There are very few things that I eat that I don’t put salt on. I even put salt on my apples, watermelon and cantaloupe. It just seems to make it taste better. I always wondered how salt just made something that was so bland, taste so good! As week look at the second characteristic of salt, let’s read the scripture again in Colossians calling us to live salty.
Colossians 4:5-6 from the NIV reads,
2 Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. 3 And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. 4 Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. 5 Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. 6 Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.
As a young girl growing up on a farm, our Saturday’s were spent at the farm, working in the hog house, putting up fence or whatever my Daddy wanted to get us into that day. I can always remember looking forward to lunch time. Not only did that mean we got to go to the house and eat, but we were hoping after lunch we would be relieved of our outside duties and get to watch cartoons. Snap beans, as we call them in the country, seemed to be a staple in our house. So, there were many Saturdays that we came in for lunch to a big pot of snap beans along with biscuits and some type of meat. The snap beans were good, but I think what made them so good was the “fatback” that we cooked them with. You may ask what “fatback” is. It’s salt pork, that creates magic when you cook with it! What was once bland, seemed to come to life with an immense flavor that was just, Good! I always thought that the salt in the pork made the vegetable taste better, but as I studied the characteristics of salt, I found something very interesting. What I found was that salt did not change the taste or flavor of the food. In fact, it just stimulated the taste buds, such that they were more sensitive to the tastes that were already present. Think about that for a minute. The salt just made us more sensitive to the tastes that were already present. The goodness, the flavor, the qualities of the food that you grew to love, were already there. The salt just caused you to be more sensitive to those qualities. As I began to look at this characteristic of salt and how it applies to our lives, I just about had “church”! We need salty lives so that we are more aware and sensitive to the presence of God every day! It’s already there. Everything we need or desire is already there. We just need to be sensitive to it.
2 Peter 1 :3-8 from the NIV reads, “His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” I love this scripture. God’s power has given us everything we need to be an effective witness for Christ. His power has provided it, but we must possess it! The last part of the scripture in 2 Peter says, if you possess these qualities, it will keep us from being ineffective and unproductive. Possessing the qualities of Christ equips us to be someone who changes lives everywhere we go. We can be saved and be unproductive. We can be saved and be ineffective. The fact that God saved us, should drive us to see other lives around us changed. We need some “SALT”. We need to be sensitive to what’s already there. We need to hear the voice of God when he calls us to pray for someone, pay for someone’s meal, send an encouraging text, forgive when it’s not easy, and the list goes on. We need to be sensitive to the holy spirit. His presence is real. God is providing opportunities for you to share his goodness and grace every day. We must strive to be in His word and saturate our lives in prayer so that we recognize and take advantage of every one of these moments. His presence is always with us. Let’s possess it! Let’s be SALTY!!!
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