Not in our own strength

The (Holy) Spirit [Himself] – indwelling your inner most being and personality...May Christ through your faith [actually] dwell – settle down, abide, make his permanent home – in your hearts!  May you be rooted deep in love and founded securely on love.... Eph 3:16, 17 Amp

Grace! And more Grace!  This Christian life is a life built on God’s unmerited favour upon us and our faith in that grace.  It is astounding to me that the Maker of the Universe could lavish so much love and grace upon us humans who have been infected with a sin nature since the days of Adam.  But as all loving parents, God desires a better life for us then we sometimes even desire for ourselves. 

As a parent, I find it particularly hard when I see wasted potential in a child.  You try to “get through” to speak truth lovingly and to pass on wisdom but it gets rejected because your child “knows” better.  You see the struggle they are in.  Life is always a bit clearly for the one on the outside looking in on a situation but not involved in it.  How many parents have felt the pain of seeing a child “speak death” (negativity) over their lives because they simply cannot believe better being full of self-loathing and self-rejection.   Before I met Christ I was exactly like this.  I had no hope, no confident expectation that anything good would happen to me.

I thank God for His grace upon me because of the cross of Christ.  I know that I am not perfect and I still struggle with parts of my old nature that I don’t seem to understand but make me react in certain situations and turn a molehill into a mountain.  Sometimes we have deep-rooted hurts in our soul that we have buried so long we have no idea what they even are anymore and unless the “spotlight” of the Holy Spirit unveils a memory where the lie attached itself and continues to challenge the truth we will continue to react out of that hurt.  Yet I have seen in my Christian walk great change in my life and healing that has come from the gentle touch of a nail-scarred hand to my soul.  More and more I see that we are victorious when we, by faith, appropriate the grace and love of God, through what our Saviour Jesus Christ did for us at Calvary.

We know that our old (unrenewed) self was nailed to the cross with Him (Jesus).  Jesus fully identified with us so that we can identify with Him and what He did on that cross for us.

Just believe that we have “died to sin” and to our old nature through the work at Calvary and that we now walk in the newness of life and live to the glory of God.  God Himself works in us daily to bring us from one degree of glory to another.

[Not in your own strength] for it is God Who is all the while effectually at work in you – energising and creating in you the power and desire – both to will and to work for His good pleasure and satisfaction and delight.  Phil 2: 13b Amp

I love this scripture.  It is not in our own strength.  We don’t have the strength to be Holy as God is Holy nor perfect as He is.  But He has given to us Christ’s righteousness and by faith we believe that we are right with Him because of this and all the while God’s responsibility is to effectively work in us the change to become more like His Son.  I love it.  He energises us and He creates in us, through the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, the desire that becomes our driving force to surrender our will, our hurts, our rejection and pain and trust Him to work in and through us for His pleasure.  It brings God great satisfaction to see His children walk in the freedom that Christ has paid for us to walk in.  It delights Him when we move with Him, obeying the prompting of the Holy Spirit, and allow Him to flow in and through us, to become His nail-scarred hand to others.

We are in Christ.  Our life is hid in Christ in God.  We are His hands, His feet, His passions, His love and His truth to others when we live by faith in the Son of God and in His great and wonderful Grace.

He promised an outflow of “rivers of living water” to all those obey Him and are filled with the Holy Spirit.  We are that flowing water that will bring life and refreshment to others when we allow the Spirit to work in us and through us. 

At the Feast of the Tabernacles, when Jesus went to Jerusalem, He stood on the steps as the water flowed and cried out in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty let Him come to me and drink”.  He beckons, He woos, He calls and it is up to us to respond.  Come and drink of Him, the water of Life and live.  This is the greatest invitation that we could accept.  RSVP today a resounding YES to Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God.  You will never regret it.

Displaying the Fruit

Gal 6:22 But the fruit of the Holy Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control.  Against such there is no law.

I so desire to become more like God and I sometimes feel that I have to strive to achieve perfection.  Those of us, particularly stuck with this malady, would be the first to say it is unachievable and, in fact, frustrating and self-de-meaning.  If we don’t achieve our level of perfection, whatever it may be, we tend to get very down and critical of ourselves.  This is definitely not how God wants us to live, and I think that this is the outworking of a shame-based nature.  We don’t like to make mistakes because we don’t like to look like “idiots”.  We are often able to extend grace to others but are particularly harsh with ourselves.

