2 Corinthians 5:18-21 – “Mr. Fix-It”…

“All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” – 2 Corinthians 5:18-21ESV

I’m a problem solver. Like… a huge one. I see something wrong, and I feel like since I notice it, I must be responsible for fixing it or at least getting involved. I know the jokes are usually about men always wanting to “fix” things, instead of just listening, but sometimes when people share their life challenges with me, I have to mentally force myself not to jump into “fix it” mind.

When that comes to ministry or relationship issues in my own life, that means I tend to go straight to relying on my own intelligence or experiences to find a solution. I look at what outcome I’d like to see and start strategizing out how to get there. See what’s going wrong, already?

Me… I’m what’s wrong.

You see… what if God cares more about the outcome than I can imagine? What if He is actually working toward a solution, and my arrogant interventions to “save the day”, without reference to Him, are actually just causing grief for myself and the very people I am trying to help? What if, instead of relying on myself and my intelligence, I relied on God?

You see…we cannot have healthy relationships, healthy self-image, or meaningful lives relying on our own abilities. That is why in 2 Corinthians 5:18-21, God calls us to be reconciled to Him. Before we can even be reconciled to others, we need to be connected and woven into who He says we are. We need Him. We need Him to heal us, we need Him to guide us, we need Him to help anyone else.

So you fixers are now already fixing, aren’t you? You’re trying to figure out how you can reconcile yourself to God so you can get on with business! But the reality is God has already done that work in Christ. While we were “enemies of God”, Jesus let His broken body die on a wooden cross in ancient Palestine (Romans 5:10ESV).

In this Christ, we “become the righteousness of God”, able to live in reconciliation with others and bring healing to our world (2 Corinthians 5:21ESV). Yes…you read that right. We are God’s righteousness on earth; we are an image of a life made in relationship to the God who made us. And that is a life laid upon you by God to set you free to let Him lead. He’s the one who fixes it…and He lets us join in.

1. Looking at your own life, how are you a “fixer”?
2. What do you tend to rely on to fix things in your life?
3. If we’re really just going along with God in His great work to fix all things, how does that change how you look at the “broken” things in your life?
4. Challenge for the Week: On a sticky note or note card, write the words “Pray First” and put it where you will see it daily. Use it as a reminder to lay the things you want to fix in God’s hands, first.