DEVOTION: Making a Difference (Kathi Macias)

“I will make a difference between My people and your people” (Ex. 8:23)

A couple of days ago I was talking with a friend, whose opinion I respect, when she said something that impacted me to the point that I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. She said, in reference to the plethora of both Christian and secular books on the market today, “But you’re making a difference.”
I was stunned, though I’m not sure why. Isn’t making a difference (for the better, of course) one of the primary reasons we do the things we do? As Christians, I would hope so. I would like to think that we haven’t become sidetracked with the necessity of making a living (though I certainly admit the need to do so) to the exclusion of fulfilling the ministry to which God has called us.
And yet, whether our particular ministry involves writing or speaking or teaching, or something else entirely, we will accomplish nothing of any value unless we understand there is only one way we can make a real and lasting difference, and that is to remember that “Christ in us” is our ONLY hope of glory. As God said just before leading the Israelites out of Egypt, “I will make a difference between My people and your people.”
All human beings who have ever lived were born with the stamp of the Creator upon them. But only those who have been born again and received Jesus as Savior have God living within them. And that, my friends, is the difference. God’s Spirit within us is the ONLY thing separating us from the lost, the ONLY thing that assures us entrance into heaven when we die, the ONLY thing that enables God to look on us with favor, the ONLY thing that keeps us from experiencing the much-deserved wrath of His judgment when we die.
According to my friend, my life is making a difference. I’m grateful for that—and I’m humbled to be reminded that it’s not because of any great thing I have done. It is because the very Son of God went to the Cross to suffer and die in my place, to receive the judgment for sin that I deserved, and His Spirit now lives within me, making the ONLY difference between me and what the world would consider the worst sinner who ever lived.
May we keep that in remembrance this day and always, as we seek to proclaim the precious gospel message that has been entrusted to us. Thank You, God, for making the difference!

Kathi Macias is an “occasional radio host” and an award-winning author of more than thirty books, including her popular international Extreme Devotion fiction series from New Hope Publishers.