I was thinking about the Cross of Christ on the way to work the other morning and was particularly stuck with the fact that Christendom has “sanitised” the cross, giving Jesus a loin cloth to cover His nakedness. But His death was a shameful death, and His nakedness was exposed to all.  This was an exchange.  Jesus took the shame of our missing the mark and the curse that comes with sin (our own or those perpetrated against us) and which causes deep-seated shame in our souls and gives us honour as Sons and Daughters of the Most High God.  He also gives us honour before the enemy of our soul, the accusing adversary, satan, (1 Pet 5:8) who can hold nothing against those washed in the blood.

Psa 23:5  You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over.

When Adam and Eve sinned, God covered their nakedness, their shame with animal skins (“I was afraid because I was naked” Gen 3:10b).  They miserably tried to cover themselves with fig leaves (even as we always try to hide our sins) but God’s love is such that He sacrificed the first animals, shedding their blood, to lovingly cover the rebellion exposed in their lives.  And He lovingly gave Jesus, His only begotten Son, for us, where His blood flowed down, not to cover, but totally remove the stain of our sins and where we walk in the forgiveness made available to us.

We are called to imitate God, seemingly an impossible task, especially in the light of Galatians 6:22.  I realised afresh in meditating on the fruit of the Spirit, that it is everything God is, and it is His power through the Holy Spirit in us, to live a godly lifestyle. 

2Pe 1:2  Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord,

2Pe 1:3  as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue,

2Pe 1:4  by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

God is LOVE.  That is the first fruit of the Holy Spirit.  Love is the great motivator of the heart.  God loved us first, and when we received the revelation/knowledge of this truth we were able to receive it and experience it.  It is not head knowledge but revelation that came to our spirit/heart, and enabled us to “taste and see” that God is good. (Ps 34:8)  Everything else will fade but love will always remain. This is very challenging to me, but like everything, we receive God’s love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Rom 5:5) and faith, and then out of the overflow we minister to others.

Human’s who have not experienced and received God’s Love into their hearts, are incapable of the “agape” (total unconditional love towards others including enemies) which is the love the Father wants to lavish on us.  We cannot even strive to achieve this measure of love.  However, we are much more capable with Holy Spirit power and help. 

We can will, (with the Holy Spirit’s strength) to choose to love others, even when they have disappointed us, hurt us or let us down.  God demonstrated His Love towards us, that even while we were sinners, (wilfully going our own way and totally opposed to His Holiness and Character), Christ died for us.  (Rom 5::8)

Jn 4:10  In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

When we meditate on God’s incredible and life changing Love for us, knowing that He loved us, even whilst we did not care for Him at all, we draw near to Him, fully confident in His forgiveness and mercy toward us.  We know, like the Loving Father He is, He is there with welcome-arms open and ready to receive us and pour out His grace and mercy upon us and in drawing near to Him, we become like Him.  In my own life, God has moved upon me to love the “unlovable” and the pure love that flowed was of God, definitely not of me.  We can allow the Holy Spirit to flow through us, through the rivers of living water, to refresh others and help bring healing to their lives. 

Please get this, that God doesn’t love us only when we do the right thing.  He loves us regardless of what we do.  The cross is proof of this.  Christ died for us whilst we were sinners.  He didn’t die for us when we began to behave better.  God’s mercy for us saw judgement come upon His own Son.  Jesus Christ, who is the truth, took our deserved punishment on Himself, so that we can have peace with the Father and live confidently by appropriating Christ’s righteousness to ourselves.  Hallelujah.  What a gift.

Psa 85:10  Mercy and truth have met together; Righteousness and peace have kissed.

The fruit of the Holy Spirit operates and flows through love.  There is no love, except for self love, in the works of the flesh.  Love covers, the flesh exposes.  Herein lies the will of love.  Do we spread gossip and bring disharmony, disunity or distrust, or do we stop gossip in its tracks? Do we go to a sister or brother which whom we have had or caused an offence and ask for forgiveness and reconcile, or do we hold the offence against them?

Love outworks through action and not just words.  Ask anyone who has fallen in love.  They sacrifice time and money to be with the one who has captured their heart.  Jesus said there is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for his friends. (Jn 15:13)  This is the outworking of love.  And this is what seperates us from the world, that "we love one another" as Jesus commanded.  This is what will bring thirst to those who do not know God, when they see love in action and desire to have and to be the same.

