All in Christian
Do you find yourself coming to God, and Jesus Christ only when you are suffering? Did you accept Jesus, and God in the midst of a crisis? Perhaps your faith is more pronounced when you are hurting? Sometimes it takes calamity to bring us to our knees, and to strengthen our faith through fervent prayer. Do you wait for those times before praying earnestly? Do you feel abandoned by God or more alive in Him when you suffer? Troubles come to sinners, and righteous alike... are you prepared?
God looks down on us and loves us each individually. He deals with nations, and peoples, but His heart and attention is focused much deeper than that. There is no place within a vast country, or crowded city that we can hide from Him, because our God deals, and dwells, with each of our hearts. No canyon deep enough, no forest dense enough, no desert so desolate, and no fortress strong enough to keep Him from us, or us from Him.
We are filled in our faith with the joy of God, which is a different Greek word (Chara), with a different meaning than happiness (Makarios). Joy is an internal feeling, while happiness is derived from external events acting on our lives. Joy is deep seated, while happiness is superficial. Seeking the joy of God means seeking our transformation in Christ, and receiving God’s joy as a result.
Have you ever wandered from God? Have you strayed and no longer heard the voice of Jesus, or felt the pull of the Holy Spirit as it drew you back? Are you in this distant place now, or is someone you know there? Well you might feel as though you can’t return, and that your life is too far gone, but that isn’t true. The Lord sends you this message... “return to me, and I will return to you.”
Those societies who are unbelievers in Jesus look upon Christianity, and they want to put it to death for the very same sins that they themselves commit every day. They see the sins of those Christian brothers and sisters who are struggling to be perfected, and use them as examples of a failed faith. Yet, they miss the perfect, and true, sacrificial nature of Jesus, and the absolute truth in the grace of God. They lose sight of the fact that though beaten, tortured, and hung on a cross till dead... God’s truth remains firmly truth... Jesus will rise.
Do we look to men for our help and protection when God has already promised to give it to us, and does this cause us to be embarrassed before God for our lack of faith? How too have we made the Lord appear when we do this; has it made him seem weak because of our distrust in His provision? Our faith should remain strong, and we should be careful to defend the honor of our God.
Have you ever questioned the ability of God, or Jesus Christ? Before you say “No”, with some amount of emphasis, think about it further. Was there ever a time when you said to God in prayer “If you can do this”, or perhaps said to a friend “if God sees fit to do this for me, then...”? Well, as we speak and pray there are many applications of the word “if” made in our prayers and conversations regarding God, but we should be very careful because that word reveals our doubt.
Do you praise the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength? Finding joy in the one we love should be our greatest pleasure... how do you love your God, and how do you praise Him? There shouldn’t be a moment of the day when our prayers aren’t lifted up, and in them should be the unending thanksgiving and praise for the almighty. Do you begin each day in praise, and thanksgiving?
What is your name, and where did it come from? Are you proud of it, and find comfort in knowing how you came to have it? Does it tell the story of your heritage? Will it be your name forever, or will you be renamed? Well, just as we are transformed into new creatures when we accept God, and Jesus Christ as Lord, so too will we be renamed. Once on earth, and also in heaven.
The Lord used the few to conquer the many in the story of Gideon’s three hundred men. He first used Gideon’s own fear as He sent him with his servant Purah to hide at the outskirts of the massive camp of Midian, and spy on them. Then God showed Gideon how to defeat Midian’s army by using their own great fear against them. God understands our fears, but more than that He understands the deep seated fears of our enemies. What are our fears, and can God use them to do His will? Can He use our few to defeat the many?
In Christ we experience the ultimate freedom. Knowing Jesus doesn’t put us in bondage, no, quite the contrary, it sets us free as we live out our faith, and as it boils down all of the law that once governed us in the Old Testament days into principals that are not heavy chains of rule, and discipline, but fluttering flags of freedom! Our faith is not oppressive, but joyous, and its yoke is easy.
Do you know a Christian who claims to follow all the tenets of the Christian faith but is mad all the time, mean spirited, or unfaithful to their friends or spouse? How about a person who says they are Christian, and behaves in a morally sound manner, but doesn’t believe that the Word of God is truth? Well, these people are living a lie in one manner or the other. They are attempting to call darkness light, or light darkness.
Where do you turn for help with your children when you are out of answers yourself? When you are at the end of your rope, and hanging in the air, unable to save them, what do you do? Who do you call on? Whether we are talking about faith, physical sickness, addiction, or mental health, where do we go for assistance when every effort of our own has failed? Well, there is only one answer, and Jesus provides it!
Our transformation through faith is splendid indeed, but we must grasp hold of it, and claim it for our own. When we first accept Jesus Christ as our savior, are baptized, and the Holy Spirit comes upon us, we find that something miraculous has begun within us... in that moment we realize that we are walking miracles, and consumers of the divine nature; our longing ends for the world’s offering, and begins to be for heavenly fruit.
Do you have a project at work that isn’t going very smoothly? Is there some task you are working on at home, or elsewhere, that is causing you trouble? There are so many sources of bad news and difficulty in our day to day lives, but as Christians how are we to approach them? What sets us apart from the unbelievers, and what are the consequences when we approach trouble as the worldly do?