Getting Off the Fence

 

There is a popular saying that runs the gamut of Christian circles every dozen or so years. It claims that we do not want to be “so spiritually minded that we are no earthly good”.

That is a lie from the pit of hell. Look at Noah...He preached for 120 years, and he and his sons spent much of that time building an ark big enough to protect anyone who wanted to be saved.

However, since it had never rained before this time, people scoffed at them as if they were so spiritually minded they were no earthly good.

Many wanted to get aboard the ark after it started raining, but it was too late. God already closed the door (Genesis 7:16). A shallow consent to accept Christ in times of trouble brings no real change to a life and requires no total surrender for the glory of God.

Many who claim the name of Christ are oblivious to the destruction they inflict upon the Kingdom of God by sitting on the fence and exhibiting carnal words and actions (Matthew 7:16-23).

Contrarily, authentic Christians can never be content with participating in ritualistic, religious motions. We seek relevance in every aspect of our life. Even our hobbies are Christ-honoring.

Our spirit and soul are grieved by anything that grieves Christ, because He dwells within us in all of His fullness. We refrain from participating in anything that is remotely sinful.

We exhibit the fruit of God’s Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23), which is the result of the refining fire of His sanctifying process in our life. We belong to Christ and we no longer live in the fleshly, carnal, worldly realm of life (1 John 3:9).

Prayer:

Father God, draw us by Your Spirit until we get off the fence and make a sincere and complete commitment to You and Your Kingdom on this earth. We grow in Christ and we are no longer in love with our self or addicted to sin. We lay down our idols – anything, which we want more than You. We submit to the total control of Your Spirit.

We remove our self from the throne of our life and put You in Your rightful place. We get off the fence and wholly commit our life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. We make a difference in Your Kingdom by following the leading of Your Spirit moment by moment. We fall more in love with Jesus with each passing day.

Thought for the Day:

As we serve our Lord, we show greater and greater enthusiasm as we allow His Spirit to lead us in service and obedience to Him.

God Meets Our Needs

 

Life's challenges often isolate us and cause us to understand loneliness like we never experienced it before now. We feel abandoned, neglected and even ignored.

Our friends surround us during the funeral of our loved one; but then they forget to call, come over to visit, invite us to their home or on an outing in the ensuing weeks.

This loneliness causes us to look inward and we find a void there as well. God seems distant and we either panic or get angry with Him for forsaking us.

There is no Biblical evidence that God ever leaves His children. We leave Him, but He never leaves or forsakes us, and He always stays closer to us than a brother (Hebrews 13:5; Proverbs 18:24).

We often develop expectations and requirements, which we imagine God fulfilling. We have our own timetable and we are devastated when God does not meet our demands.

We seek blessings, which He knows are not for our good at this time in our life. He has other plans for us (Jeremiah 29:11), but we often have no patience to wait on God's timing to meet our needs.

God knows everything about our life from beginning to end (Proverbs 5:21). He promises to meet all of our needs through His glorious riches (Philippians 4:19).

Rather than stewing in the juices of our loneliness, we can take up a hobby, join a civic organization or exercise at the local health club. Getting more involved with our church family is the best use of our unscheduled time.

Prayer:

Father God, teach us that rather than focusing on our desires, we can view the needs of others around us and pray about You using us to meet their needs. Allow Your Spirit to guide us to the exact person You want us to help. Otherwise, we may not be in Your will and we may thwart the plans You have for that person.

Open our eyes and allow us to meet new people, which we can invite to join us at our church or our local Bible study. Remind us to look for people sitting alone, so we can greet them and allow them to see Your peace and joy in us to bring them a smile to encourage their day.

Thought for the Day:

Sometimes we accuse God of not caring; however, hindsight always reveals the effort of God's Spirit behind the scenes, working out all things for our eventual good.

- Romans 8:28; 1 Peter 5:7

 

Our Glorious Hope

One of God’s mysteries is that Christ can actually dwell in our hearts by His Spirit (Colossians 1:26-27). When we choose to die to our self - to lay down our own dreams, goals and desires for our life - we embrace God’s will for us instead.

This does not mean that we live in destitution and unfulfillment. It actually guarantees that we find even more blessings in God’s service, than we ever did when we controlled our own life (Romans 8:5-8).

The fact that Christ actually lives in us by His Spirit gives us hope of living with Him in glory (Colossians 1:27). We reflect the glory of our Heavenly Father a little more each day, because Christ lives in and through us.

When we see carnality in our life, we confess it as sin, and rejoice that the Spirit is exchanging His fruit, through the sanctification process, for our errant attitudes and character traits (Galatians 2: 22-23; 1 Corinthians 6:11).

When we follow the leading of the Holy Spirit moment by moment throughout the day we are sure to succeed in everything we do (Deuteronomy 28:13).

We cannot live with one foot in the world and one foot in the things of the Spirit. This is impossible because the flesh lusts against the Spirit (Matthew 6:24).

God’s goal for us is that we walk in the Spirit (Galatians 5:16-17, 25; Romans 8:9-14). Christ buried us with Him in His death by baptism and raised us up from dead works by the glory of our Father (Galatians 2:20; Ephesians 3:3).

Prayer:

Father God, we are now Your sons, led by Your Spirit as we take the time to submit our life to Christ one moment at a time (1 John 3:2). We find fulfillment in living in Your will and we realize Your glory radiating in us and through us to the world around us.

Our inner man is renewed day by day, and this encourages us, even though our body is getting older. Thank You for raising us up as You raised up the Lord Jesus. Thank You also for bringing us into Your presence for eternity and giving us our eternal hope of Your glory.

Thought for the Day:

When God sees us, He sees us in union with Christ, perfected and cloaked in His righteousness. - Romans 13:14