TO SIT WHERE THEY SIT
Paul said he was free from all men.
No one controlled him but GOD.
But this didn’t mean that he did not come under Godly authority.
Paul expresses many times throughout the Bible the importance of submitting to others.
Yet because he was free he could choose to submit in many other ways.
Unto the Jews he became as a Jew...
and to those under the law he submitted to the law...
to those not under the law he didn’t submit...and to the weak he became weak...
I Corinthians 9:19-23 KJV
Paul is saying he became all things to all people.
Paul chose to sit where they sat,
and become as they were in their way of thinking,
in order to relate to them.
This doesn’t mean he did what they did, or sinned the sins they committed,
but rather he just went there with them, in their understanding,
so he could minister to them.
He put himself in a position where he was not better than them,
or greater than them, but he became one of them.
In other words, he became part of them, to win them,
so they would be able to receive what God wanted to convey to them,
and so they would be able to hear what God sent him there to say.
Before he taught them, he first positioned himself in a place where he could feel what they felt. This is also what the prophet Ezekiel did.
Ezekiel 3:15 KJV
Then I (Ezekiel) came to them of the captivity
(Ezekiel went to those in bondage) at Telabib, that dwelt by the river Chebar
(Chebar means joining...or length, force or strength)
and I sat where they sat,
(he put himself in their shoes ) and remained there
(tarried with them in their affliction) astonished among them
(amazed at the conditions they were subject to) for seven days.
(7 is the number of completion).
Afterwards, when his time there was complete,
he could then understand where they were coming from.
He knew what their captivity was like before he tried to speak into their situation
and begin to give them another perspective.
It reminds me of when we try to speak into someone’s life
before we know what they have been through,
or before we can really appreciate them as a person.
Our ability to communicate effectively comes after
we have been through the same or similar thing ourselves...
then we can identify with those God sends our way.
It is then that God can allow us to be a means for Him to heal others.
We can now understand so much more about the people that God wants to restore.
FATHER...
I pray for those that need to know Your compassion and love,
that can come through a people of like passions that know Your heart.
Teach us to be people that truly understands how to convey Your love to others,
more than anything else.
Give us a desire to seek You for those in need.
Enable us to hear them when they try to reach out to us.
I pray we would be a sounding board and sit where they sit first,
so You can minister Your healing to them through us.
In the precious name of Jesus. Amen
The word Chebar in the Strong’s Concordance earlier editions means “ joining”
as in joining others in their afflictions to understand their needs.
For further Bible Study also read Ezekiel 3:1-20 KJV
Copyright © 2019 Abb's Place - TO SIT WHERE THEY SIT