Take a moment to refresh, refocus, and refine your faith.
Sovereign Lord, your character, word, and kingdom are so often and aggressively misrepresented and misused. It’s no wonder why hostility and distrust toward anything associated with the “Christian” label exists. There are harsh realities about the Church and its history that overshadow any true good your people try to accomplish. As we practice dedicating ourselves to loving others, serving humbly, and obeying your commands, help us respond as Jesus would to those with negative perceptions of who you are and those who follow you. Fill us with compassion, wisdom, humility, and patience. Divinely inspire our answers to their questions. Make us accurate reflections of Christ, not echoes of manmade religion. Amen.
2 Corinthians 5:18-21
All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin[b] for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.