Short readings from the Word — written to comfort, to instruct, and to draw you nearer.
Showing 85–96 of 174
The world resident in men and through men can only make us feel insecure or look/think inferior with our consent, and it can only secure such consent from us through our ignorance of the promise of inheriting God’s life. There is something that overcoming this world and the wicked one means to God; and it must mean the same thing to us.
The counsels/commandments of the Lord are non-negotiable; and by our response to them, He determines who really we are or what we love above what He loved/loves, and also called us to love. The dominion over sin is a dominion over thoughts we fall prey to because of what we openly or secretly, knowingly or unknowingly love, even this world.
The gospel has an ulterior motive, which is to expose every tie of friendship with this world in us, after which the Lord would watch our response to such revelations. A positive response from us will always lead to the creation of an enmity in us against the world, even in areas where we are unequally yoked with those who carry its lustful program.
One way we can know that the power of God (Christ) is becoming more tangible to us, is when those thoughts that used to unduly earn our attention/meditation, cease to do so; or when things that previously disturbed our peace, lose their potency.
Christ has a savor, a sweet smell that the Father has never resisted and likes to smell in virtually every of our conversation under the sun, especially from souls that are being tried, or in whom the world has been experiencing crucifixion. The doctrine of Christ seeks to open up every believer to the Son and Father (2Jn. 1:9, Tit. 2:11-13).
So the revelations of God’s righteousness in Christ came to enlighten and empower us with the conversations of life and godliness, so we can handle the lustful and corrupt system he created; one that makes men to seek everything else but the will and kingdom of God.
But the knowledge of salvation inspires us to be meek; it calls us to a soul-saving repentance that should see us become meek and ultimately meek and lowly at heart (1Cor. 8:1-2, 2Cor. 10:12, Lk. 1:77, Eph. 4:1-2). He is as close to being helped the day he realizes that the worship of mammon, through the love of this world, is the primary competition to the true worship of God (Matt. 6:19-24, Jam. 4:4, 1 John 2:15-17)
One strategic reason for the trials of faith is to deal with what makes us less contented with the life God offered us through the New Testament. So a day should come when every believer should glory in trials and tribulations, because only therein can we receive abundant entrance into God’s kingdom
If the Lord Jesus doesn’t have the right to influence or determine what we do with our time, strength and resources, then our claim of Him being Lord over our lives can be questioned. The gospel has come to empower us to see everything in the true light, so we can always take stock of our true net worth, and place things in the right perspective
The Father likes to see that our greatest contentment, desire, pursuit and prayer in life, is to have eternal life, even the same life that committed Jesus to leave the throne for the earth. The only answer to a corrupt life is an incorruptible life and it deserves much more attention than we have given to other legitimate but corrupt-prone chapters of life.
One painful reality that is known to angels and to the Godhead, but unknown to most believers over generations, is the act of taking far too little out of trying times and seasons, or of not truly profiting with a trial of faith which is always meant to birth something enduring and eternal in us. The laws of sin and death would continue to feed fat on our fears of tomorrow, as long as we haven’t been equipped by the Faith of the Son to take our eyes off men, off things and off ourselves.
Those whose goal is to inherit eternal life or to sit on God’s throne shouldn’t do less. It should be our deepest daily longing, meditation and the main investment drive of our souls.