Do we find ourselves hiding the fact that we are Christians? Do we think that praying in secret is the same thing as silently maintaining our faith in Jesus? Do we feel it is the same belief... albeit unknown to others? well it is not. if we Acknowledge Christ to those around us, He will admit to His Father that we are wonderfully His, but if we do not speak openly of our faith in Jesus then He will not know us.
Did we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, and then retreat into the privacy of our prayer closet where we remain dormant in our faith? Maybe we visit with Him once or twice during the day, and then turn back to the world. Are we embarrassed to take Him where we go each day, or is it that we are ashamed to let others see that we say we love Him, but remain unchanged? The proof of our faith isn’t in what we say, but how we walk.
Who wins out for control over our souls? Do we read volume after volume of some empty philosophy, imagined, and written by a man, or do we look to Christ for the understanding of who we are, who He is, and how we interact with the divine, and the world?
We are to be witnesses for the Lord, and to do so at home, and abroad... to the end of the earth. Jesus tells His disciples this at the moment before His ascension, and this commandment is meant also for us. So we should think back and ask ourselves “When was the last time I witnessed for Jesus?”, and hopefully the answer doesn’t disappoint us.
God chooses us for His own, and by so doing He pours Himself over us. Even during those times when we blink, and we momentarily lose sight of Him; His Holy Spirit keeps flowing over us in abundance. Not only over us, but over our children, and descendants... such is the mercy and grace of God that He pours out on us through Jesus Christ.
How good do we think God is? How faithful is He to His Word, and how complete is His love for us? As Christians we have the utmost faith in these virtues of God because we see their evidence revealed to us through Jesus Christ. He gave the very life of His Son Jesus in exchange for our redemption,His goodness is revealed to us by His Holy Spirit, and He showers us in a cleansing downpour of mercy, and grace
Do we march through life with our heads held high; prideful in our own accomplishments? How about in our spiritual life? Are we arrogant, and proud in all that God, and His Son Jesus have done for us, and claim it as our own success? It is so easy to return from one of life’s many battlefields, and accept not only the credit for having won that war, but to receive the accolades for the victory... when in truth, it was God’s strong right arm that had defeated the enemy that confronted us, and the sacrifice of Jesus that gives us life.
We live in a changing world, and the temptation is to think that the Word of God can be changed to accommodate our social changes, but that is a fallacy. We might change the means by which we exhibit our Christian faith, but the faith itself is founded on the Word of God, and that is unchanging. as an example we might change the order of worship, but what we worship must remain unyielding; we can change the dress code that is acceptable for worship services, but the content of that worship is nonnegotiable. Do we understand the difference between the truths of our faith. and those things that are just customs? I might use a silver chalice for communion at one church, and a wooden one at another, but communion remains the same. God tells us that He does not change.
Have you ever attended church in a house? Is there a church that meets in your house? Over the millennia we have grown so accustomed to holding our services in buildings dedicated solely to our faith, that we seem to have forgotten that the early church typically met in someone's home. Even in times of persecution the modern church still retreats to the privacy of homes. Perhaps if we did this every so often it would take the feeling of formality, and place, out of our worship, and put the intensely personal sense of maintaining a close and loving relationship with God back into it. Inviting someone into your home is a very intimate gesture, and hosting Jesus, and God makes it Holy.
Have you strayed from God, and Jesus? Do you think your wandering is irreversible? Well it is not! There is no place too dark, that God will lose sight of you, and no wallow so disgusting that He will abandon you there. Do not give in to the lies of Satan when he tells you that there is no hope, and that God has turned his back on you. Remember always that Jesus took on the sins of the world, and many of those were far greater than yours.
How often do we praise the Lord? Do we praise Him with exuberance, and in the presence of our children, our wives, and others? Any time we thank God it is good, even when we do so in the quiet solitude of our prayer closet, but there is something special about praising Him boldly, and openly, and it increases our faith.
Have you been reading the Bible today, and not found Jesus as you did so? Perhaps you are reading in the Old Testament, and although you read those wonderful accounts of old, you don’t recognize so much as a glimpse of Him. Many times we miss seeing Him because we don’t expect to find Him there. Our reading has become our inadvertent road to Emmaus... we walk and talk to Jesus, and yet we don’t recognize Him.
It’s not easy to be Christian alongside societies that take exception to our faith because it is based on loving a God of mercy, grace, and peace. In a competitive world order where only the strong are meant to survive, and the meek are considered weak, those who love God, and don’t “look out for number one”, are considered an enemy. Our determined revulsion to worldly thinking is looked upon as threatening. This way of living is what Jesus chose us out of, and it makes the world hate and fear us.
Do you want God to think of you in your time of trouble? Do you want Him to remember what you are going through to such a degree that He will place your tears in His bottle, and write an account of it in His book? When we face hardship we call upon the Lord in prayer, and with Him at our side we overcome it... we overcome our suffering by rallying our faith, and trusting in God’s promises. After each such instance we want to do something that will help us remember, and we would like for God to remember as well.