This morning I feel like the Lord has something for each of us through these scriptures. Take time to allow these verses to minister to your heart. There are areas that you have been seeking Him for quite some time. He wants to speak to you today through these scriptures.

Isaiah 62

For Zion’s sake I will not hold My peace, And for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, Until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, And her salvation as a lamp that burns. ² The Gentiles shall see your righteousness, And all kings your glory. You shall be called by a new name, Which the mouth of the Lord will name. ³ You shall also be a crown of glory In the hand of the Lord, And a royal diadem In the hand of your God. ⁴ You shall no longer be termed Forsaken, Nor shall your land any more be termed Desolate; But you shall be called Hephzibah, and your land Beulah; For the Lord delights in you, And your land shall be married. ⁵ For as a young man marries a virgin, So shall your sons marry you; And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, Soshall your God rejoice over you.

“Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.” Ephesians 1:4

The more we walk in true holiness, the more whole we become. When our desire, passion, & pursuit are to honor Him with our lives, He strips us of the world, and He purges us of ourselves. Holiness is a long process.  The words “in love” are the key terms that define this process.

As performance oriented people, we are too concerned about accomplishing milestones, rather than allowing God to lead us on a journey of a lifetime!!  Deep inside we hope that we can become complete or whole quickly, so we can go about doing His work or fixing others.

The Lord continually reminds us that we can’t solve the world’s problems but we can allow Him to work in us. If God’s will and His kingdom are not established in us, then we can’t influence His kingdom to be established around us. To the level that the Lord has gotten hold of our lives, is the level our lives have the potency to affect change around us. As we grow in Christ-likeness, we become the salt and light that the world needs us to be.

Many times in our Christian Cliché’ we say that we love Jesus, and He is in my heart. The issue is not whether Jesus is in our heart or not, but How much of our heart belongs to Jesus? That’s the essence of our lives. We cannot allow Jesus and self to be the master at the same time. The Lord will continually allow us to get tested, so what is in our heart can get manifested. The Lord will not relent until He has it all. This heart of ours needs to be completely captured by God. Every room, closet, basement belongs to Him. He searches room by room, closet by closet, the basement, and under every unsuspecting good intent until He exposes everything. There is no complete victory until everything that belongs to self, or the enemy, has been either captured or obliterated. No idolatry, no religious piety can stand anymore!!

The central control of our heart must be given over to Jesus. We must apply the cross to our ideas, thoughts, opinions, and past experiences. They are done. It is finished. The authority and the kingdom have been given over to someone more powerful. He is the ruler. He sets the order, and He sets the rules. Anything His new government establishes is the order of the day. The old is dead, and has no power, nor authority.

Praise God for His goodness. Praise God for His authority and His power to bring about the change that He can only bring. The Emancipation Proclamation!!!

“Then we turned and journeyed into the wilderness of the Way of the Red Sea, as the Lord spoke to me, and we skirted Mount Seir for many days.

 “And the Lord spoke to me, saying: ‘You have skirted this mountain long enough; turn northward.  And command the people, saying, “You are about to pass through the territory of your brethren, the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir; and they will be afraid of you. Therefore watch yourselves carefully. ⁵ Do not meddle with them, for I will not give you any of their land, no, not so much as one footstep, because I have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession.You shall buy food from them with money, that you may eat; and you shall also buy water from them with money, that you may drink.

 “For the Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hand. He knows your trudging through this great wilderness. These forty years the Lord your God has been with you; you have lacked nothing.” Deuteronomy 2:2-7

The Lord gave specific instructions in this section of scripture to Moses. The Israelites are about to travel through territories of their brethren, the descendants of Esau. The Lord tells the Israelites that these people will be afraid of them (verse 4). He also gives them instructions in verse 5 and 6 on how to pass through the territory. The Lord goes on to tell Moses about other territories the Israelites will be passing and that He has not planned on giving this territories to them.

This chapter of scripture is very important for our desert seasons of life. When we are going through the desert process there could be long seasons where we have empty hands. We haven’t been given the opportunity to build. We cannot plant because we are in transition. At this point of scripture the Israelites have been on the move for 40 years. They couldn’t build houses, or support themselves, but God sustained them by providing Manna for forty years!!

