This morning I am examining my life to determine if I am presuming to know when and how God will enter into my affairs. I am trying to decide if I am attempting to control my circumstances, or if I am trusting in God. Have I been limiting His access to my life without fully realizing that He will interact with me at His good pleasure?
This morning I contemplate our being chosen by God for a life and relationship with Jesus; even as much as we ourselves choose to live that life and love our Lord. I think about Saul becoming Paul and his more intense selection by Jesus. After Saul had been struck down in the midst of his noon day prayers, and blinded, he was told to go into Jerusalem and wait there for instructions. Are we chosen, are we humbled, or do we obey, and go humbly without struggling to meet Him?
This morning I read Oswald Chambers' devotional message titled "Transformed by Insight". He wrote of our becoming a reflection of the Lord when we have been in His presence. This is a discussion that thrills me, and reminds me of not only the outward reflection, but the feeling within.
Our Lord does not want us to wander lost through life. He calls us to Himself through His Son Jesus Christ, and guides us with His Holy Spirit. No matter where we are in life He is there watching over us. Our Father teaches us as we follow Jesus, and gives us understanding through His Spirit. So, with all God’s love, and His personal instruction, education, and guidance, what is our excuse for wandering lost, not understanding who He is, or feeling alone?
Do I love the Lord like I did the moment I was saved? Has my love for Him diminished in any way over the years? This is my contemplation this morning. I am looking inward at the love I feel after many years with Jesus and worshiping God.
Have we ever been bold enough to ask Jesus one of the more difficult questions that His twelve disciples asked of Him? Are we afraid that our question would reveal a fault in us, or that we wouldn’t appear to understand something that perhaps we should have? Were we comfortable enough with Him to ask Him anyway? Let’s take one question today, and joining together in combined courage, strength, and boldness, let’s ask Him what we all would like to have answered… who is the greatest in heaven?
In the day of Jesus, like today, a person could argue against Jesus, and that sin would be forgiven him if he repented, believed, and asked for forgiveness. Saul was certainly guilty of speaking out against Christ in those days when he persecuted the Christians, but later, after having met Jesus on the road to Damascus, he was converted, and his sin of having spoken and acted out against Jesus the Christ was forgiven. For those among us today who have spoken out against Christ there is also hope, forgiveness, and redemption. No matter how bitter your words, or actions, might have been, the hand of Christ remains extended to you. Forgiveness and eternity are just a prayer away.
Have you ever struggled to understand your service to God and others as it compares to the call of God itself? This morning I am contemplating these two wonderful aspects of our faith.
We see the wicked about us, and they are too proud to believe in God. We watch them succeed in their lives, and some believers are tempted to envy them, but neither the wicked nor those who envy them can see that God’s punishment is at hand. The wicked believe that God is dead, and those who envy believe their behavior is a harmless pursuit. We understand that wickedness is sin, but do we fool ourselves into believing that envy is an innocent endeavor?
Baptism, it is a death and resurrection in our spiritual lives, but as I read my morning devotional (Oswald Chambers) regarding it, I began to think about how baptism is much more than a symbol... it is actual death.
As believers our greatest desire should no longer be for earthly things but for the Godly things founded in His steadfast love for us. Our love for the Lord hasn’t prompted Him to love us, but it is His amazing love for us that leads us to love Him. He chooses us, and from this, His loving attention, we blossom in our praise, adoration, and love for Him. So, do we love Him as we should? Do we desire the love of God above all else, and does it drive us towards Him with all our heart and attention? Does it separate us from the world? Does it cause us to love others as ourselves?
We hear the voice as it leads us to Jesus Christ, and we come to Him. We come to know the truth, and righteousness of God through Him, and in that moment of belief something amazing happens, His righteousness and peace join together in our lives. Do we allow our walk with Jesus to take this wonderful next step in which the peace of Christ becomes one with our pursuit of righteousness? Do we take that step across the threshold of pursuing righteousness into the comfort and peace of being righteous? Does our faith secure us in our gait, and guide us ever onward in our transformation; into becoming Christlike?
We know why we pray to God; we know the needs, the desires, fears, and suffering that we experience which brings us to our knees before Him, but why does He choose to answer us? Do we think that it is out of obligation because we are His creation? No, God’s answer to our prayer is much more than that. It is because He loves us, and is faithful to us in support of every promise He has ever made us… each being driven by, and rooted in, that love. Can we say that we love Him in like kind, and are just as faithful?
Who are we as men, and when we look at ourselves as God’s creation what do we see? Moreover, what does God see when He looks upon us? Do we see ourselves as being the joining of two independent and separate creatures, one that is physical and earthly, and another that is spiritual and heavenly, or do we see ourselves as one being, that is both of these manifestations simultaneously? Does God see us as spiritual beings trapped in a fallen earthly body, or a joint creation of both body and spirit that are one, inseparable, and in need of a single redemption and forgiveness that includes both?
How parched are those who wander lost in the desert? How dry are their tongues, and how incredibly thirsty are they who pant, and thirst? What wouldn’t a man who is dying of thirst not do for a single drink of even rancid water from a stagnant pool? Well, it is similar for those of us who are lost in spiritual deserts, only here we find that although Satan tempts us with the filthy water of false gods, our soul longs for the righteous taste of living water. Jesus speaks to us of such amazing living water, and immediately we long for it, but how can we go about finding it? Where can we quench the deep thirst of our soul, and how can we resist the desperate temptation of a dying man to sip even the rancid water offered by the dark one? Well, only God can give us such water because living water flows from Jesus, His Son, and only His Word can help us fend off the temptation to drink from the poisoned pools that Satan offers us.