I Peter 5:8-11
Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Imagine with me that you are in a jungle, you don’t know what is in the jungle, you were dropped off there and don’t know how to get out. You are completely dependent on your map to get you out and get you to where you need to be. However as you are venturing through the wilderness, you hear some very very soft rustling of leaves from behind you. At this point, what are you going to do, sit still and take a nap or be on guard while running to the goal, depending on the map to guide you through?
Here is how the Message translation goes for this same passage:
Keep a cool head. Stay alert. The Devil is poised to pounce, and would like nothing better than to catch you napping. Keep your guard up. You're not the only ones plunged into these hard times. It's the same with Christians all over the world. So keep a firm grip on the faith. The suffering won't last forever. It won't be long before this generous God who has great plans for us in Christ—eternal and glorious plans they are!—will have you put together and on your feet for good. He gets the last word; yes, he does.
Christians, are we spiritually asleep? We are in the middle of a spiritual war and yet we can so often be found napping in the middle of the battlefield, in the middle of the jungle, basically waiting to be taken captive by the enemy. Why? Is it because following God takes too much effort? That you have to give up too much to be a Christian, yet you call yourself one anyways? This life is meant to be a fight, you are supposed to give it your all. No one said it would be easy. Jesus, God Himself, died for you so that you could know God in a relationship, yet we think that this walk consists of solely saying a prayer and going to church. If Jesus had to die for it, why do we believe that we won’t have to give anything for it? We did not deserve His sacrifice. We spat in His face, we hated Him (that is what sin is after all, a demonstration against God by us. Rebellion against the King), and yet He died so that we could know Him through His grace. You did nothing to deserve it. It is all God. But, He chose you so that you may know Him, and experience this grace. It may be difficult for 100 years on earth, but that is nothing in comparison with eternity. It can be difficult now for a brief period of time or it can be difficult for eternity in hell because we did not know Him. We may know of Him, but do we truly know Him? Do we have a relationship with Him that consists of more than prayer for food, a prayer saying we are sinners and attending church however regularly we go? We can go to church every day, but if we do not place our faith in God and follow Him, that relationship cannot be real. Following is an action, it requires effort. Will we put in this effort to be able to know the One that made us and that gives us forgiveness, wholeness, meaning, purpose, love, and so much more. Family, do we know the God of the Bible? If we do not read His Word, then how can we know Him? God has called us to Him. But how many of us really have sought to get to know Him? And even when we do know Him, do we continue to strive to know Him more and more? Or are we content with what we know about God? Are we content with where our relationship is with Him? If we are to have a passionate love for Him, how come we don’t seek Him? How come we are fine with being mediocre Christians? Do we compare ourselves with other Christians instead of looking at ourselves in comparison to God? If you compare yourself with God instead of man, it will make you uncomfortable and you won’t like what you find, but you will realize the extent of the grace you have received and you can’t live a life that ignores it completely. You will either have to push it away constantly and fight with it or you will have to give in to it, realizing that God loves you, even in the midst of your hideous and rebellious sins He decided to die for you. And He doesn’t regret it. He wanted to. But my question is, you have to make a choice about this grace, will you ignore it and live a life belonging to the darkness, hoping that a prayer will get you to heaven and just hope that when you die you will look at God and He will say “I love you, and your prayer said that you believe in me and placed your faith in me so you can come in.” Is that going to be what you want? A simple hope? Not a promise, no guarantee? A life filled with compromise that is ruled by sin and lust but hopefully your prayer cancelled all that out? I have been there. I thought about what God would say to me, and though I don’t know whether or not that prayer saved me, I know that had I continued to live that way and by the grace of God get into heaven, God would’ve looked at me and said, “I love you, but what did you do with everything I gave you? You abused my grace, treating it like a spoiled person treats money. You had potentials to do great things to bring me glory, but you rejected them, instead taking the glory for yourself. You loved your sins, you wouldn’t try to give them up, and when you did, you were happy with the progress you had made and then were content to return to them.” What will He say to you? I pray that He may look us in the eye and be proud of us with a tear of joy running down His cheek because He knows that we love Him and gave Him our everything and He is proud of us.
I believe this following statement 100%:
“A prayer will not save you, a belief that you place your hope and your faith in will however.”
Family, did you know that nowhere in the Bible does it say to repeat the sinner’s prayer after a pastor in order to be saved? No! It says multiple times throughout the book of Acts to believe on the Lord and we will be saved. Believe. A belief is something that your whole life is formed around. It impacts everything. You fully are behind it. Has your life been fully impacted by God?
May we believe in God with all of us, our core behaviors to our actions and thoughts. May we be a generation filled with belief about our God.
Blessings
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