All tagged individual
Forceless prayer is the topic of our contemplation this morning. My morning reading dealt with how prayer should be an earnest and inward movement towards God, and then it went on to say that although there was much prayer in the time of Isaiah that it was indifferent and self-righteous... with very little real movement towards God. Isaiah was a greater prophet and sent to prophesy for his time, but he also prophesied regarding the Messiah to come... Jesus.
Are you an individual? Do you see yourself as physically distinct? How about your personality? In fact, your physical traits describe what you are, while your intangible characteristics identify who you are… together they are you. Interestingly, when we are telling someone who we are as individuals we typically refer to our physical selves, but this is quite a limitation. Although we look alike in many ways, God has made each of us somewhat unique, but, on the other hand, our personalities are experienced more than seen, and their permutations are so boundless in nature that only God can truly understand them in total. When Jesus speaks in John 17:22-23, which of these is he referring to?
We are more than just a sinner in the general sense; we are people who commit very specific sins. It is easy to make the open ended statement "I am a sinner", but God wants to deal with each of us regarding the personal, and specific, sins we have committed. On the day of judgement, as we stand in His presence, we will be shown our individual sins, but will we have already dealt with them, or be ready to answer for each one of them in that faithful moment like Isaiah was?
When we are facing great danger or eminent threat, who do we turn to for our salvation? Do we think that an army can save us, or the money of the wealthy will purchase peace and safety from our attackers? Perhaps we believe that our deliverance will be in a bottle of pills, or by the skill of a surgeon, but whatever, or whoever we rush to, they are nothing without the hand of God guiding them, and we can expect nothing unless our trust, and faith are in anything other than the Lord. Where does our help really come from, and do we place our confidence in God, or in the actions of those who can guarantee nothing?
We see horrific events unfold around the world; today we watch the Ukraine, the bombings, destruction, deaths of women holding their children, mass graves, and see church services being held in underground hiding places. As we watch with great empathy and sorrow we should remember that just as our Christian brothers and sisters in Ukraine, and elsewhere, are suffering in mass, there are many others who suffer alone, or in fewer numbers, every single day. God reminds us in the large hurricanes, and terrible wars, that somewhere in the world there are smaller, almost hidden storms which are destroying single houses and individual lives today… and that we are meant to suffer alongside them, and provide comfort to them as well, one heart comforting another.
What is it about Jesus that has given us faith in Him, and in which we have come to believe that He is not only the Son of God, but that God dwells in Him? Do we believe because He has told us who He is? Do we believe because of the stories and prophesies written in the Bible regarding Him, and His birth? Is it simply because of the miracles He performed during His lifetime, and in ours, or does our belief in Him require some of all these things before it can became real to us? Each of us is different in how we come to believe, some of us are led to believe like Peter the rock, some are like Paul who was blinded, then saw, and others are more like Thomas who doubted until he experienced the miracle of the resurrection with his own fingers and hand.