Let us "love one another".

The Finished Work of Calvary

The cross of Christ!  An amazing gift!  God-given, God breathed and God performed. 

When Jesus Christ said, “It is done”, an exchange was fully completed on our behalf.  Thank you Jesus, for the finished work of the cross.

You became sin so I might become the righteousness of God

You were rejected so I could be accepted.

You took my sicknesses so I could be healed.

You became poor so I might become rich.

You took my shame so I would have honour as a child of the Most High God.

You were hated so I would be loved.

You died so I could have life. 

You became a curse so I would be set free from the curse of sin and be blessed.

You took my punishment and judgement so there is now no condemnation for me.

You were bound so I could be set free and walk in liberty.

You were taken captive by the darkness so I could be released into the light.

You took my sorrows so I could have joy.

You went to hell, took the keys of hades and death, so I could go to heaven.

You rose from the dead for my justification.

You were falsely accused so I could be declared innocent.

Your relationship with the Father was broken so I could be reconciled to Him.

You took His wrath so I could have His grace and peace.

Your heart was broken so mine could be restored and made whole.

Everything that you did at Calvary was for me.

Kingdom First

Mat 6:33  But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

We live in a world run by money and our natural inclination is to worry about whether we will have enough. Jesus taught the principle of seeking first the Kingdom in a passage about money and possessions, to lift our eyes from the natural to the supernatural.  Father does not want His children in poverty barely getting by but He particularly wants us to be a blessing as He blesses us.  The thing here is that God, when we are in right relationship and seeking after Him and His Righteousness, will add to us the things we need.  Jesus said we are not to worry about food or clothing and certainly no father would see his children poverty stricken and starving.  I noticed though this scripture says that these things shall be added, and not multiplied, to us.  I thought it strange for a God who is into multiplying and not adding, especially when He desires our prosperity and health above all things as the King James Version says.

3Jn 1:2  Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers. (NKJV)

 However, we need prosperity of the soul first.  As our soul prospers, and it surely will do so as we seek first the Kingdom and His righteousness, God can add to us.  No parent would buy a super-charged V8 car for a 15 year old son.  With no sense of mortality, wisdom or experience, he will push that car to the limit and wipe himself out.  It’s the same with God.  We need character development to begin to carry more of His anointing and favour in our lives.  When we tithe as God requires; when we give to another in need; when God sees that we can be a blessing, as He intended us to be, because we don’t hold onto money too tightly and allow its tentacles to chokingly wrap around our hearts, He will add to us a greater degree of prosperity.  Our righteousness and character are of great importance to God.  We are to seek His righteousness, doing what is right even when no one is watching, no matter how hard it is; then we become faithful and trusted servants.  The Kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.

God knows exactly at what stage of our walk we are with Him and as the parable of the talents teaches, He gives to each according to their ability.  One of the first things we note in this parable is that the Master gives His servants His goods.  So Jesus gives us our abilities and gifts to serve in His Kingdom. The parable goes on to tell us that one servant received 5 talents, another 2 and the last 1.  Each one was given the option whilst the Master was away to work with that which they had been given and each was rewarded according to the “fruit” they produced.  Two doubled what they had received but the one servant who had a wrong concept of the Master’s character did nothing with what he had been given.  The other two were commended by the Master whereas the last one had what had been given to him taken away.

Mat 25:29  For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away.

I believe that as we grow in the Lord and are trustworthy with little, He begins to trust us with much more, as Jesus said in this same parable:-

Mat 25:21  His lord said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.'

Going back to Matthew 6, the passage teaches that our eye is the lamp to the soul.  A pure eye lets in light but an evil eye, darkness.  I thought that this was a bit strange to have this concept in the discourse about money and possessions but realised that it is through the eye gate that we develop greed, covetousness and dissatisfaction.  Living in a world where the rich and famous are revered and celebrated, where we are constantly bombarded to have this or that latest fashion, best car etc, we lose our contentment in having enough food and clothes as God promised He would provide.  We have become a society of waste and are seemingly always restless for more.  Jesus is teaching us to be satisfied and content with our daily needs even though I believe God still wants to prosper us beyond this to be a blessing to others and to nations.  He wants us to have enough for “every good work”.

2Co 9:8  And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.

