2019-09-20
Good Morning Dear Ones,
Where God is concerned, I believe that He wants to reward righteousness and courage of those who believe in His Son, Jesus Christ. I personally have felt the warmth and peace of His love. This is a feeling worth facing tough decisions and difficult actions to have. In GA 5: 22-23, the gifts of His Spirit are listed. I’ll be writing a whole series of devotions on these coming up not long from now. Suffice it to say that it’s appropriate to recall this list now: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility, and self-control. And, yes, there is no law against any of them. These traits in a faithful person are given to him by Christ and each person has his way of making them known to God and other people by the believer’s demeanor and/or behavior. Humility, for example, is self-abasement carried out in a way, that doesn’t shine the light of attention on the believer or to lift him up as more important that his observer. Kindness is an avoidance of harshness and often involves gentle service to another person or to God. Gentleness is showing a meekness and balanced virtue that can only operate through faith. It is often combined with other gifts of the Holy Spirit. Patience is forbearance or long-standing evenness of temper in the face of something that normally evokes passionate expression. It endures through provocation as a way of living out one’s faith. It is often closely tied to forgiveness. Goodness is indeed living out one’s faith with righteousness and conformity to God’s teaching. It demonstrates a unity of thought and deed with the Lord. Faithfulness is an expression and action that unified with the Lord’s teaching and the knowledge of His righteousness. The faithful person lives out his belief in the One and Only True God [DT 6: 4-5]. Joy is a kind of feeling of happiness and well-being that comes from a close relationship with the Lord. Peace is the knowledge that one has from being at one with the Lord. It is an inward calmness that can only come from the Lord. Self-control is rather self-explanatory. It is the power to control one’s thoughts and actions, allowing righteousness in thought, word, and deed. I’ve left the most important of gift is last: Love, which is a general emanation which comes from a person unified with Christ and having the other gifts of the Holy Spirit. It represents a complete change of one’s mind that allows him to think, speak, and act in a way which pleases the Lord [RO 12: 2; 1 COR 13: 4-8a].
COL 3: 12-13, “You are the people of God; He loved you and chose you for His own. So then, you must clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Be tolerant with one another just as the Lord has forgiven you.” These words are like a sword that cuts through acting with meanness, premeditated evil, and grudge-holding like a knife passes through room temperature butter. In this effort to provide supporting Scriptures for Colossians, we are really getting to the nitty-gritty here. Many of the definitions for the Holy Spirit’s gifts to believers are from the original Greek. The Lord’s messages to us in these words are clear, so we know what expectations He has for faithfully obedient believers. We’ve all met people who are materialistic idolaters and who are intolerant, mean, and hold grudges. These people are the ones who are man-led, rather than God-directed. They live and think differently than faithful obedient believers in Christ do. A world combined with these two kinds of people affects our daily lives, but Christ is our Reality. This mustn’t be forgotten.
We must ask ourselves, why is it necessary for us as believers to “put off the old self with its habits and put on the new self, as God is constantly renewing us in His own image, in order to bring us to a full knowledge of Himself” [COL 3: 10]? We can certainly say that this is the way to gain eternal life. We should start thinking of ourselves as part of an eternal continuum. We have our earthly existence, which is followed by a God-decided afterlife. Long ago, the Father gave Jesus Christ the right to be the Judge of our fate [DN 7: 13-14]. This means that there will be two final judgments: that of the righteous and that of the lost. In these fates, there is no middle ground. The souls of the lost await that final judgment, when they will spend eternity in hell, having experienced spiritual death [REV 20: 11-15]. The souls of the just will gain an eternal life of bliss and sweet fellowship with God in heaven [REV 20: 4-6]. Our God is just and holds all to the same standard of behavior.
PRAYER: O Lord, as works in progress, we acknowledge Your superior power to make wise and fair judgments. We also accept Your right to make the final judgment that will decide the eternal fate of each person on this earth. It is our desire to spend eternity with You, because of the faith You have given us in Jesus Christ. We are still sinners, in need of Your direction and interaction in our lives. We are grateful for the ability to receive the pearls of wisdom You have made available to us through study of Your “Love Letter” [Bible] to us and prayer. We can see that study and prayer at the basis of all we think, decide, and do is the best way to Your heart. It is our desire to model the love You have taught us and to please You. We are imperfect, since there are still times when our emotions lead us to unrighteousness. And yes, we need Your help to avoid the temptations that beset us [JN 15: 5]. Without You, we can be useless and sinful. The adversary wants nothing more than to trip us up and bring us into his snare. We must learn to appeal to You for Your wisdom in these situations. It is easier for us to sin, than to act rightly. But to please You, You give us the power through Christ’s Atonement and our faith in it. While You don’t promise us an easy time on earth, we know aligning our thoughts, decisions, and actions with Your will is the way to gain eternal life. The latter is our most important goal. We end this prayer with our expression of deep and abiding faith in Jesus Christ. Please help us to exhibit the gifts of the Holy Spirit. In His name, we pray. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: I’m commanded to write about the problems of grudge-holding (lack of forgiveness), intolerance, and meanness, as they relate to the Lord’s Prayer [MT 6: 9-15]. These issues further supply supporting Scripture to the book of Colossians. I’m amazed at the supernatural nature of the Bible. It’s the only book that the more one reads it, the hungrier one gets for more. For over 55 years, I have read the same verses and passages repeatedly and find more to learn with each context to which I’ve applied them. It has had the power to make me fall completely and utterly in love with my Lord Jesus. This is not in a romantic way, but in a way that has engendered everlasting respect. Learning what I need to do to expunge my own sinning and to unify with Him is essential to the faith I have. This same kind of respectful and reverent faithfulness is also there for anyone who spends considerable time with God. In other words, He makes His blessings available to everyone. So, the question is: Does each person take advantage of this teaching? We all know the answer to that question. I’m sure this disappoints the Lord mightily! I believe He wants what is best in the eternal sense for each person. It’s my hope that each person reading this devotion prays for the same thing. And yes, we do have the responsibility as true believers in Christ to reach out with our faith to all potential believers who will listen. Praise and thanks be to the Lord!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn
JS 24: 15
© Lynn Johnson 2019. All Rights Reserved.
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