Our Weakness Reveals His Worth

 

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9)

God’s design for suffering is that it should magnify Christ’s worth and power. This is grace, because the greatest joy of Christians is to experience Christ magnified in our lives.

When Paul was told by the Lord Jesus that his “thorn in the flesh” would not be taken away, he supported Paul’s faith by explaining why. The Lord said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). God ordains that Paul be weak so that Christ might be seen as strong on Paul’s behalf.

If we feel and look self-sufficient, we will get the glory, not Christ. So, Christ chooses the weak things of the world “so that no human being might boast in the presence of God” (1 Corinthians 1:29). And sometimes he makes seemingly strong people weaker so that the divine power will be the more evident.

We know that Paul experienced this as grace because he rejoiced in it: “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:9–10).

Living by faith in God’s grace means being satisfied with all that God is for us in Jesus. Therefore, faith will not shrink back from what reveals and magnifies all that God is for us in Jesus. That is what our own weakness and suffering are meant to do.

SELFLESSNESS IS GODLINESS!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

SATURDAY JULY 31, 2021.

SUBJECT: SELFLESSNESS IS GODLINESS! 

Memory verse: "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." (Galatians 6 vs 2.)

READ: Philippians 2 vs 3 - 11:

2:3: Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. 

2:4: Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interest of others.

2:5: Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

2:6: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:

2:7: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:

2:8: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

INTIMATION:

Being selfless is laying aside right. It is putting others first. Selflessness is having no regard to self, being altruistic—living and acting for the interest of others. Selflessness is inconveniencing yourself for the happiness, and benefit of others. Many people, including Christians, live only to make a good impression on others or to please themselves—the 'Me first' attitude. Living like Christ is principally a life built on love. Jesus gave us a new commandment in John 13 vs 34 - 35, He said, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." Living like Christ is living a life built on love. 

Selfishness is ambitious and conceit (arrogance, excessive pride, haughtiness) is seen among Christians, abounding in churches (the Body of Christ). Christians compete amongst themselves with the motive to undo the other; backbiting, gossiping, witch hunting, working against the interest of others, and so on. 

Always think of yourself the way Jesus thought of Himself. Though He is God, and equal with God in status, but didn't think so much of Himself that He had to cling to the advantages of that status, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men, to serve selflessly. He made the greatest sacrifice of dying for others' sins when He had no sin, paying the penalty of death for the whole world, which aught to be paid by all of us sinners (Romans 3 vs 23; 6 vs 23).

As humans born into this world, we’re all selfish by nature. We’re born with a sinful nature that daily bows before the deity called ‘self,’ and until we crucify the “Adamic nature,” we’ll continue to struggle with selfishness. A selfless Christian does not seek to be known, praised or rewarded for the good he does because he doesn’t glory in the flesh. All he or she wishes is for Christ to be seen and glorified in his or her attitude and actions which when faithfully executed, will draw all people to Christ.

Though it is difficult to lead a selfless lifestyle but we need to start from somewhere and let the Holy Spirt help us accomplish the rest. For instance, Christians should not struggle in traffic jam, in fuel queues, in difficult circumstances, to take the first turn. When you do such, where is selflessness? Let the love and mind of Christ be in you always! Christlike selflessness is the mark of a true Christian. It was for this reason that the apostle Paul, in his letter to the believers in Philippi, said, "Let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus." The entire Christian experience should be one of continued acts of selflessness, to 'deny self daily while following the Lord’ (Luke 9 vs 23).

We must act differently from the world around us if we are to actually show ourselves as children of the heavenly kingdom. Selflessness must be the watchword in our dealings with everybody—Christians and non Christians alike. Selflessness will make us willingly give up comforts so our neighbor can have little of what God has blessed us with. It will make us think twice before abusing a position of responsibility entrusted to us in the Church of God, public service or business. Selflessness will make church leaders promote the gospel more than they promote themselves and their denominations. It will make us allocate church resources more to places where it will benefit the church rather than projects which massage our ego and buttress our vanity. 

Let us not be moved by the promise of instant gratification of self to destroy the good work God has called us to do. We’ll be more effective carriers of the good news of the gospel if our individual lives become examples of selflessness.