God needs to be able to trust us with more.  Will we hold onto what we have and become a hoarder of our wealth or will we indeed release it to where it is meant to go?  Success can be a huge battle ground for pride. God desires to bring us into the Promised Land; a land that is flowing with milk and honey, where there are streams and pools of refreshing water and an abundance of wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates and olives.  This passage in Deuteronomy speaks of abundance, fullness and rest.

Deu 8:11-18  Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today, lest—when you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them; and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; when your heart is lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; who led you through that great and terrible wilderness, in which were fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty land where there was no water; who brought water for you out of the flinty rock; who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do you good in the end—then you say in your heart, 'My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.' And you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.

It is very pertinent that God give us this warning because pride is a blemish, a darkness on the soul, and it causes us to become unthankful and forgetful of the Lord’s blessing.  Pride is so insidious that often we don’t even know that we have it.

God will gift us, and as we seek His Righteousness and are “character-developed”, He can increase His anointing on us to do even more.  We need to have character to keep and carry what is precious to God, His anointing, and what should be extremely precious to us too.  Samson was anointed by God as a judge in Israel to bring freedom from the enemy.  But Samson was a pampered and spoilt brat who did not practise righteousness.  He broke the laws, catering to his fleshly desires and defiled himself on many occasions.  He did not treasure the anointing on his life and grieved the Holy Spirit of God, dishonoured his parents, touched the unclean and ended up blind and mocked in captivity in the enemy’s camp.  God still used him to destroy some of Israel’s enemies but one wonders how much more God could have done through Samson if he was not ruled by his passions and lusts.  Samson had a strong anointing on him but he did not have the character to carry that anointing to accomplish even greater things during his lifetime.  The race he ran was shortened by his own folly and he did not “strip off every weight that slows us done and the sin that so easily hinders our progress” Heb 12:1

There is a world of hurt out there that needs the touch of God through our time, our love, our resources and our faithfulness to use the gifts and abilities God has given us. Let us seek His face and His Righteousness and allow His Spirit to flow through us according to the grace He has bestowed upon us in Jesus Name.  Amen?

Humility - the key to the Anointing

Isa 57:15  For thus says the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: "I dwell in the high and holy place, With him who has a contrite and humble spirit, To revive the spirit of the humble, And to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

 

Humility is total surrender and dependence upon God.  God created all things by His will and reveals Himself, His goodness, His Love and His wisdom in and through creation.  He created us to be partakers, to partner with Him to see Heaven invade earth.  Right from the Garden of Eden, God gave humankind purpose, and showed this truth when He brought all the animals He had created to Adam to name.  Mankind is to work with the Almighty God in maintaining, nurturing and tending to the work of His hands.

 

Eph 2:10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

 

Php 2:13  for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.

 

God intended mankind to be dependent upon Him, as He upholds all by the Word of His Power and He ordered systems to continue to produce and maintain life.  We only need to look and see how small we are in a storm to get a right perspective of this Almighty God who set this all in place. This total dependency upon God is the virtue of humility.  It is the virtue that knows that it is in Him we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28) and outside of that we are the most miserable of creatures.

 

Pride is the root of sin and evil and is what caused satan and his hordes to be thrown out of heaven.  When we try to exalt ourselves above God, even as Eve was deceived and desired to be like God, we find ourselves in disobedience and thrown outside of the Presence of God.  James teaches us that

"GOD RESISTS THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE."   It is the humble person God can trust with His power and glory, as He will not share His Glory with another.

 

Jesus Christ humbled Himself by coming in the likeness of flesh, leaving the Glory of Heaven, where He was revered by angels, to be planted in the dark virgin womb of a young maidservant.  He further humbled Himself to be obedient to death on the cross where He became a curse for us and was made sin to redeem a wicked people.  Being equal with God, He never pushed His own agenda but only did the work the Father gave Him to accomplish and brought glory to God alone.  He took on a servant's garb to serve "especially wicked sinners" as His Grace and Mercy loved them to wholeness.

 

Without humility, we cannot fully abide in God's presence or experience His favour and power.  We are only the branches who must receive life and sustenance from the Vine.  Apart from God, we can do nothing.  He is the Potter and we are the clay and in humility we bow before Him, allowing Him to shape us, mould us and change us.  A truly humble person will allow the Divine Hand to bring discipline to shape us from one degree of glory to another as we work with the Holy Spirit to deny the flesh and take up our cross and become light to a needy world.  The humble stance says, "God I know you know me better than I know myself and I trust you in all circumstances."

