I smile as I write this post because I was talking with a young man who is at the brink of starting a new chapter in his life. He has so many questions, uncertainties about his future, and the best advice I could give him was:
“Put Christ first” in EVERY decision and let Him pave your way, open doors that no man can open, close doors that no man can shut.”
And I thought to myself as I looked at him that 35 years have passed since I first came to Christ. How quickly time goes by… I want to tell all the senior citizens who would say to me when I was his age:
“Don’t be in such a rush to grow up” or “If I knew then what I know now…”
That I get it now… I can’t give this young man my faith (wish that I could), but I hope and pray that in his personal journey with the Lord, he WILL remember to put God first in his life.
The peace that the Bible talks about in Philippians 4:4-7 says:
“And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Is the peace that calms ALL the storms that come into your life – IF you allow it. When Jesus ascended to Heaven He indicated in John 14:15-31:
“I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.”
In my home page, I describe the Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. (If you need to see the description again, please click on the pink link below and scroll down pass the welcome):
Description of the Trinity – God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit
We cannot GIVE anyone our faith, each one of us has been born with “free will” and we choose what we believe, how we live, what we do, etc. BUT what God wants us to do, is to direct, share, teach, guide, love and LIVE the life that we have given over to Jesus in a way that SHOWS Jesus to someone who is new to Him or Who doesn’t know Him. In other words:
WE REALLY ARE CHRIST’S AMBASSADORS
It is so important for us to remember that as part of God’s “Called Remnant” that what we do, how we treat others, what we say is being watched by the world. How we conduct ourselves. I always try to make sure that when I am talking with someone about the Lord that I remind them that I am an imperfect person, that as long as I have breath in my body and allow Holy Spirit to “tinker with me” I am allowing renewal and transformation of my mind to be in line with Jesus. It is important that people keep their eyes focused upon God and NOT upon us. There really is truth in the saying:
“Man will disappoint you ALL the time, but God NEVER will.”
I’ve made MANY wrong turns in my walk with Jesus. MY FAULT. MY DECISION. MY ERROR. But here is the thing, Jesus does not expect “perfection” from me. That would be unattainable. He doesn’t expect perfection from you either. We CANNOT earn our salvation. Good Works is wonderful, and you should do them, but they are NOT what gets you into the Kingdom of Heaven. Isaiah 64:6 says:
“All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.”
Jesus is the ONLY perfect One that ever lived. It’s WHY He came, because it is through Jesus that we are able to enter into a RIGHT relationship with God. It TRULY is “Nothing but the blood.” Matthew 5:20 says:
“For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.”
We are in a spiritual war; it rages ALL around us – and it is growing darker and darker by the moment because the enemy knows that his time is short. We Who belong to the Lord have been called for SUCH a time as this! We may not be able to “give our faith away” (that’s not our job anyhow, that’s the job of Holy Spirit to change hearts…) BUT we CAN share our faith with others, we CAN share the lessons that we have learned by mistakes we have made (and repented from) so that perhaps someone else won’t make the same mistakes. We can encourage people with our faith so that when the days grow darker, Holy Spirit will bring to their remembrance our words, our examples, our experiences. Don’t doubt that Holy Spirit can do this – because if You have accepted Jesus as Savior, made Him Lord OVER your life it is more than likely that it was because someone shared Christ’s love with YOU. Think back on how you came to Christ, God uses people (most of the time) allow Holy Spirit to use you in the life of someone else. You ARE to be a vessel of the salvation message in the lives of others. Ask God to give you “divine appointments” when you wake up in the morning and start your day – He will! Let’s pray:
“Father, I thank You so much for opening my spiritual eyes to Your Truth. Thank You Jesus for dying on the cross for forgiveness of my sins. Thank You, Holy Spirit for living inside of me, please change the things within me that need changing, forgive me for my sins and wash me with the precious blood of Jesus. Jesus, I want to live for YOU. Please help me to have eyes to see You, ears to hear You, a nose to smell Your sweet fragrance and a heart to receive ALL You would say to me this day. Father, I ask that You direct my steps, that I will honor You with this fresh new sheet of life that You have given me to write upon. Be glorified in my life, In Jesus’ name I thank You and I pray, Amen.”
We can’t give our faith away, but we CAN intercede on behalf of others in prayer. Infact we MUST. The peace that passes ALL understanding can only be attained in putting God first in every aspect of our lives. Making sure we stay “plugged in” with what Holy Spirit is saying to us. Confessing our sins when we “go sideways” and allow Holy Spirit to direct us back on God’s pathway for our life. The peace that passes ALL understanding is not something that can be described, it has to be experienced on an individual level. I’ve made a LOT of wrong moves in my life and the devil could have me spend a life time beating myself up about them, but instead I honor God and the forgiveness He has given me by sharing with others my experiences in the hopes that the people Holy Spirit brings onto my blog or in my life to be able to learn from the lessons I have experienced so that they hopefully won’t make the same mistakes. This is what it is to be transparent and live a life showing that we CAN be transformed by the renewing Holy Spirit is doing on the inside of us. God uses our messes to become a message for Him. Because IN Him, we are to LIVE and MOVE and HAVE our being. And no matter WHAT comes our way, His peace goes before us – and THAT is WORTH the share. 😉
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