As brothers and sisters in Christ do we love one another as we should? Does this love spring forth from Jesus within us, and cause our faith to grow stronger as we exercise it? When we love, and are loved by others in Christ, we should thank God for this, and for them, because this is the light of our Savior shining forth from within us, and the love that God is giving us of Himself.
Where do we place our trust, what is the sure and stable foundation on which we confidently build our life, and to who do we turn in times of trouble? In other words... where are our roots established? The Bible is filled with references regarding roots, and specifically, where we put ours down, how deep they grow, and how well they support our spiritual foliage. In evaluating our faith we need to ask ourself about the health of our root systems because without them there is no lasting spiritual vitality, and no fullness in the fruit that grows from our faith.
As we choose our friends, are they righteous Christians that serve God each day, or do we choose friends that give little thought to the Lord? Are we more concerned with having moral friends who live for, and chase after, the seemingly wholesome things of the world, or are we drawn to Spiritual Giants... Saints... the children of God, who seek Him above all else? Moral companions might not lead us into worldly trouble, like evil people would, but they won’t help us enter into the gates of heaven, the presence of God, or walk with us in His ways. Friends like these won’t increase our faith. We must choose our company wisely, and find our delight in those who are led by the Spirit.
How valuable do you consider God’s word? Do you keep it under lock and key, guard it with your life, memorize it, and contemplate it all the day long? Prior to the invention of the printing press it was considered the greatest treasure a man could have, and every copy of God’s Word took years to create, it was painstakingly reproduced by scribes... one letter, word, sentence, paragraph and page at a time. I ask again... How valuable do you consider God’s Word?
The Holy Spirit brings the life of Jesus, and all He has spoken, to our remembrance, and gives each of us insight into its meaning. We are told to use the life and word of Christ to exercise wisdom, be joyful, and always to give thanks to God for His Son’s Word... not just a quick and unthinking thanks, but thanking Him from the bottoms of our hearts.
How can we love God, yet take up residence with sin? How can we say we are Christians but not do the things that Jesus has commanded us to do? Do we not see that to be with God we must separate ourselves from sin, and that if we truly love Jesus we must do as He asks, and walk in His footsteps?
Have we looked at those who sin repeatedly and watched them prosper, while never seeming to be punished or have any ill effect from it; not even a stumped toe? Then, do we watch as righteous men suffer mightily? How does this make us feel; are we tempted to question our faith, and God’s Word? Friends, God’s timing is not ours, and His plan complex. Judging our faith, or God’s Word, based on His punishment of determinably unfaithful sinners is wrong minded; look instead on the final outcome.
We are called by the Lord, but once we hear His voice we must respond, begin our search for Him in earnest, and when we find Him we need to knock on His door and enter into a relationship with Him. Stop for a moment today and ask yourself where you are in your journey towards perfecting a relationship with God. Have you just begun the trek by hearing someone call your name in the night? Perhaps you have sought Him and come a little closer... or maybe you are walking through your life in intimate conversation with him. It is always good to take stock of our relationship and judge where we are, and what our next steps will be.
Today is Thanksgiving Day in the United States, and it is a day when we join together across the nation to thank God for all of His many blessings during the past year. For some of us this has been a particularly hard year. We have lost loved ones to COVID-19, and had our families divided by contentious politics, but neither of these hardships, nor our other challenges, have been too great for God to overcome. So put away your mourning, broken hearts, and bitterness, as we thank God for the blessings we have received this year instead... even if you live elsewhere around the world, use this opportunity to thank God, and praise Jesus today for the many blessings in your life.
Some believe that we should obey God simply because He expects us to, and in some cases it appears to us that this is His desire, but later, in retrospect, we find that what God asked of us, His will, was for our ultimate good all along. Our Heavenly Father is not arbitrary, and all that he does, and asks, is for a purpose; for our good. Thus the question becomes this... do we trust in Him enough to do those things He asks of us even when we don’t fully understand, or see the good in them?
How should we begin our days as Christians? There are so many verses in the Bible that give us instruction regarding our faith as dawn approaches, and as we look towards the life of Jesus we find that He rose early each morning to pray, and was resurrected in the predawn darkness as well. So how should we meet OUR new day? Well, we should use the example set by our savior, and the songs of Psalms whose lyrics, and melody, are the sounds of early morning worship.
Do we accept responsibility for our sins, or are we like a lying child who won’t face something he has done, choosing to make an excuse, or blame it on another instead? When we have succumbed to the snare of temptation, and done a wrong thing, we will certainly face the punishment for it, we will get our just desserts, and yes, we will have fallen into a hole that we dug for ourselves. So how often is it that we deny our sinfulness, hoping that we can escape the inescapable judgement of God... only to be discovered in the act, and called to task for it?
In the course of our faith we have contemplated our travail, tribulation, and the trouble they present us. Jesus thought on this same subject, and after having reached an understanding of their importance to faith He concluded that He would not ask God to save Him from it, but acknowledge God’s will in it. Are we courageous enough to face what lies ahead before us, and grasp, as Jesus did, the purpose God has for us in our suffering?
We suffer through the afflictions of a life in this world, and we pray for God to release us from them, but do we learn anything from the effort? Do we not only see the hardship, and thank the Lord for helping us, but also recognize the lessons of faith that He has taught us? Our suffering is only the beginning of a profound instruction, are we looking for it and asking the Holy Spirit to reveal His truth to us?
Just as by the disobedience of Adam all men were made sinners, and through Christ, one man’s obedience, the many were made righteous, so it is that by our singular lives we can each have an impact on all of creation. Some of us are tempted to believe that we are insignificant when in fact our one life’s force can ripple through all that comes after us, and quite often we don’t even realize it.