 

The Israelites wandered around in the wilderness for 40 years, not able to trust that God knew better as He tried to humble them to test them, "to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not." (Deut 8:2)  God already knew what was in their hearts but we sometimes need His discipline in circumstances to show us what we have in our hearts so we can cry out for His help and surrender those things not pleasing to Him.  God went on to tell them that He tested them to "do you good in the end." (Deut 8:16)

 

Humility becomes fallen creatures and it is those who are humbled who receive and experience salvation.  Understanding that we need a Saviour softens our heart to bow and cry out from the depths of our being, Jesus I need you, and this is the posture we need to keep for the rest of our walk with God. 

 

Psa 149:4  For the LORD takes pleasure in His people; He will beautify the humble with salvation.  

 

Isn't that a beautiful word picture!  He beautifies the humble with salvation.  This word salvation means deliverance; aid, victory, prosperity: - health and help.

 

We are promised by James 4:10 to "Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up."  This means "elevate and exalt".  What an incredible thing that God, our Heavenly Father, the Creator of the Universe, does to those who are truly humble by the Cross as He seats us in heavenly places with Jesus Christ His Son. 

 

God will move on  behalf of the humble heart who cries out even as He promised,

 

"if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land." (2Ch 7:14). 

 

Did you catch that?!  God hears, God forgives and God heals.  He works on behalf of the humble and restores not only them but those amongst whom they live.

 

Let us walk in humility before God and man, knowing that each and every one of us has a place in the Kingdom to do the works preordained by the Father in bringing His light and salt to the earth. 

 

For it is the humble with whom He teaches His ways. (Ps 25:9)

 

Let me leave you with this warning and promise.

 

Pro 29:23  A man's pride will bring him low, But the humble in spirit will retain honour. 

Leaders - Shepherds of the Flock

1Pe 5:5  Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for "GOD RESISTS THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE."

 

I was talking to someone the other day who has been so disappointed with leadership that they have left the church.  Their expectation was high and sometimes we feel rightly so.  God has given them a heart to pastor, yet in the seeming busyness of life and running a church, there does not seem to be much one-on-one pastoring.  Then again, churches grow, thankfully, and to get around to everyone on a personal visitation would leave them NO time at all to tend to preparing their sermons or the everyday running of the church.

 

So do we have too high an expectation for our leaders?  I think not but I do think perhaps we need to look at this with a different perspective.

I have taken a good look at this – having struggled personally being overwhelmed to the point of losing all my joy.  Apparently this was noticed by leadership, yet I did not have one call me in and sincerely ask, "How are you REALLY doing?"  In pondering this, I realised a few things that I feel the Holy Spirit was whispering to my heart.  Firstly, where was my focus?!  Planted fairly and squarely on myself!  No wonder I was in a bit of a bother!  I have access to the throne room, and I did visit frequently over this period of time, but why do I feel that others should go running to the throne room on my behalf.  Sure it would have been nice to have someone say they are concerned that I seem to be struggling with something, but as Joyce Meyer always says, we need to run to the throne and not to the phone.  God is the one with the answers and He faithfully brought me through this "valley of the shadow of death" teaching me a lesson or two about myself and Him.

Secondly, more than this, I realised that just because I felt like this with my feelings running high on "self", I now have NO excuse to sincerely ask those around me, "How are you REALLY doing.  Can I pray for you?  Do you need someone to talk to; shall we go out for a coffee?"  What if I asked my leaders these questions instead of waiting for them to ask me? We expect them to drop everything to run to our aid at our first call but do we run to their aid or the aid of someone else in the church?  This is a question that begs answering, for each of us to search our hearts.  If we did love our leaders and care for them in this way, how would it help them serve the church?  WOW! What a thought!

 

"...For the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ"  Eph 4:12 

 

Thirdly, and please get this, "Judgement begins at the house of God".  That's not just judgement on the leadership (and they will have the harshest judgement) but that includes you and me.  Leaders, as the above scripture teaches, are to equip us for the work of ministry.  Are we ministering to fellow believers as well as those in the market place?  Are we doing, what we expect of our leaders, any better than they?  Have we laid aside ourselves to help our fellow brothers and sisters?  Do we give heaps of grace for our own short fallings but condemn our leaders and church family to judgement and criticism?  Have we stepped out in faith and obedience to plant a church and have to put up with a congregation like us?  Isn't it a bit two-faced for us to expect only the best Christian wisdom, behaviour and love from the leadership, yet, we can gossip about the way they run the church, and, criticise and judge our family in the church. We seem to have two standards – one for them and one for us.

