3 Ways To Be A Blessing To People You Don't Know
Christians are told to let their light shine so that people will get to see it and glorify God in heaven. Many, however, limit shining their light towards people they already know: in their families, their church, and their circle of friends. Did you know that one way to shine our light better, one that lets God be glorified fully, is through shining our light to those who don't know us?
Yes, my friends. I encourage you to shine your light and be a blessing to people you don't know and who don't know you.
Blessing someone I don't know
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It's fun to be a blessing, not to mention absolutely fulfilling. God designed us all to do good works, works that would glorify Him and bless the people who are on the receiving end of our good deed. And when our good deed is done to a person who's completely unknown to us, it's even more fun.
Consider how God was glorified when Peter obeyed Him and reached out to a people he didn't know. Acts 10 tells us that there's Cornelius, a Roman centurion, a man who feared the Lord. God sent an angel to instruct him to call for a man named Peter, a man he didn't know.
Peter, on the other hand, didn't know Cornelius as well, but in obedience to God went with the men Cornelius had sent for him. Later we read how he realized that the vision he received prior to the meeting was an instruction for him to "not call something unclean if God has made it clean" (see Acts 10:15 NLT), and that he was to preach the Gospel to a people he didn't know and perhaps wouldn't have thought very much of previously.
The result of Peter's obedience to God in reaching out to a people unknown to him? A preaching of the Gospel that led to the salvation of many. Wow.
Be a blessing
You can become a blessing to a people you don't know too. Here are some fun ideas how:
1) Preach the Gospel to people you always see, but don't really know
I'm pretty sure we all have some people we usually see but don't know. These could be the janitor in your workplace, that old man or woman sitting at the same spot in the park, or that person you always see sitting alone in a café. Whoever they are, they matter to God, and so you should share the Gospel to them (see Mark 16:15).
2) Be a blessing to someone you haven't thought of reaching out to
Haven't thought of praying for the mischievous people in your area? How about blessing that person you don't like and haven't made friends with? Jesus reached out to us even as we didn't know Him (John 1:11); maybe we should do the same too.
3) Invite some fellow believers to pray together with for people you don't know
Of course, it's more fun when we bless others as a group. Invite some friends from church to go around praying for people. Not only do you bless people you don't know, these people you bless will also get to see your authentic love for God in your unity with other Christians (see John 13:34-35).
