followerofone.org.

Thanks very much.