Answering machine

When I started taking a remedy for a mild skin condition, I was told that three out of ten patients did not respond to the drug. I never thought that a drug could be taken in vain and hoped to be one of the lucky seven. I would have preferred the doctor never explained it to me because it bothered me that I could waste my time and money and that I would risk unpleasant side effects. At the end of my second month of treatment, the doctor said with a smile: You are a responder! In medicine, a responder is a patient who responds to a drug as expected. It worked, I was relieved and happy about it.

The principle of drug and patient interaction can also be applied to our relationship with our fellow human beings. If my husband does not answer my question and continues reading in his newspaper, it is like the drug that does not trigger a reaction.
The principle of cause and effect is also visible with God the Creator and his creation. The interaction, a reciprocal action of God with mankind, was revealed in different ways in the Old Testament. People often reacted with fear, sometimes with obedience and mostly with disobedience. God revealed himself in the person of Jesus in the New Testament. The religious leaders replied with unbelief and wanted to have him killed because he threatened their status.

How should God respond to this reaction? Before the world was founded, God had prepared a plan of salvation for us humans. He loves us when we were sinners and enemies. He reaches us even when we don't want to be reached. His love is unconditional and never stops.
The apostle Paul shows the love of God that interacts with us. Jesus said: "This is my commandment that you love one another as I love you" (John 15,12). How should we respond to this perfect love?

We have a choice of how we want to respond to the Holy Spirit or not each day. The problem is, sometimes we respond well and sometimes we don't. But when it comes to our relationship with God, there is nothing we should ever forget - Jesus is the perfect responder. He answers even when our answers are weak. That is why Paul wrote: “For in it is revealed the righteousness which is valid before God, which comes from faith in faith; as it is written: The righteous shall live by faith »(Romans 1,17).

Faith is the response to the love of God that is a person, Jesus Christ. "So now imitate God as beloved children and walk in love, just as Christ also loved us and gave himself for us as a gift and sacrifice, God to a sweet smell" (Ephesians 5,1-2).
Jesus is the "medicine" we take to deal with the problem of sin. He has reconciled all people with God through his bloodshed and death. Therefore, you do not have to ask yourself whether you are one of the three or seven who do not answer, but you can be sure that in Jesus all people are responders.

by Tammy Tkach