“If we live, we live to the Lord: and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.” – Romans 14:6.
In the context of our daily lives, this verse puts all things in perspective. Imagine with me, if we have internalized this verse in our spirit, we are actually saying that death has truly lost its sting. And when we fear neither misfortune nor death, we are truly fearless. We stand like an anchor on the promises of God’s love, mercy and grace. We remain unshakeable by the storms of life. As such, we do not shun or cheat death. We do not run from it. On the contrary, we embrace it not as an end to the old Christian life but a start of a new one.
Death is an exit to His eternal rest. Death is a doorway to paradise. And in our life, we become a testimony of faith to both believers and non-believers. Richard Wurmbrand aptly put it, “A flower, if you bruise it under your feet, rewards you by giving you its perfume. Likewise Christians, tortured by Communists, rewarded their torturers by love. We brought many of our jailers to Christ. And we are dominated by one desire: to give Communists who have made us suffer the best we have, the salvation which comes from our Lord Jesus Christ.”
What is bothering you, beloved? What is your present pain? What is the bitterness in your cup? Are you lost in your stride? Beloved, all is not lost. God has made a way for you. The way may not be obvious. The way may be narrow. The way may be hidden for now. But the way will soon reveal itself to you as you take the walk of faith with God. Your hope therefore is not just in overcoming your current trials; your hope is in the one who will carry you through it. For it is written in Isaiah 42:16, “I will lead the blind by the ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them.”
“Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.” – Psalms 27:14.
Patience is not my strongest virtue. I dislike standing in queue. I dislike waiting for my wife. I dislike delays, postponements and setbacks. I want it and I want it now. Waiting is a discipline I lack most and want the least. But God has other plans for me. Like a farmer who waits for his harvest, or a patient who waits for his healing, God wants us to wait for his reply to our prayer.
Many times, we don’t experience instant answer to our prayer. We may call upon the Lord but his voice is not immediately forthcoming. God seems to be silent. God seems to be busy. God seems to be far away. In our Christian experiences, God responds to us in three ways when we pray.
The first way is the surest and the fastest. He answers instantly like fresh manna from the sky. Prayers like this never put a dent to our faith. The second response from God is a slow and steady one. To the person praying, it appears that God is taking His time. But despite the delay, God still answers and our faith is seldom rattled by this kind of prayer. Answers to this prayer are always based on divine timing, that is, God’s timing. And when the answer comes, it is always neither too early or too late. In the end, it is always just nice, for the maximum benefit.
The third response is the most trying and frustrating of them all. There is no answer. God seems to have forgotten about your prayer. God seems to be on a holiday – gone for a cosmic vacation. Many people I know have been praying for a miracle, or for a specific healing, or for a way out of their personal crisis, but to no result. In fact, to kick sand into the wound, the outcome was totally different from the prayer requested. Christians who are praying for healing find their loved ones getting worse. Christians praying for a financial breakthrough ends up bankrupt. And Christians praying for a husband ends up with a pet for lifelong companion.
By faith, I know God’s silence is not His withdrawal. If God is God, then He knows what’s best. To those who feel that your prayer is not answered, and the results are totally different from what you’d expected from a God who loves unconditionally and is all-powerful, I want to challenge you to hold on to the faith. Don’t be shaken. God knows best. Like a ripple in stream, God sees the many consequences of an action. A death in the family is not the end of a life. It may be the beginning of many lives. Ask a martyr and you will note that churches are built on martyr’s blood. A financial downfall may result in financial prudence in the future. An unanswered prayer may be God’s way of telling you that it is not the best time or it is not in His will or it may be worse if it is answered. For all you know, God’s answer may very well be his non-answer. His reply may be his silence. His plan may just be the opposite.
As far as we are here on planet earth, we will never completely understand. There are just too many consequential ripples over time to know what’s best and what’s not. Just rest on the assurance that God knows best and His best will suffice for now.
