All in Christian
Are you sanctified, Holy, and doing the work of the Lord, or just working hard at religious things? Are you serving the church you attend, and other institutions around you, because they do holy things, and yet you yourself have not been sanctified? To do Holy work for God we must first sanctify ourselves, otherwise the works we do are just good deeds in the eyes of men. Who do you serve, and in what capacity?
Do you seek to be holy as God is? Do you long to live a life of righteousness and abhor sin because that is how He would have you live? If so, you are pursuing God’s desire for us and the stakes are high. This is an aspiration without degree because we are either found to be with sin... or without it; this is a race in which there is no second place, but fear not.
Do you weep in your prayer closet and ask for a certain thing day, after day, after day? Does your heart break in the midst of your supplication , and yet you have faith in God to answer... are your prayers lifted up yet again, and the tears run down your face once more? Do those around you say “stop praying, it isn’t going to happen”, but you continue to cling to hope, and trust in God? This is what Jesus taught us to do. This is the evidence of faith.
It is no accident that the first two verses of the very first Psalm speaks to studying God’s Word over that of men. We are told to take our counsel from scripture, and not from the ungodly. It is obvious from these words that we are being told that reading God’s Word as our foundation for study should be the sound basis for our study. Are we listening to His voice in this, or do we prefer to read from various other sources as they attempt to interpret scripture for us? How should we study God’s Word?
Do you practice your faith? Practice is one of those words with more than a single meaning, but I am talking about our doing something repetitively in order to improve how well you do it, or to do something regularly. If this is how you approach your faith, is that really enough? By way of example, how did Noah, or Abraham approach their faith? Did they simply practice it, or did they live it... walk in it... trust it?
It is expected that we will wait upon the Lord, and we know that during our waiting there will be those who will ask us “Where is your Lord?”, but we should never lose faith, and never ask this question of ourselves. In those times when we pray for something and God provides it right away, it is easy for us to be a saint, but when we must wait, it is then that we find the true state of our faith.
Do you perform the work that Jesus left for us to do? Maybe you are doing so and don’t even know it. Do you go to help someone and pray for them along the way? Do you go to a soup kitchen and begin the evening with a prayer for all those that will come there that evening, and the meal they will receive? Do you visit someone in the hospital or pray over a sick friend? These are the works of Jesus... are you asking them in His name, and trusting in The Father to do them? I mean really trusting...
You have accepted Jesus as your savior, and you have separated yourself from the sinful life you once led, but are you righteous? More than that, are you Holy? When asked, many Christians will define holy as being dedicated, or separated, to God, but this is only part of the equation... it also means for His use, righteous, and divine. These are not qualities that are part of separation, but these are the things that fill us once we have been set apart, emptied, and purified for His use.
Have you received an invitation to a grand and magnificent party? Have you sent the RSVP indicating that you will be attending? Perhaps you are hesitating because you don’t feel that you have anything to wear; maybe the splendor of it makes you worry that you will be out of place, or perhaps you have convinced yourself that you are too busy... or even above it! God has extended us an invitation to the grand wedding celebration of His Son, and His conquest over sin and death... how will you respond?
Have your prayers been stale lately? Are you having a tough time in your prayer closet and it is as if there is a sheet of glass between you and God? Oh, you can see Him, and you know exactly how you ought to pray, but this invisible wall of glass is preventing you from getting there. You are not alone in this regard, and there is a way to overcome this prayerful malaise.
Do miracles scare you? How about miracles performed by a man? We are inclined to trust in God and His divine goodness when it comes to healing us, forgiving us, or the other amazing things that we associate with him by our belief in His Word, and His promises? Yet, does it bother us when a man lays his hands on someone and heals them? What about the man Jesus Christ?
Do you lean on your own understanding when you read scripture? Do you try to discern the meaning of God’s Word by your own insufficient intellect? The apostles had Jesus right there with them, and yet they were so often confused by what He said, and had to have it repeated and explained. It was not until the Holy Spirit came into them that they were truly enlightened.
Love is central to our faith as Christians, and not just a personal love that is limited to family, friends, and self, but a love that flows into all of the world, and beyond. The love we exhibit is meant to be so profound that it is witnessed and taken as a spectacle in heaven itself! Are you living such a life today? Has your love become other-worldly?
Is the Holy Spirit worth waiting on, and can we receive Him today just as the disciples did? These are questions that many claim to be answered “Yes” today, and that even to ask them is spiritually childish, while others denounce today’s coming of the Holy Spirit as irrelevant and a thing of the past. So which is it? How can we talk about receiving the gifts of the Spirit, and the workings of the Holy Spirit in us... and never have received Him?
Who are we, and what was it that God created us to accomplish? We have always asked ourselves why we were created, and what purpose we were meant to serve. There is no real answer to these two questions outside of our faith, and the Word of God, so what can be found there?