Prayer: Abba Father, endue me with the excellent spirit of selflessness, that the mind of Christ will be in me, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed. Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

Suffering That Crushes Faith

 

“They have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away.” (Mark 4:17)

The faith of some is broken instead of built by suffering. Jesus knew this and described it here in the parable of the four soils. Some people who hear the word receive it at first with gladness, but then suffering makes them fall away.

So, affliction does not always make faith stronger. Sometimes it crushes faith. And then come true the paradoxical words of Jesus, “The one who has not, even what he has will be taken” (Mark 4:25).

This is a call for us to endure suffering with firm faith in future grace, so that our faith might grow stronger and not be proved vain (1 Corinthians 15:2). “To the one who has, more will be given” (Mark 4:25). Knowing God’s design in suffering is one of the main means of growing through suffering.

If you think your suffering is pointless, or that God is not in control, or that he is whimsical or cruel, then your suffering will drive you from God, instead of driving you from everything but God — as it should. So, it is crucial that faith in God’s grace includes the faith that he gives grace through suffering.

LIVING THE PRESENT BY JOE OSTEEN

 

GOD PROTECTS THOSE WHO STAND FIRM IN HIM!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

FRIDAY JULY 30, 2021.

SUBJECT : GOD PROTECTS THOSE WHO STAND FIRM IN HIM!

Memory verse: "For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame." (Romans 10 vs 11).

READ: Psalm 27 vs 1 - 5:

27:1: The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

27:2: When the wicked came against me, to eat up my flesh, my enemies and foes, they stumbled and fell.

27:3: Though an army may encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war may rise against me, in this I will be confident.

27:4: One thing I have desired of the LORD, that I will seek; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in His temple.

27:5: For in the time of trouble  He shall hide me in His pavilion; in the secret place of His tabernacle He shall hide me; He shall set me high upon a rock.

INTIMATION:

Standing firm is refusing to abandon one's opinion or belief. And you can only stand firm in what you trust, believe, and is convinced about, without any iota of doubt. When you stand firm for God, you will stand out before men and before God. Sometimes it may be painful, and may not always have a happy end here on earth, but the ultimate victory of eternal life with Him is assured. Your standing firm for God is essentially because you trust and believe in Him: Who He says He is, and what He says He can do. God is unfailing, unchanging, and absolutely faithful, and whoever believes on Him, will not be put to shame; He will always show up for you, and ensure your victory at the end.

No other scenario, perhaps, better buttresses this point than the stories of the three Hebrew young men: Shadrach, Meshach, Abed-Nego, and also Daniel in Daniel chapter 3 and 6. King Nebuchadnezzar had commanded thousands of people (the satraps, the administrators, the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the judges, the magistrates, and all the officials of the provinces) to gather in Babylon for the dedication of the golden image: Ninety feet high and nine feet wide, the gigantic idol towered over the people. 

The King commanded all the peoples and nations of every language to fall down and worship the image of gold. Whoever did not fall down and worship would immediately be thrown into the furnace. Everyone worshiped the idol except for these three men who defiled the King’s order. They accepted the likely punishment of death gracefully and added, "If you throw us into the blazing flames, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and He will rescue us. But even if He doesn't, we would never serve your gods or worship the image of gold that you have built!" 

The King, enraged by the insolence of the men, commanded that they be thrown into the furnace. Despite the fact that the furnace was already hot enough to kill any living thing put inside, the king ordered that the furnace be made seven times hotter than usual!" He ordered his strongest soldiers to tie up the three condemned men standing before him, and throw them into the inferno. The soaring flames licked the air surrounding the furnace, and because it was so blazing hot, the flames incinerated the soldiers who had thrown the three men in.

While in the furnace, God showed up for them. Then king got up on his feet! Frantically he asked his advisors, "Weren't there three men that we tied up and threw into the fire? Look! I see four men walking around, unbound, unharmed, and  the fourth looks like a son of the gods!" All the advisors, shocked with amazement, stared into the fire. Sure enough, not only were the three men walking around in the furnace, but there was a fourth man with them. When the King saw this, he ordered everyone to worship the awesome God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abrdnego.

