God’s Design for Community 40 Day Lenten Devotional— Day#5
Stay Salty!!!
Mark 9:50 (CSB)
“Salt is good. But if it loses its salty taste, you can’t make it good again. So, don’t lose that good quality of salt you have. And live in peace with each other.”
In today’s culture, the term salty is used colloquially to suggest one is irritated, angry or hostile with someone or irritated, angry or hostile over something. We can become salty as it relates to failed relationships in our lives or we can be salty over the fact that things didn’t work out as we had hoped. Whatever the case might be, being a salty person is viewed negatively in our culture.
But being a salty person in the first century world of Jesus was viewed as good . Palestine was a hot climate and there was no refrigeration to preserve food, so salt was essential for preserving food. God wants to use our lives to preserve lost souls, preserve integrity in business; preserve family values or preserve peace between squabbling coworkers, etc. Use your influence, position power and resources to change your concentric circles of contacts!
In Near Eastern culture, salt was also used to flavor foods. God wants to use our lives to bring flavor to the lives of others. God not only wants us to bring flavor to the lives of others, but he wants us to bring lost people to Christ, bring joy and peace into the lives of others.
However, to be a preserving influence in the lives of others and bring flavor to the lives of others in a variety of ways, we must stay salty or maintain our Christian values, character and principles. In order to maximize salt profits, salt would be mixed with impurities and overtime it would lose it worth or value. To stay salty we must be selfless students of God’s Word who are surrendered to the Holy Spirit and behave peacefully with one another and others!
Lord, help me to never lose my saltiness in my spheres of life. Lord, use me to bring flavor, joy, peace, love and eternal life to someone else today, in Jesus Name, Amen!