“When a man’s ways are pleasing to the Lord, he makes even his enemies live at peace with him.” – Proverbs 16:7
This is a powerful principle. I call it the mirror principle. We reflect what is inherently inside of us. Others see in us either the glory of God or the gory of sins. When we walk in God’s laws and principles, control our tongue and internalize His love for us, we cannot help but project an image irresistible to the people around us. There is surely something attractive or compellingly curious about a man of God. It is not in his Sunday smile. It is not in the way he preaches. Neither is it in his fine suit and tie. The curiosity goes deeper.
It cuts through mere appearance and superficial showmanship to where the spirit resides. The spirit of God flows out of a man for whom God is well pleased. It is a spirit of genuine love, empowering faith and abundant hope. And this spirit is contagious. Your friends, relatives and loved ones cannot help but get polarized to such people.
I believe that what is wrong with most Christians today is not so much that they are not changing the world for God, but they are not changing themselves for God. We can be the greatest obstacle to our spiritual growth. Beloved, don’t let yourself stand in your way. If you are your own blind spot, then do something about it. Remember, coping with difficult people is always a problem, especially if the difficult person happens to be you. Is there unforgiveness in your heart? Is there a secret sin that you are still keeping in your closet? Is there envy and hatred in your spirit? Sins of this sort give out rancid, pungent smell and people around you can whiff it up.
So, examine yourself. Are there areas to be changed? Remember, change yourself and you will see the change you want to see in others – because, for the simplest reason, everybody is looking for a role model and you can be that role model if your role model is God.
“The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.” – Galatians 6:8
This is another powerful verse, and I sincerely believe the forerunner of all self-improvement literatures. I have read my fair share of self improvement books. Mention first names like Covey, Robbins, Ziglar, Peale, Dryer, and Maxwell, they all ring more than a bell to me. But I realize that invariably, all their principles, encapsulated in acronyms, in point forms, in short hand, are but principles that are based on the above verse – that is, the principle of sowing and reaping, action and consequences, or circle of influence.
Let me explain. I am sure you guys are familiar with the principle of sowing and reaping. Most basic of all examples is that you sow an apple seed and you get an apple tree. You sow durian seed you get a durian tree. Putting it metaphorically, you sow love you get respect from others. You sow kindness you receive charity in return. But the reverse is inevitably true. You sow prejudice you “get” hatred. You sow lust you “get” promiscuity. You sow bitterness you may end up having a short life. So, like a boomerang, your thoughts, words and actions will come back to you with full swing and force.
Therefore, applying this principle, I can confidently say that success and failure are determined by what you sow today. If you want to excel spiritually, you have to look at your hands. Are you holding seeds of faith, love and hope? Or, are you holding seeds of unforgiveness, hatred and lust? Remember, a farmer sows diligently, be it rain or sun, and he sees through his effort until the harvest. Beloved, your harvest awaits you; just remember to plant the right seeds.
“The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter till the full light of day.” – Proverbs 4:18
When I read verses like Matthew 5:48, which says, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly father is perfect,” and 1 Peter 1:16, “Be holy, because I am holy,” I told God that His standard is too high. I mean, how can I, a mere mortal, be like God, a divine being? I mean, I don’t remember looking at a void and say, “Let there be light.” I don’t remember instructing Noah to build an Ark. And I don’t remember flooding the earth. I am a mere mortal and I have many limitations, too many that I may have sadly lost count.
But, the above verse is telling me to stop comparing. It is not about comparisons. I don’t take a spiritual ruler and measure my spiritual level against that of Jehovah God. The attempt fails right from the start. Remember the verse, “…we all fall short of His glory.” The above verse tells me not to compare but to rely. And that is the key word, “rely”. We as Christians are called to rely on God. To drink from his stream of living waters. To trust and obey, for there’s no other way, but to trust and obey.
And we are not without help. Jesus has sent a guide, a spiritual guide, his initial is HS. Holy Spirit in short. Of course, based on our own effort, we can never be perfect. But with HS’s help, we are on the right path. For it is written in Proverbs 15:19, “The way of the sluggard is blocked with thorns, but the path of the upright is a highway.” I believe that for those who are sincere and consistent, the path of righteousness is indeed a journey with HS and every step takes us closer to our destination. Soon enough, the first gleam of dawn shall shine ever so brightly until the full light of day. Perfection will ultimately come…on a perfect day.
