Family Identified

Mark 3:31-35 (KJV) Says, " There came then His brethren and His mother, and standing without, sent unto Him, calling Him. and the multitude sat about Him, and they said unto Him, Behold thy mother and thy brethren without seek for thee. And He answered Who is my mother, or my brethren? And He looked round about on them which sat about Him, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother."

In the above scripture as Jesus is teaching among a multitude of people, His mother and His brothers approach requesting to speak with Him. When it is brought to Jesus' attention that they are looking for Him, He asks the multitude who His mother and brethren are. He of course knew who they were talking about, but opted to use this opportunity to teach the multitude that all those who do the will of God are His brothers, sisters, and mother. When we choose to accept Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior, and choose to live in obedience to Him, we are identified by Him as members of his family, and as members together in His family, we are thereby brothers and sisters with one another in Christ.

I'm sure many of you resemble your family members, and can relate to being easily identified as belonging to your family. We should strive to display traits that make us even easier to identify as members of the family of Christ. For instance, people may look at you and say you have your earthly father's eyes, his smile, or his hair, but can they look at the manner in which you live your life, and know automatically that you are a brother or sister in Christ? Are you patient, kind, loving, forgiving, merciful, compassionate, and understanding?  People may be able to look at you and know right away who your mother is, but can they observe your behavior and know, without a doubt,  you are a brother or sister in Christ? Each of us need to take a good look at ourselves and our behavior, and answer the question am I easily identified as a member of Christ's family? We need to answer ourselves honestly, and identify the areas where we need work. These areas in which we are weak may be making our relationship with Christ difficult for others to recognize.  Once we have identified these weaknesses we need to begin work on them immediately. None of us are perfect, we all have areas that need work, and that will hold true as long as we live here on earth, but we can strive each day to grow in Christ and become more easily identified as a member of his family.

We may casually use the terms brother so and so and sister so and so, when speaking to a member of our Church family, but how many times do we pause to consider exactly how important that title is, and what it means to earn it? I urge you to think about how blessed we are to have Jesus Christ Himself claim us as His brothers and sisters if we will only choose to accept Him as our personal Lord and Savior. I urge you to join me in doing our best to live up to the title brother or sister in Christ. 

If  you have a prayer request and would like me to pray for you, leave me a message and I will be more than happy to do so. May God bless you.