All tagged jesus
Do I have the serenity in my life that Jesus had in His? Is my life spent settling into constant comfort and peace, and if not... why isn't it? Perhaps I am not truly abiding in Christ. These thoughts were provoked in me by my devotional reading this morning.
Coming to Jesus; this is my contemplation this morning. Do we come to Him in the physical act of circumcision, baptism, and communion, or something far deeper and more spiritual? What does He mean by these three simple words... "Come unto me."
Am I seeking the Lord as I should? Am I asking Jesus for the things that are right in the eyes of God? This morning, I am asking myself these questions among others and seeking to place Him foremost in my thought-life as I pray and walk this world. How can we pray right if we don’t think right, and how can we think right if we don’t focus right on God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit?
Are we running the race that God has laid out before us, or are we like the horse that never left the gate when the gun sounded? Is the call of the Lord fading into the distance, or are we following His call into an exciting adventure? These are the questions I would like us to ponder today.
Trusting solely in God is my contemplation this morning. There is none but Him who is true and always dependable. He is worthy of our trust and His Word never wavers. And yet, we have a tendency to place our trust in each other and in this we are disappointed over and over again. We are fallible, and in being such we have the propensity to let others down that have put their trust in us, but God never fails, and His Word is forever true. Even Jesus acknowledged the inability of man to be trusted:
We should want to live the resurrection life of Jesus. Our greatest desire should be to become one with Him and in Him with God. Is this our hearts desire now... not sometime in the distant future but right now? Are we living this unified life, and if not, are we striving for it every day, and with each breath we take? Does this blur the spiritual line too much for us? Well, let’s think about this today.
This morning, we are considering the decisions we make in our lives. Who makes our choices; are we making them based on our own logic and reasoning, or is God making them for us out of His perfect wisdom and understanding? Have we chosen to turn our lives over to the Lord, or are we still holding tight to the tiller of our lives and plotting our own course?
What did Jesus mean when He told us to "seek first the kingdom of God?" Some believe He meant to seek Him totally and that all else would miraculously be provided, while others feel He meant that we should seek God first and foremost, but then continue living our old lives guided lawfully by His commandments. Then there are those who believe that this means we should live our lives as we always have and to simply roll and squeeze God into the cracks of life like mortar or caulk. Which type of seeker are you? Do any of these ways describe how you search for Him? In what way do you seek to know our Heavenly Father?
We will all be resurrected into judgement one day, so are we maintaining a clear conscience as we go about living our lives of faith? This morning, I am concerned with allowing my own conscience to guide me as I follow God's commandments and prepare myself to stand in the judgement of Christ before Him. I listen intently to it so that on the day when I account for my sins I will be perceived as pure by the profession of my conscience which was formed and reformed by my righteous spiritual knowledge and understanding. Are our consciences clean, and have they been cleansed by the blood of Jesus as we have undergone our transformation in Him… made new in Jesus Christ?
Placing our relationship with Jesus above all others in our life. Is this something that we are willing, or able, to do? Could we walk away from home and family if Jesus asked us to "follow me, and I will make you fishers of men"? Peter and Andrew left far more than just their nets... they left their homes and families to follow Jesus. Have we seriously thought about how we would react if Jesus walked up to us and said, "follow me?" So I ask again… Would we, or could we, just walk away from our home and family to follow Him? Could we love Him more than our wives, and our children… could we love our families less than Him?
We don't find Jesus through an academic study of scripture nearly as much as scripture is revealed to us while walking with Him. Don’t each of us remember a time when we were mired down in our study of the Bible to the point that we couldn’t touch the living Christ there? But, once we have met Him in the gospel, doesn’t He bring the whole of scripture alive for us and set us free in it.
Do we command that the promises of God be fulfilled? Is our assurance in God's Word more than humble trust and faith in it? Is our expectation that He must honor His contract with us down to every letter and term as we have come to understand them? Well, perhaps we should take a step back, and rethink how we approach God and conduct ourselves in prayer.
When we follow God are we walking close enough to actually see Him? When we look ahead can we see Him there with Jesus as He leads us on? Paul spoke of how Moses endured hardship by “seeing Him who is invisible", but does our own faith allow us to see God in this way, or does He remain invisible to us in our times of fear, suffering, and temptation? Have we experienced God in such a way that He is forever real to us? When we think of God are we remembering Him by what He has been and done in our lives and as being tangible and real, or is He simply imagined and invisible to us; A God that exists in our mustard seed of faith alone?
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 calculated and God awaits around every bend with a new treasure.
We live in a culture that honors self-assuredness and strength in pursuit of fame and fortune over all else, but God, on the other hand, places meekness and humility above pride and strength. When it comes to real strength, He is looking for how it relates to our faith and spiritual character alone. If we want to have what is really valuable in life, and to live our lives abundantly, then we need to hand ourselves over to God. This is a humbling thing, but not a weak one. To yield ourselves totally to the Lord requires great strength of character and faith. It requires us to trust in Him completely and without question… it redefines meekness as men are inclined to think of it.