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” – James 1:2-4
Whenever I read this verse to myself, I am reminded of the last exchange of a communist guard (CG) and a tortured Christian. It goes something like this…
CG: I am almighty as you suppose your God to be. I can kill you!
Christian: The power is all on my side…I can love you while you torture me to death.
I think nothing speaks more about maturity than the last words of the dying Christian, “I can love you while you torture me to death.” Surely, the choice to love when there are all the reasons in this world to hate is infinitely more powerful than a heart that has succumbed to the cold and frigid hands of hatred. I can only imagine the pain, sorrow and agony that the persecuted had to go through in the hands of their enemies. And yet, despite all that they had gone through, they were still able to turn hatred into love, sadness into joy, and pain into hope.
I guess we are never complete in Christ if our faith remains untested. There is something about putting our faith to the test that works “leap and bounds” for our spiritual growth and maturity. In the book, Jesus Freaks Volume Two, Richard Wurmbrand challenged his communist persecutors about the genuineness of his faith by saying, “When an engineer has built a bridge, the fact that a cat can pass over the bridge is no proof that the bridge is good. A train must pass over it to prove its strength.”
Beloved, whether we like it or not, our faith will, in one way or the other, be tested. No Christian is immune to this. We may not face testing of the sort encountered by Christians in China, Middle East or Africa - the sort that is too gruesome and brutal to recount. But our testing, in the comfort of our living room and our air-conditioned workplace, comes in a somewhat subtle, insidious, and equally menacing form. It has a name – it’s called “spiritual complacency.”
Ever felt tired of going to church? Ever felt tempted to go back to that sin you had renounced long time ago? Ever felt God is not real? Ever felt God doesn’t care? Ever felt that you have everything you want and you don’t need God? Sergio Scataglini put it well in his book, The Fire of His Holiness, by cautioning us about the telltale signs of spiritual decadence. Take note of them as listed here:-
1) Lack of spiritual a moral energy;
2) Refusal to change;
3) Lack of joy;
4) Becoming too controlling;
5) Living with anxiety and panic;
6) Accepting sin as normal;
7) Boredom in your prayer life;
8) Having our feet in the church and our eyes in the world;
9) Withholding finances from the Lord;
10) Bothered by the cross;
11) Addictions;
12) Fatalism - lost faith in our future;
13) Hooked on pornography;
14) Unholy entertainment; and
15) Deadly Passivity.
It’s no wonder God had to confuse the people with different tongues to stop them from building and scaling the Tower of Babel - to attain a false sense of godliness.
“Do not gloat over me, my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will rise. Though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light. Because I have sinned again him, I will bear the Lord’s wrath, until he pleads my case and establishes my right. He will bring me out into the light; I will see his righteousness.” – Micah 7:8-9
This verse is my comfort blanket. I remember how this verse consoled me in my darkest moments. When I sin, this verse gives me hope. It spoke to me the way a father would speak to his son, in that assuring and comforting voice. What is so amazing about this verse is the affectionate mention that God is our advocate, our present day lawyer. He says he will “plead my case” and “establish my right” and he will “bring me out into the light” and “I will see his righteousness.”
In one verse, the whole depth of God’s love and intent are spelt out in full judicial splendor. God has indeed pleaded my case when He let His son go. He has established my right when He allowed His creation to crucify the creator. He has brought me into the light when He gave us the Holy Spirit - the Spirit that will lead us to all truth. And where is all this leading us? Beloved, it leads us to the personal realization of God’s holiness, His righteousness. Our pathway has been set for us. God’s plan has been put in motion. The devil’s fate is sealed.
Why am I so sure? 1 Corinthians 15:51-54 gives us the assurance, “Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will al be changed – in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true – Death has been swallowed up in victory!” So, how can one not be positive, hopeful and joyful about this promise?
Indeed, whether we live or we die, we belong to God. So, beloved, in all life’s challenges, let us deal with them with the unquenchable optimism and hope of Galatians 9:6, which proclaimed, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”
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