All tagged personal
This morning I am contemplating a rather convicting subject. I am asking myself a couple of questions regarding my ability to serve the Lord in obscurity. Can I do the work of my calling without a grand moment of inspiration from God? And, is my work dependent on His making a show of my service?
There is a saying we use when someone gets so focused on the details of a thing that they can’t see the bigger picture; we say “They can’t see the forest for the trees”. Well, something similar can happen to us as we pursue our faith, but in a very different way. Our faith, unlike things in the world, is all about our individual faiths, all about the details, the trees, and very seldom about the forests. One of Satan’s greatest ploys is to distract us from pursuing our own faith by convincing us that the world’s salvation, predicaments, or pleasures, should be our primary focus. Have we fallen victim to him in this way?
What do we do when the articles of our faith go missing from within our churches? What do we seek when the Arc of our faith can no longer be found in the houses of worship where we once experienced God’s presence, and forgiveness? If every church, cathedral, temple, and house of worship, were demolished, where would we turn to find God? We should do what so many of us did during the COVID 19 pandemic, and what so many others have done under extreme persecution, we open His Word in our hearts, and seek God in our quiet places by retreating into our own temples to worship Him… into the temples of our bodies, and the safe havens of our homes. In these, the personal sanctuaries of our faith, and belief, we find God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. In these places our spirituality remains safe, and is secure from its enemies. The door to heaven remains open.
Is there such a thing as spiritual jealousy that can get in the way of our personal pursuit of faith? Are we ever tempted to look at the walk of another and judge either ourselves, or that person? The answer is yes, and there is danger in this because of its effect on our ability to focus on the faith, and salvation, we are personally meant to seek. Faith is as individual as a fingerprint, and as intimately defining as our DNA. Every individual’s walk of faith is perfectly designed by God for he who walks it.
Do we abide, or remain, in Jesus even in the most trying of times? If so isn’t it amazing how we can bear fruit for God despite the trouble and distraction that we find ourselves in the midst of? No matter the trial or tribulation we are enduring, our dedication to abiding in Jesus will not only bring us His peace, but will make our lives witnesses for Him, and will allow others to see what an amazing life in Him looks like.
We are told to go into every nation delivering the good news of Jesus Christ, but at the same time we are warned not to practice our righteousness before others; does this sound like a contradiction to you? How should we go about telling people of God, and Jesus without presenting ourselves as righteous? The answer is twofold, and rather simple... don’t make the message you are teaching, or preaching, appear to be about yourself, and secondly, conduct your personal life of faith in secret.