 

There is no perfect church and certainly are no perfect people.  Do we go to church for the benefits or, do we go to meet with Almighty God and be filled with His Love so that we can pour this overflowing love onto others?  Let us do what the Apostle Paul urges us to do:-

 

"For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith." Rom 12:3 

 

Let us give grace to each other, for when we stand before the judgement seat of Christ, we might be begging for God's grace upon us.

Tempering Righteousness with Love and Mercy

Psa 85:10  Unfailing love and truth have met together. Righteousness and peace have kissed!

Psa 85:11  Truth springs up from the earth, and righteousness smiles down from heaven.

Psa 85:12  Yes, the LORD pours down His blessings. Our land will yield its bountiful harvest.

Psa 85:13  Righteousness goes as a herald before Him, preparing the way for His steps.

 

In contemplating God's righteousness vs man's, I thought about the elder brother of the prodigal son.  He was full of his own righteousness and so was condemning and judgemental towards his younger brother who had squandered his heritance on riotous living. (Luk 15:11-32) Angrily he looked at what he had done "right" as opposed to what the younger brother had done "wrong" and this comparison made him bitter, unloving and unforgiving.  He did not see, or understand that the self-centred younger brother left saying, "Father give me" and returned in a spirit of repentance, humbled and changed with a contrite heart that said, "Father make me". The older brother wanted judgement to be passed and did not consider giving mercy.

 

Psa 71:19  Your righteousness, O God, reaches to the highest heavens. You have done such wonderful things. Who can compare with You, O God?

 

Isa 28:17  I will test you with the measuring line of justice and the plumb line of righteousness

 

God is the only standard of Righteousness that we have and will be judged upon.  No wonder it is something we can't attain too, yet God is His great mercy "made Him [Jesus Christ] who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." 2Co 5:21  We appropriate this righteousness by faith and though we work out our salvation with "fear and trembling", we need always remember that it comes not of our own "works" but with the sanctifying help of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.  It is the Holy Spirit who convicts us when we displease the Father and we heed His voice to repent and obey.  We have no basis for pride that would cause us to not give mercy or grace to others, when we have received mercy and grace in abundance by the Father.  As the old proverb goes, "There by the grace of God, go I."

 

We are purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ and brought into right relationship with Him and are given new life. 

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 2Co 5:17 

If we have been a Christian for a long time, we must remember that the changes we see in ourselves is purely the work of the Holy Spirit in us and our obedience to His gentle conviction.  Let us not be like the elder brother who can tick off the list of right living like some badge and then use that as our standard by which to compare others.  We are all on a journey in Christ and at different stages of maturity.  Sure our obedience and faith play a role in our growth but we don't know the struggles and hurts that others harbour in their souls and the struggle towards glorious freedom in Christ.  I am convinced that all of us struggle in some area in our life in total surrender to Jesus Christ.  We cannot see what goes on in another person's heart and their heart cry to God the Father in their battle of surrender.

All of us desire mercy.  Let us extend mercy too, even if it means we may err on the side of mercy over judgement, knowing that God the Father will call each of us to account one day.  Let us rather cry out to Him on behalf of those we deem "less spiritual" and be an encourager in their faith rather than a stumbling block to their healing.  And let us constantly go to the Father to ask for His grace and mercy on our lives and on the lives of others.

Let us keep our eyes on Jesus so we don't have the time to look around and judge but ask Him to open our eyes instead to the one who needs a helping hand.  Let us not be too righteous in our own eyes to help and instead harden our hearts toward those God has called us to love.

 

And this righteousness will bring peace. Yes, it will bring quietness and confidence forever. Isa 32:17 

 

Righteousness yields the fruit of peace; peace with God, peace with ourselves and peace with others.  I encourage all of us to pursue right and holy living and to keep short accounts with God and our neighbour, remembering......

 

Whoever pursues righteousness and unfailing love will find life, righteousness, and honour. Pro 21:21