Are you suffering through something today and as a child of God find yourself wondering if it is because you have failed God in some way? Do you find yourself asking Him why He would allow you to feel such pain, humiliation, illness, deformity, grief, mourning, or other unpleasant form of distress? Well there is a mystery and a revelation in our suffering that brings us where happiness can’t, in it we find the reflection of Christ, and we find holiness.
If you recall the parable of the prodigal Son it is easy to forget that there were two sons, the one who squandered his inheritance and yet was welcomed home, and the son who remained steadfastly at his father’s side. Which one of these best describes you? The prodigal son gives us hope in our Father’s love when we are lost, or are frivolous with our faith, but the dependable son never lost his inheritance and never left his father’s side. Who would you rather be? Who would the prodigal son have wanted to be as he travelled the road home?
Our prayers don’t just fade from the memory of God, they have substance, and can be held in the hand, placed in a bowl, and offered up with incense to Jesus, and God. Have you ever thought of that simple prayer you spoke as being worthy of saving? How about the ones you prayed in anger, or heartbreak, remorse, praise, or Thanksgiving? They are all borne in the hands of angels before the throne of God, and He values each one... they are your life, and they are the heart of your relationship with Him.
Where do you spend your time each day? Do you waste it on frivolous pursuits, or in prayer? Do you read magazines about worldly subjects, or the Bible and other spiritually uplifting material? Do you seek out those places God wills you to visit, or do you wile away your time in ungodly places for no good purpose? How we apportion our time, the activities we pursue, and places we frequent, determines how our faith will grow, and the fruit it will bear. Do we waste our treasure of time, or spend it wisely?
There are many who study the Bible, and upon reading of the healings and other miracles come to the conclusion that those days must have been the “times of miracles”, and convince themselves that we are not living in such times today. Friends, there is no biblical foundation for such thought, as a matter of fact Jesus taught by using miracles, just as we see in the Old Testament, and He teaches us that we too will perform and receive miracles today.
There is not a day that goes by that I don’t recognize myself to be a sinner. If this is not a humbling realization then I am not in the presence of God, and Jesus. Are you conscious of your sinful nature as well? Do you too work daily to live a life free of sin only to pray repetitively for forgiveness? Then like millions before us you are on the road to perfection.
When we are young we have a certain amount of confidence in our bodies, and lean more on their ability to perform, but as we age our faith in them wanes, and our trust shifts more and more towards God. When we are sick and have access to a doctor our confidence is in the practice of medicine, but when we do not, then our cry is to God. The challenge for the young is to have the faith of the old, and the hardship of the patient in hospital is to deliver the prayer of the poor and unfortunate. Is your hope and faith in God strong... always?
Every day I begin my prayers with an expression of love for God, then a plea for my forgiveness of sin, followed by my thanks for His many blessings, and next I ask for three things I would like to talk about today... wisdom, knowledge, and intelligence. Do you ask the Lord for these things? Not that you should receive them in a worldly sense, but more-so in a spiritual sense... Do you desire supernatural enlightenment in understanding God’s will for you this day?
Are you purified as a Heavenly thing? Do you acknowledge in communion that the blood of Jesus Christ has cleansed you of sin, but also that it purified you in preparation for a heavenly existence? How often do we take communion and casually remember Jesus? Even worse, how many times do we take communion without thinking at all? This is the danger of repetition, but if repetition is performed with the proper preparation, it strengthens our memory, and makes an act so natural to us that we can perform it, believe it, perfectly each time.
Is God’s Word at work in you? This is a question that challenges us because inevitably we ask ourselves, “what does that actually mean?” Does it mean that we ask, and the work is in His giving? Does it mean that His Word is an expression of His will, and that the work is our striving to complete it? Is His Word a promise to us, and the work how that promise comes alive? Or perhaps His Word is a lesson in life, and the work is in it being taught us. Each of these are examples of God giving His Word and it working with and in us. Do you believe His Word is His Bond? Do you believe?
We hear the story of Peter denying Jesus three times before the cock crowed, and we think to ourselves that this man was weak of character, but do we ever look at our own lives and count our own denials? Denying can be blatant like in the case of Peter, or it can be subtle. Do you speak up when the subject of faith comes up in a group, or do you deny Him in your silence? When you are at a social event and someone belittles Jesus do you defend Him or walk away... denying Him? How about the witness you didn’t give someone when the opportunity arose, and you were afraid? Denial comes in many forms, can we overcome it?
How do you face the trials and hardships that you are in the midst of, or that you see coming? How do you pray each day when you enter your secret place? When you pray with your family do your words encourage them to let God take control of that one day, and not to fret over His provision for tomorrow? Trust is our strength in Him. Having faith that He is sufficient for this day is enough.
It is Ressurection Sunday, and JESUS LIVES! He made a statement to Martha, the sister of Lazarus, about the transience of death as it pertained to those who believed in Him, and on this day He made good His Word! Today sin and death were defeated, and hope and faith became reality.
It is Holy Saturday, and on this day Jesus lay in His tomb, but for us it is a time of waiting, of anticipation. Are you one who is comfortable in waiting, or does it cause you to toss and turn in the night? In our relationship with God we often find ourselves waiting for Him... do you settle in, or pace the floor? Let the Lord give you peace as you wait, because there is untold blessing in the waiting.