In the same vein, Daniel refused to give up His convictions about his God and indulged in regular prayer to God as a habit. He put into practice his convictions, even when that meant being thrown into a den of hungry lions. When King Darius signed a law effectively making himself a god for 30days, and that no one should pray to anyone except the king, Daniel made no attempt to hide his daily prayer routine, even when he knew he would be disobeying the new law, and consequently he would be thrown into the lions’ den. When he was eventually thrown into the den, God showed up for him and shut up the lions’ mouth, and he was unhurt.

Are you ready to take a stand for God no matter what? Ordinarily, the young men referenced above, could have given any of the following excuses as reason to bow down to the statue and save their lives: “We will fall down but not actually worship the idol,” or “We won’t become idol worshippers but will worship it this one time, and then ask God for forgiveness,” or “The king has absolute power, and we must obey him, God will understand,” or “The King appointed us—we owe this to him,” or “This is a foreign land, so God will excuse us for following the customs of the land,” or “Our ancestors set up idols in God’s temple! This isn’t half as bad,” or “We’re not hurting anybody,” or “If we get ourselves killed and some pagans take our high positions, they won’t help our people in exile!”

Although all these excuses sound sensible at first, they are dangerous rationalizations. To fall down and worship the image would violate God’s command; “You shall have no other God’s before Me.” (Exodus 20 vs 3.) It will also erase their testimony for God forever. Never again should they talk about the power of their God above all other gods. What excuses do you use for not standing firm for Him? 

Prayer: Abba Father, in all circumstances You remain my only God, and ever will be. I am persuaded that You are ever faithful. Engrace me to stand firm for You all the days of my life, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

Suffering That Strengthens Faith

 Suffering That Strengthens Faith

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. (James 1:2–3)

Strange as it may seem, one of the primary purposes of being shaken by suffering is to make our faith more unshakable. 

Faith is like muscle tissue: if you stress it to the limit, it gets stronger, not weaker. That’s what James means here. When your faith is threatened and tested and stretched to the breaking point, the result is greater capacity to endure. He calls it steadfastness.

God loves faith so much that he will test it to the breaking point so as to keep it pure and strong. For example, he did this to Paul according to 2 Corinthians 1:8–9,

We do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.

The words “but that was to” show that there was a purpose in this extreme suffering: it was in order that — for the purpose that — Paul would not rely on himself and his resources, but on God — specifically the promised grace of God in raising the dead. 

God so values our wholehearted faith that he will, graciously, if necessary, take away everything else in the world that we might be tempted to rely on — even life itself. His aim is that we grow deeper and stronger in our confidence that he himself will be all we need. 

He wants us to be able to say with the psalmist, “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Psalm 73:25–26).

God’s Plan for Martyrs

 They were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been. (Revelation 6:11)

For almost three hundred years, Christianity grew in soil that was wet with the blood of the martyrs.

Until the Emperor Trajan (about AD 98), persecution was permitted but not legal. From Trajan to Decius (about AD 250), persecution was legal. From Decius, who hated the Christians and feared their impact on his reforms, until the first edict of toleration in 311, the persecution was not only legal but widespread and general.

One writer described the situation in this third period:

Horror spread everywhere through the congregations; and the number of lapsi [the ones who renounced their faith when threatened] . . . was enormous. There was no lack, however, of such as remained firm, and suffered martyrdom rather than yielding; and, as the persecution grew wider and more intense, the enthusiasm of the Christians and their power of resistance grew stronger and stronger.

So, for three hundred years, to be a Christian was an act of immense risk to your life and possessions and family. It was a test of what you loved more. And at the extremity of that test was martyrdom.

And above that martyrdom was a sovereign God who said there is an appointed number of martyrs. They have a special role to play in planting and empowering the church. They have a special role to play in shutting the mouth of Satan, who constantly says that the people of God serve him only because life goes better. That’s the point of Job 1:9–11.

Martyrdom is not something accidental. It is not taking God off guard. It is not unexpected. And it is emphatically not a strategic defeat for the cause of Christ.

It may look like defeat. But it is part of a plan in heaven that no human strategist would ever conceive or could ever design. And this plan will triumph for all those who endure to the end by faith in God’s all-sufficient grace.