All in True Faith
What will we become when Jesus returns? What awaits us in faith when we rise from slumber tomorrow, or for that matter, what does the next hour have in store for us? Our faith is not something that can be predicted or calculated, and God awaits around every bend with a new treasure.
As we approach Christmas morning and our celebration of the birth of Christ, let’s take this opportunity to do some soul searching, and begin by asking ourselves the straightforward question… “What is the condition of my faith?” Given the difficulties of the past two years with the COVID virus our relationships with the Lord, and each other, may have become strained. Perhaps we have walked away, or simply slipped into a sense of malaise concerning church. These have been years like none other in modern times. Satan has successfully renewed man’s age old fear of death, and used it to separate us from God who is life.
How secure is the foundation of our faith? Did we profess Jesus Christ to be our Lord in order to gain eternal life? Did we become acquainted with Him in our quest for a miracle, or life while neglectIng to establish a true relationship with Him? Do we recognize His face without knowing His heart, or dining at His table? Do we want to become His bride without knowing Him as the groom?
Do we believe ourselves to be self-made men and women? Do we look around and see all of the affluence that surrounds us, and stare in the mirror; smiling at our own reflection? When we find that we want for nothing, and have become smug in what we have done, it is in our self-righteousness that we are truly lost. What the world has to offer is fleeting, and satisfies us for a day, and yet we can become addicted to its allure, and lose sight of God, Jesus Christ, and the satisfaction they give that is eternal.
Do we proudly walk in our faith? Do we claim that our righteousness has made us more worthy than others to receive God’s reward, and to be blessed by Him? No, the truth is that all we are, and everything we might have, has sprung from the grace of God. The story of the Apostle Paul teaches us this more than any other story in the Bible. Paul, a tormenter, and killer of Christians was given the mission to preach the unsearchable riches of the very man he detested and whose followers he had been putting to death... Jesus Christ.
Yesterday was Palm Sunday, and via a live broadcast, my pastor spoke of our Holy Week expectations this year in the face of the Coronavirus Pandemic. Then he went on to lay out our church’s online services this week, and how we would go about celebratIng each of them from our homes given the quarantine we find ourselves under. This is not to be a year like any other we have experienced, but though we are separated from one another, we are not separated from Jesus. This is the year we hit the reset button on our spirituality, and sift it, seeing it for what it should have always been... a deeply personal relationship.
We should ask ourselves each day, and often during that, whether we are being wooed away from our faith by the world. It is good for us to begin and end each day praying, that is, to rise every morning, and take to our bed each night, reaffirming our faith. But, how is our belief being shown to the world around us as we go about our waking hours? Does the carnal world, and all those in it, see us strong in light of our faith, or as just another traveler in life like the unbelievers... like themselves.
You claim you are a child of the one true God, and you have accepted Jesus Christ as your savior, you may have even been born again in the spirit, but are you really living a spiritual life? Have you crucified your old self, or does that you of the past continue to haunt and dominate who you are? Your answer might be that you pray every day, but heathens can string words together... only when you are living a truly spiritual life, and your old self has been left behind, can you walk spiritually, and pray with the power you have been promised!