Let
I had the opportunity to preach a sermon this week at our church. And there's one, 3-letter word that hit me between the eyes in the text: Let.
“Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. ”
Let…..it's the allowing, the yielding, the permitting that catches me each time.
And I say each time because I have been reading and re-reading Colossians since August and earlier in his letter, just one page over - in chapter three - Paul uses “Let” 2 other times:
Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts (literally let peace be an umpire and call the shots in our hearts)...and Let the word of Christ dwell richly in you…..And now here, a third time - Let your speech always be gracious….
Letting. In the original Greek - this is a present, active, imperative verb.
It’s the allowing of the King to reign in our hearts and minds. Stepping down from the throne in my life and making room for King Jesus.
Because so often (usually if something unexpected comes careening my way) I want to run up to the throne in my life, give God the shove off the seat, plop right down, smack that crown on my head and call myself King instead. And do and say what I want.
But if we've got a new King in our hearts (as Christ-followers) and truly are the new creation that Paul talks about in 2 Corinthians 5 says - the old has gone, the new has come....then we let God in.
We do all kinds of Letting.
And that Letting yields such beautiful fruit, such communion and friendship and absolute adventure with God! Such grace! Such salt! The Letting God be God will move our hearts to care, to listen and to respond the way Jesus did to us. And it can be as simple as praying this four word prayer: “God, be my King.”
Stopping. Breathing. Praying. Letting.
At the kitchen sink. In your cubicle. Right before you are about to (gasp!) yell at your kids.
Letting.
May we be letting God in.