The book of Genesis describes how God created us in His image and He called us to be fruitful, multiply, & subdue the earth. As people, we have a desire to create, work, produce, prosper, & increase. However, in a long desert journey those needs have to get suspended and we need to allow God to do the work He wants to do in us. He is a faithful God. He will give us what we need, but often in that season He will not give us what we desire.!!

In desert seasons, we need to allow our desires to be subdued by Heaven, or our desires may run our lives. These desires could create dissatisfaction in our lives. They will try to redefine us based on our perceived lack in life. This can lead to jealousy and envy of others who may be in different season of life.

The Lord knew the wandering Israelites would be faced with temptations as they passed through the various territories, so He warned them that none of those territories belonged to them. He had already chosen who should have ownership of those areas. He also didn’t want the Israelites to expect these tribes to treat them with special care or give them something for free. This is the same temptation that we can face in desert season. If we look at others who are settled, we will want what they have. We may expect them to help us get what they have, or expect them to give us something for free because after all we believe someone should pity us!

Patience is hard in desert seasons because you can’t keep yourself busy with just doing things to pass the time. You begin to feel the length of time more than ever. Patience does not have an objective timeline, but it is subjective upon God’s will.  Abraham and Sara experienced this. It wasn’t as if Abraham and Sara hadn’t waited a long time, but they didn’t wait long enough!! As a result they moved into action in the flesh thinking that they have waited long enough.

The root of impatience is unbelief. If we move in haste, it could alter the destiny the Lord has for us, or it could postpone God’s process. We can also bring things into our lives that the Lord did not intend. Abraham’s choice of Ishmael caused this for him and his descendants!!

Today, let’s ask the Lord to give us the grace we need to be patient with His process!!

Who are your friends? How well do you know the people around you?

Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did. But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man. John 2:23-25

Commit: to think to be true, to be persuaded of, to credit, place confidence in, of the thing believed, to credit, have confidence.

Jesus came to lay down His life for us, so we can have life!!  Jesus declared, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends”. John 15:13 Jesus was not afraid of loving us and giving Himself for us. It was for this purpose that He came to the world; that we may have life and have life more abundantly.

Jesus also knew that although He dearly loved people and His disciples, His relationship with them was not a peer to peer relationship. He was very aware that no matter how much He loved the people, no one was going to love Him the same way that He loved them. Here, we can observe the three types of relationships that Jesus had with people. He had his natural family, his mother, and his brothers. He also had His disciples whom He was training for the Great Commission, and finally He had the crowd who followed Him.

His Natural Family – In these relationships, when his natural family wanted to speak to Him, he very clearly declared, “Who is My mother and who are My brothers?”  And He stretched out His hand toward His disciples and said, “Here are My mother and My brothers!  For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother.” Matt 12: 48

Basically, while Jesus was a man who loved us deeply, he knew that the priority of His relationship and commitment with his people would need to be in relation to how they relate to the father. He would not give priority to natural family affections over the spiritual commitment. On the other hand, while on the cross He asked John to look after His Mother (John 19:27). This was showing us that He still loved her deeply and cared about her welfare after He was going to leave her, but regardless it that didn’t stop Him from doing the will of the Father!!

His Disciples– He spent 3 ½ years of loving, teaching and pouring Himself into these disciples. His focus was always on the fact that at some point He was going to have to leave them. He revealed this to them over time as they were together. Sometimes His statements disappointed His disciples because they were so worldly focused that they were thinking in natural terms about the Kingdom of God. Jesus didn’t change His message to ensure the happiness of the disciples, but He prepared them for what was coming up in the near future, which was going to drastically change their relationships. Just before Jesus went to the cross, in the book of John He tells them, “No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.” John 15:15.  Their relationship had changed from the position of serving and being taught to the position of friendship with Jesus. Jesus had to observe a level of growth and commitment from the disciples before He could make that kind of statement.  Jesus knew that they needed a certain level of maturity and understanding before he could bring them so close to His heart and His mission.

