… Anyone who has accepted Christ as their Savior knows the accepting part is an ACTIVE ON GOING, daily, and yes, often hourly choice.
The accepting is a life LIVED for Christ.
The accepting is ACKNOWLEDGING the word of God as part of our DAILY sustenance.
The accepting is knowing what our Savior is DOING on our behalf right now and what His future intentions for us are.
The accepting means RECOGNITIONG of our unworthiness and our need of Jesus' worth.
EVERY DAY you are going to come face to face with trials and tribulations, every day. Some days the onslaught is seemingly unending, and it is HOW we REACT to our trials and tribulations that will enable us to grow in Christ or falter. And by react I don't mean the knee jerk reactions specifically, but the ultimate reaction to what we face or have faced. Sometimes the dust has to settle all around us, the chaos filled dust, before our reaction is decided. *Recognizing our failures need forgiving - not excusing them away- ever.*
You may meet people who will tell you that they accepted Christ as their Savior twenty years ago and they'll smile and lead you to believe that for the past twenty years their life has been one of ease- made by that decision. You'll feel a longing to have such a life, one where your accepting Christ means joy unending. A few days later you may see that same person unexpectedly in a store vehemently scolding their child, or rudely cutting someone off in traffic using unseemly gestures- in situations that give you pause because you thought they were above such behaviors- Christ unapproved behaviors.
The thing is… we will feel the joy of our Christian walk, but we need to recognize the FIGHT that it truly is. We signed up for WAR when we signed up for Christ. A lifetime war, a battle that will wage on and on and on until our God determines it can't go on a moment longer and WE cannot know when that moment will be. That person you saw being unseemly may have a moment later apologized and asked for forgiveness from their child, or repented instantly their use of bad gestures to fellow harried drivers on the road. They may have fallen to their knees crying bitter tears seeking forgiveness for their actions, and they may have risen to their feet awash in the forgiveness of our Savior! The war is real and the humbling of ourselves in being able to admit -at the promptings of the Holy Spirit on our Christ surrendered conscience- that we sinned and need forgiveness-- this is a life lived for Christ, a daily very hard life lived in a sin hardened world.
…
Do we comprehend the depths of the Atonement? It's necessity, it's truth, it's process through Christ our Lord and Savior, our 'God with us', our God who was 'made flesh' and lived with us? Do we know what God's plan for us is? Matthew 1:23, John 1:14
Let us live in Christ as Christ lives in us (Gal.2:20).
May God bless us all and help us all, keeping us in Him, keeping us from evil. All by the will, the mercy, the grace of our LORD and SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST. Amen!
(Reposted with additions and subtractions from 2019)
The accepting is a life LIVED for Christ.
The accepting is ACKNOWLEDGING the word of God as part of our DAILY sustenance.
The accepting is knowing what our Savior is DOING on our behalf right now and what His future intentions for us are.
The accepting means RECOGNITIONG of our unworthiness and our need of Jesus' worth.
EVERY DAY you are going to come face to face with trials and tribulations, every day. Some days the onslaught is seemingly unending, and it is HOW we REACT to our trials and tribulations that will enable us to grow in Christ or falter. And by react I don't mean the knee jerk reactions specifically, but the ultimate reaction to what we face or have faced. Sometimes the dust has to settle all around us, the chaos filled dust, before our reaction is decided. *Recognizing our failures need forgiving - not excusing them away- ever.*
You may meet people who will tell you that they accepted Christ as their Savior twenty years ago and they'll smile and lead you to believe that for the past twenty years their life has been one of ease- made by that decision. You'll feel a longing to have such a life, one where your accepting Christ means joy unending. A few days later you may see that same person unexpectedly in a store vehemently scolding their child, or rudely cutting someone off in traffic using unseemly gestures- in situations that give you pause because you thought they were above such behaviors- Christ unapproved behaviors.
The thing is… we will feel the joy of our Christian walk, but we need to recognize the FIGHT that it truly is. We signed up for WAR when we signed up for Christ. A lifetime war, a battle that will wage on and on and on until our God determines it can't go on a moment longer and WE cannot know when that moment will be. That person you saw being unseemly may have a moment later apologized and asked for forgiveness from their child, or repented instantly their use of bad gestures to fellow harried drivers on the road. They may have fallen to their knees crying bitter tears seeking forgiveness for their actions, and they may have risen to their feet awash in the forgiveness of our Savior! The war is real and the humbling of ourselves in being able to admit -at the promptings of the Holy Spirit on our Christ surrendered conscience- that we sinned and need forgiveness-- this is a life lived for Christ, a daily very hard life lived in a sin hardened world.
…
Do we comprehend the depths of the Atonement? It's necessity, it's truth, it's process through Christ our Lord and Savior, our 'God with us', our God who was 'made flesh' and lived with us? Do we know what God's plan for us is? Matthew 1:23, John 1:14
Let us live in Christ as Christ lives in us (Gal.2:20).
May God bless us all and help us all, keeping us in Him, keeping us from evil. All by the will, the mercy, the grace of our LORD and SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST. Amen!
(Reposted with additions and subtractions from 2019)