Saturday, March 26, 2011

Steps to Christ, Chapter 13-Rejoicing in the Lord

"If your are Christ's follower, He sends in you a letter to the family, the village, the street, where you live" (p.115). I never thought of my witness as a letter before. If people do not read the Bible, and I profess to read the Bible, they will read me to find what the Bible says. Whether I act in accordance with the Bible or not, if I profess to read it, how I act is what people will conclude the Bible says. Wherever I am, my actions and words influence what people think about God.
Our countenance shows the peace we have or don’t have from Christ’s love. If we are always complaining about our situation or the people around us, we belittle the provision that God gives us and the love Christ has for others. If we share our worry, we are showing that we don’t trust God to take care of us. If we are depressed it seems as if God doesn’t love us and that His sacrifice means nothing to us. If we focus on the negative aspects of life, others may think that God doesn’t want us to be happy. This is how Satan wants us to feel. He wants us to doubt God’s loving interaction in our lives. He wants us to mistrust God and ignore the fact that Christ saved us from our sins and that we only need to accept that sacrifice. Satan wants us to blame God for the trials and misfortunes in our lives.
This does not mean that we should expect our lives to be perfect. There will still be trials, pain, and disappointments, but those don’t have to determine our reaction. We must pay attention to the roses not the thorns. If we look on the positive side of things, learn a lesson from the trials, hold on to God’s love through the pain, and share that love with others though they may disappoint us, this is how we can be a representative of Christ and others can read in us the peace that He gives in all circumstances. “Casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you,” 1 Peter 5:7. Christ is our only source of help.
All of us have received many blessings from God. If we would take 10 minutes to list the blessings we have received in the last 24 hours, we wouldn’t even get close to the true number. We take too much for granted. It may be song lyrics, but they can be applied here. “You don’t know what you got till it’s gone.” Most of us assume we are going to wake up healthy, but one morning we wake up frustrated that we have a sore throat, not content that it wasn’t something worse. You may be upset about your work situation, but what if your employer had to downsize and you were let go? If that was the only job you could get back, would you take it? What if you have to take a long trip and the weather is supposed to be bad, but you don’t see a single snowflake? What you don’t know is that the storm is following you; God just won’t let it touch you. “Some difficulty may really exist which, though small, blinds their eyes to the many things that demand gratitude” (p.122).
Sure there will be times when you wake up sick, when you’re unemployed, or when you’re driving in the middle of the storm, but this is not what we are to focus on. “It is not wise to gather together all the unpleasant recollections of a past life,--its iniquities and disappointments,--to talk over them and mourn over them until we are overwhelmed with discouragement. A discouraged soul is filled with darkness, shutting out the light of God from his own soul and casting a shadow upon the pathway of others” (p.117). Focusing on the negative turns us and others away from God’s love.
Do we see God as some creator way out there that every once in a while plays a small part in our lives, or do we see Him as a loving Father who wants what’s best for us? “How would a mother feel if her children were constantly complaining of her, just as though she did not mean them well, when her whole life's effort had been to forward their interests and to give them comfort? Suppose they should doubt her love; it would break her heart. How would any parent feel to be thus treated by his children? And how can our heavenly Father regard us when we distrust His love, which has led Him to give His only-begotten Son that we might have life? The apostle writes, "He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" Romans 8:32. And yet how many, by their actions, if not in word, are saying, "The Lord does not mean this for me. Perhaps He loves others, but He does not love me"” (p.118). God personally created, loves, and died for each of us. We must consider Him a parent and how He would feel if, after showing us so much love, we just ignore Him.
The devil wants us to distrust God and tries his hardest to make us do so. He knows our weaknesses and tempts us. Being tempted is not a sin. It’s giving into temptation that can get us into trouble. We can start questioning God’s actions in our lives. If we share these thoughts with others, they might do the same in their lives. This could have a chain reaction of turning people away from God. “By our unconscious influence others may be encouraged and strengthened, or they may be discouraged, and repelled from Christ and the truth” (p.120). This does not mean that we should not share our burdens with others in order to ask them to pray for us. Galatians 6:2 says, “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” When someone shares their burdens with you, “let praise to God be on your lips and in your heart. This will attract his thoughts to Jesus” (p.119). It is also important that we ourselves pray to God about our trials and read His word. If we are not looking for God to help us, how will we know when He does? Prayer and reading the Bible are two ways that God uses to reveal His love, compassion, and will in our lives.
When we pray for God’s will to be done in our lives, we must be ready to play our part. When we know that we are actively following God, we can have the comfort that no matter what happens to us, God is always with us and everything will work out for our good in the end. John 16:33 says, “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” Matthew 6 tells us that God provides for the needs of the birds of the air and questions us as to if we believe that we are more precious to the Father than the birds. If He provides for them, how much more will He provide for us. But He does not drop the food into the birds’ mouths. He gives them the insight and knowledge on how to find the necessary food, feed their young, and build their nests. It’s the same as when God does not tell us all the details of our future. He asks us to walk in faith, trusting that when we take a step in His direction, He is providing for us. Matthew 6 continues, telling us that not only does God provide food for the birds, but also beautiful clothing for the grass and flowers. Again, how much more will he provide these necessities to us? It is His purpose that our joy may be complete (John 15:11). “If we do not have the pleasures of this life we may still be joyful in looking to the life beyond” (p. 124-125). In the end, it is not our possessions on this earth that will matter, but the hope we have in a life with Christ when He returns.
If we live with Christ in our lives, his love and compassion will be expressed through our words and actions. When Christ was on earth, He felt and experienced the woes of this world. He did not, however, come here to receive our comfort. He came here to comfort us; to give us peace and joy. He did not give us these from the perfection of heaven. He wanted us to know that He knew how we felt. He was tempted just like us. Experienced happiness and grief just like us. And yet, He was still focused on helping others. We cannot help others if we dwell on their faults and imperfections. How do our faults and imperfections compare to Jesus, and yet He still humbled himself to help us. We must humble ourselves to people in any situation and share with them the love of God.
We now have a choice. When a trial, temptation, or discouragement comes our way, how will we handle it? “Let us look to the monumental pillars, reminders of what the Lord has done to comfort us and to save us from the hand of the destroyer. Let us keep fresh in our memory all the tender mercies that God has shown us,--the tears He has wiped away, the pains He has soothed, the anxieties removed, the fears dispelled, the wants supplied, the blessings bestowed,--thus strengthening ourselves for all that is before us…” (p.125). We must believe that, no matter what the problem is, God will give us the necessary strength to overcome it. Nothing will happen to us that is too strong for us to handle, with God’s help.

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