2024-07-26
Good Morning Dear Ones,
Last week, I promised to add the Greek word for mercy to the ones I review here for endurance [hupomone], which is inspired by hope and patience [makrothumia], which is inspired by mercy. Mercy is expressed by [eleos] with a sense of compassionate piety, an attitude of goodness as God would have. All of these words are encased in GA 5: 22-23, the gifts of the Holy Spirit. When Paul wrote his letter to the Colossians, he included this passage from COL 1: 9b-12. “We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of His will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please Him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might so that you might have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father, Who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of His holy people in the Kingdom of Light.” I cannot tell you how really important to our eternal life this is!
Our God prioritizes people over circumstances. This certainly is based on different criteria than people use. People concern themselves with how wealthy, how many initials come before or after their names (an indication of ranks or education), what kind of housing do they have, what their career is, and so on. God prioritizes the content of a person’s character and the decisions he makes and actions he takes, who does he select to be his friends, whether or not he lives a life useful to his fellow man, and the basis of his judgments. One of God’s most important criteria has to do with a person’s relationship with Him, i.e. how important to that person is learning and doing God’s will. HE 10: 36, “You need to persevere, so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised.” It is hope that inspires perseverance. I believe that patience is a supernatural outcome from being filled with the Holy Spirit. It’s one way He expresses the gift of patience through us. We all know how difficult it is to be around people with a hair-trigger temper. Such people add the stress of having to guess what sets off such a temper to our already challenged lives.
The road to patience isn’t always easy. Consider after suffering once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God, Christ’s, having been put to death in the body but being made alive in the Spirit. Afterward He proclaimed to the imprisoned spirits –to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not from the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrections of Jesus Christ, Who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand—with angels, authorities and powers in submission to Him [1 PET 3: 18-22]. GN 6: 5, “The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.” PHIL 4: 8, “In conclusion, fill our minds with good things and deserve praise: things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and honorable.” Pursue a mind held captive by Christ. 2 COR 10: 3-5, “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretention that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
PRAYER: O Lord, we are so blessed to have You to intervene with us through the Holy Spirit, who gives us His gifts and teaches us how to use them. You have instructed us to keep our minds on the things of heaven rather than only of earth [COL 3: 2]. You give us God’s perspective and the tools He makes available to understand the knowledge He gives us through Christ. GA 5: 1, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by the yoke of slavery.” COL 3: 3-4 tells us why our patience, endurance, and mercy is worth any effort to which we must go. “For you have died, and your life is now hidden with Christ is God. When Christ, Who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.” You are to be thanked and praised for the many blessings You available to us! In the holy /mighty name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: The Holy Spirit continues to take us on the road to patience and humility next week. He commands me to discuss the difficulty God has in gradually civilizing mankind and working with his sinfulness. Many of my friends are nurses and doctors. Of course, these are not the only careers with merciful people, just ones which seem to attract them. When my husband, Peter, was so ill and was in hospital, there were medical attendants checking on him all the time. I knew about that because I acted as his patient advocate and slept in his room over nights. The clergy serving God can be merciful too. One of our pastors visited with a guitar, music for us to sing, olive oil for anointing, and wafers and wine for taking Communion. That visit will never be forgotten; it was bringing us as close to God as any human can do. Only the Holy Spirit can impart such godly traits as these people had.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn, JS 24: 15
© Lynn Johnson 2024. All Rights Reserved.
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