Once we experience new birth in Christ, we begin the process of growing in Christ; a growth in grace and knowledge of Him. This process is what theologians call “sanctification”. As it unfolds, we learn this is a cooperative work with the Lord. We may pray and pray and pray, even beg God to help us know and grow in Him but nothing happens without our effort. It has been said concerning spiritual progress and service, “Work as if it all depends on us and trust as if it all depends on God.”
Pleasing God, Making Disciples of Jesus Christ
Pleasing God, Making Disciples of Jesus Christ
Ministries
Proverbs 1:2-7 – To know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight, to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity; to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth —
Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance, to understand a proverb and a saying, the words of the wise and their riddles.The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Giving. It is the very nature of God. He gives – a lot and overflowing. The most familiar verse in the Bible reads, “For God so loved the world that He gave” (John 3:16). And He does so, not reluctantly, but freely and fully. Our Lord even told us, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). Yes, God is the Supreme Giver and has left us in the life of the Lord Jesus the example to follow. And in our relationship with the Lord, the best thing we give Him is ourselves; all of us.
A faith untested and untried is a faith which must not be trusted. It will fail every time the storms of life come. It will not stand the crashing waves of tough circumstances. It is of sand, not the solid rock of Christ and His Word, and will be washed away at the first sign of difficulty. And to ensure we have the type of faith which holds during trying times, God tests us. He tries His children with intense and severe tests. He told us so – “Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction” (Isaiah 48:10).
All of us want at least two things in the Christian life; spiritual growth in Christ and fruitfulness for Christ. And I would say we all want it fast; like now, like instantaneous, like immediate, like no waiting time. Nothing wrong with these desires. In fact, something would be really wrong if these desires were lacking in our lives. But here is where we often struggle. When we are going through tough times in life and don’t understand what God is doing, we find great comfort in these familiar verses found in Isaiah 55:8-9. These verses also apply in the process of God refining us into the image of His Son or spiritually growing us.
Today’s scripture was my portion of reading in my yearly Bible reading plan. It is familiar to all of us, but today, it jumped off the page with newness and clarity in its application. And the lessons are many and apply to all of us who are seeking to live for Christ. All of these lessons are in the context of “storms”, not a literal one as the disciples were encountering, but in the ones we face every day of life – emotional storms, spiritual storms, situational storms, relational storms . . . you may add a “personal storm” to the list. So, since these are realities in all our lives, let’s consider some valuable truths behind all our storms.
In today’s scripture, we see the deity of Jesus doing a miraculous work of feeding thousands of people with about enough for maybe a family of four, if they are not starving. But don’t allow the miraculous physically cause us to miss an important lesson spiritually. Jesus displays His power and the people displayed action to His power; they ate. The food would have meant nothing if they didn’t do their part in the miracle.