We often pray for forgiveness, and in one such prayer we should ask God to forgive us for those things we have left undone. Have you ever prayed this way and wondered what those undone things and sins might be? Well, the most powerful example of these is not witnessing in word or deed to a sinner, either unsaved, or who has wandered away from their faith. Not witnessing when we are able places the blood of that soul upon us, but by obedience we save our own souls.
Are our lives a manifestation of God’s glory? Are we more than mere flesh and blood, such that we not only say and do good things, but are also living and breathing praise to Him? We often hear the expression “People should see Christ in you.”, but do they, and to what end is this most important? I ask again... are we the embodiment of praise such that others who see us will experience God’s glory?
Every country has a beginning. Some were established so long ago that the exact dates have been lost, and they just seem to have always been, but the United States is young enough that it still remembers its birthday... July 4th, 1776. So happy Birthday USA! Religion is no different than countries, or peoples, in that regard, and the Christian faith is the same. We argue about the exact date of Christ’s birth, because the exact day has been lost and relegated to conjecture, and antiquity. Is it December?... September?... well, the discussion continues. What is important though is our own beginning and personal history with Jesus Christ. Is it important that we record the exact day we asked Him to be our Savior?
If we were to ask ourselves what our most persistent spiritual obstacle was, what would it be? If we were to question ourselves as to what stands most often between ourselves and answered prayer, what would we say? Would we respond with a sin such as covetousness? Maybe! How about lying? No? Perhaps lust? Not this either? True, we might do any of these things, and more, but I dare say that none of them are our most flagrant and unresolved sin, my guess is that it would be loving our neighbor enough to repeatedly forgive them.
A few years ago, I listened as one of my Pastors delivered a sermon on the subject of interruptions, and during it he spoke about a passage of scripture that was comprised of a story within a story... one story that interrupted another. As he continued to preach, my mind began to wander down a different path, and the complexity of God’s word began to dominate my thoughts.
One of the most frequent responses I receive from those who read my morning devotionals is a request for prayer. More often than not it is to join them in a specific prayer that they have been praying for some time without receiving an answer. Do you experience this from time to time in your prayer life? Well, if so, don’t be discouraged because the disciples failed to receive immediate answers to their prayers too, and Jesus taught them a powerful lesson in it.
Are we really the free people that Christ redeemed? Did Jesus pay our ransom only to find that we could not separate ourselves from the sin He had saved us from? Or perhaps we are like the Galatians who found themselves tempted to leave the freedom Jesus had secured for them in order to chain themselves to the Law of an old faith once again. My word for us this morningis to claim and accept the freedom whose cost was so dearly paid for us.
This morning I am contemplating the body and blood of Jesus Christ that we take during Communion. This gift is more than a passing thought, but something which becomes part and parcel of us mentally, spiritually, and yes, physically. When we are at the Lord’s Table, do we realize how perfect the remembrance of Christ should be to us there? This is more than a bit of bread and a taste of wine, it is an act in which our being is being joined perfectly with His and through the consumption of not only His body and blood, but the receipt of the blessing He spoke over them. And all of this we are receiving by His hand.
Faith in Christ, do you desire it, do you seek it, do you accept it? Can you recognize faith in Jesus when you see it in others? From its inception faith is ethereal in nature so we can’t hold it in our hand, but when we have a touch of it within ourselves we suddenly begin to see evidence of it all around us. When we have accepted faith it can suddenly be measured. So, I ask... do you long to hold a mustard seed of faith in your hand? Or in your heart?
How do we smell today? Are we fragrant like a flower, sweet like honey, have the smell of sweat and toil, or are we rancid like death? The Bible speaks about smell in many ways, but none more powerful than when it speaks of the fragrance of life, and death on us. When we think of scent we most often think of the smells that surround us, but we are one of those odors... so how do we smell spiritually today?
Do we look to Jesus for healing? Do we depend upon Him to come to us in our times of illness and to lay His healing hand upon our head? Do we wait for Him to say rise and walk, to return our eyesight, or to restore our hearing with a bold touch? Well sometimes His healing comes when we go secretly to Him, because He is more than just a healer... even in His unawares He demonstrated that He is the essence of healing itself, and all that needs to happen for this to occur is for us to be near Him. And what’s more, it goes beyond healing… it’s the power of God in Him that allows Him to feed the many, raise the dead, and turn water into wine.
How do we come to understand the Word of God, and His will for us? Is it by our own intellect, and through diligent study that we are able to piece it together like a puzzle? Do we somehow find the hidden key within it that allows everything to fall into place so that we can stand back from it and marvel at our ingenuity? No, we understand with our hearts, and not our minds. Our minds barely scratch the surface, but our hearts use the keys of our spirits like a scalpel.
Do you bless your family as a parent? Are you more than a sire, or a dame who brought forth children from the womb? There is so much involved in raising a family, and each of our children is as different as Jacob’s; each needing special handling and a special blessing from us. Not all of them are born good or easily trained, but each one needs to know the Lord, and this requires our prayers, our attention, and a unique blessing as we wait upon God to call them and lead them towards salvation. This is our calling in parenthood, and the will of God for us, but in the end we can’t actually save them ourselves.
Do we forgive others so that God can forgive us? Do we believe in Him so that we open the way for his belief in us? Do we trust in God’s Word which allows Him to trust ours? So often we say, “God did not answer my prayer”, but I ask you... did you believe, forgive, and answer “yes” to His will, that He might respond in kind to you?