All in Christian
When you are serving God do you seek to further perfect what He has given you to do? If He tells you to build a neighborhood church do you build a parsonage as well? We hear the voice of God, we hear what He would have us do, and then presume we know what comes next. Have you been guilty of this? Did it seem innocent as you placed words in the mouth of God?
What do you think of during communion? What was happening on that day of the first communion in which Jesus offered the bread of His body and the cup of His blood to the disciples? On that day they were celebrating the Passover feast, eating the Seder meal, and it has a certain order and meaning to all of its parts. Every movement, every food, each cup of wine has meaning and timing. When did Jesus offer Himself to His disciples? What did it imply?
Do you win souls to Jesus Christ, and by doing so fill the nets of heaven for God Himself? What did it take for you to follow Jesus once you heard His voice calling you? Did you drop whatever you were doing and follow Him, or did you look away and think about it for a while? When Jesus calls us, His presence is so overpowering that we abandon our old life and begin our journey with Him at once, but at that moment... do we really know who He is?
How do you view holiness? Are you a humble and holy person? Are you this because you say you are, or because others see it in you and say “this person is humble, and holy indeed”? If you think you have achieved a certain degree of humility and holiness before God do you use it to separate yourself from those who have not? In Isaiah 65 we hear God speaking of such actions and He calls them rebellious.
Are you someone who is flirting with the idea of accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, and are fearful of committing because you don’t know if you have within you the ability to stand by that commitment for a lifetime? Or perhaps you are already a Christian and worry that your faith isn’t strong enough to carry on in the face of the temptation that surrounds you. Well, do not fear, and trust in the Holy Spirit to sustain you, and build your faith.
Do you really live your life for God? Do you order your day to please Him, and follow Jesus with everything that is within you? Or, do you live your life from one repentance to the next asking for forgiveness of sins that you deem to be acceptable and unavoidable wounds that you receive each day as you live life in the world? A price was paid for you, and it wasn’t done so that you could almost accept the transaction; so that you would remain the property of the world.
How do we pray for others each day? I am not asking about those who have a specific need, and for whom we make intercession, but for our families, friends, those we don’t know yet, and even our enemies? Do you even think to pray for some of these?
Have you given up on certain desires because you prayed for them once, twice, three times, and they were not given to you? Have you resolved yourself to the fact that God just doesn’t want you to have this thing, or that He just doesn’t hear you? Well, if you are praying rightly in the will of God and not asking Him to go against His character and Word, then neither of these assumptions are correct. Persistent prayer leads us into the very crux of faith.
Do you suffer, or cry in this life? Do you hunger or thirst in your days here in this world? Do you long spiritually for fulfillment, and yearn to see the face of God? Well, take heart; for those who are washed in the blood of Jesus Christ have a heavenly existence waiting for them in which there will be no suffering, hunger, thirst, tears, nor longing to see the face of God. The blood of Jesus prepares us for the glorious eternity of heaven, and to be encamped with God.
Has God placed something on your heart, or called you to do a work for Him that you are not doing? Have you listened to his voice speaking within you and made excuses to avoid performing as He has asked? We make lots of excuses when God speaks, sometimes because what He asks sounds hard, sometimes because it requires sacrifice, and sometimes because we doubt our ability. Are you in the midst of this right now?
Do you seek the will of God in everything that you do? No? Then how often do you ask the Lord what He would have you do? We are inclined to wake up in the morning, get dressed, and go about our daily duties as we see fit while either assuming we are within God’s will, or not giving it a second thought. However, this is not what He would have us do.
Jesus loves us, this sounds like such a simple statement, and is indeed the repeating theme of a childish worship song whose lyrics begin “Jesus loves me this I know”, but do we really know this? Do we understand the depth and complexity of His love for us? A bigger question is, how do we experience this love.
What are you doing as you wait on God? Do you even know what you are waiting on? We have all been through times when we aren’t really certain what we would like the Lord to do for us, or what we would have Him do in our lives and faith, but being adrift on a sea of uncertainty is not good. So when you find yourself becalmed on a motionless ocean, then pray for a breeze, a direction, and wait on Him. Then as you wait go about the tasks of living in the faith that Jesus. And God’s Word have taught.
How do you refer to God? Do you call Him Holy God, Heavenly God, The Great I Am, or maybe Lord? I’ll bet you also call Him Father. As I was reading my devotional message by Andrew Murray this morning, he revealed something about the Lord’s Prayer that had previously escaped me... This is the first time that the disciples had referred to God as Father. The wonder of this moment had never dawned on me, and it brought tears to my eyes.
There are those today that are filled with the Holy Spirit and don’t realize it because they don’t know the Holy Spirit from any other part of their faith. If he had come to them with a jolt like he did to the apostles, and licked above them with fingers of flame, and filled them with tongues, then there would be no doubt, but for many he comes gently with joy and comfort. To those who receive him in this way, it is so subtle that they have a hard time realizing he is with them for they can’t separate him from the basic movements of their faith until one day they are awakened joyfully to the reality of his presence within them.