His relationship with the Crowd– Jesus knew very well that His message wasn’t going to be received by everyone, and He even warned His disciples that they will be persecuted in His name. However, Jesus went a step further. The above scripture (John 2:24-25) tells us that even when people received Him, Jesus did not commit himself to them because He knew what was in people’s hearts. The word “knew” speaks of very intimate knowledge of someone, as a husband and wife would know each other. Since Jesus knew people intimately and what was in their hearts, even when they received Him, He did not commit himself to them. The word “commit” means He didn’t put confidence in them. He knew that people can receive something to be true but unless they are tested, they will not know how strongly they have believed and received something. Time showed how true that was. The very people who cried out on the streets, “Hosanna, Hosanna..,” the following week were shouting “Crucify Him”. Peter, His own special disciple who was the first one in the group of disciples to declare that Jesus was the Messiah, was the one who denied Him three times when he was tested!!!

If Jesus had committed himself to anyone, He could have easily gotten discouraged and given up on God’s plan for His life as well as God’s plan for humanity, but because He didn’t commit Himself to them, He stayed stable and constant in the midst of shifting opinions and hearts.

If we are going to be effective people in our walk with God, we have to be very careful who we commit ourselves to. This is not a casual decision. It cannot be made based on emotion or even based on being heard or understood. This decision needs to be led by the Spirit, or it will lead us astray. We must be patient to allow God to take the relationship through its process and through testing. This will allow people’s character, their commitment, and their trust to be tested before we can see the person or the relationship clearly. This could avoid a lot of offenses, wrong expectations, and hurts in the body of Christ and in our lives. It will also keep us stronger in the faith and less vulnerable to people’s opinion of us. We must stay focused on Christ and understand His will for our relationships!!

Are your natural affections submitted to the Will of God?

Set your affection on things above, not on things of the earth. Colossians 3:2

The Lord Jesus loved us so much that He gave His life for us, so we may live. One of the two greatest commandments is to love our neighbor as ourselves. Love and affection are part of God’s kingdom. That’s who He is and that’s what He desires from His children and from the church. However, we must set our affections on the things above or we will not be able to fulfill God’s purpose in our lives!

From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders, chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!”  But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.” Matthew 16:21-23

Jesus loved His disciples very much. He had spent 3 ½ years with them in ministering to them. He ate with them and shared His heart with them. However, He knew that those relationships had a much greater purpose than to just have natural affections for them. If He were to be moved by His own emotions, He would never have wanted to leave them. He loved them deeply, but He also knew that the same God who gave Him the privilege of having these relationships was the one that would one day ask Him to surrender those relationships in order for the will of God to go forth.

Job declared, The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; Blessed be the name of the LORD.” Job 1: 21 This is the heart of Jesus.  He was going to be crucified and His relationships with His disciples would forever change. He was willing to do what the father had called Him to do because ultimately that was better for the disciples and for the entire world!

In each of our lives, there are seasons of blessings that come our way. The Lord blesses us with close friendships and relationships that we enjoy and grow from. Then a time comes that the Lord wants the relationship back. It is a test of our faith and our obedience to stay in step with the Spirit and do what God calls us to do. There are times that the Lord tests us to see what is in our heart; to see if a relationship has taken an ungodly place in our lives. This was the case with Abraham being asked by the Lord to sacrifice Isaac (Genesis 22). Isaac was God’s idea for Abraham, but oh how quickly God’s idea becomes our passion!! The Lord had to test Abraham to ensure that Isaac had remained God’s idea and not Abraham’s idea!!

At other times, the Lord wants the relationship back because it has lost its fruitfulness and it no longer produces good fruit. As a matter of fact, at times it could produce bad fruit or poison in the life of one or more people. This is when the Lord wants to cut a relationship off. When God asked Lot to leave Sodom and Gomorrah and to take his wife and two daughters, it was because the relationships in those two cities had become dangerous and poisonous to this family and God was about to judge those two cities (Genesis 16). Unfortunately, Lot’s wife still had affection to the things of the city and the people of the city and didn’t want to let go of them. This caused her to look back and she turned into a pillar of salt.

It is best to cooperate with the will of God even when it is difficult. He may call you to let go of a relationship that has been near and dear to you for a long time. Sometimes the Lord wants to change the relationship because one or both parties have changed. We need to stay in tune with the Holy Spirit and not allow our natural affections to impede the work of God in our lives. Losses are not enjoyable, but we need to remind ourselves that what the Lord asks of us is for our good and for the good of others who are impacted with this decision. Our obedience is always a blessing to us and those around us.

Are you a confident person? The Bible tells us that we can be a confident person.

Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:16

In whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him. Ephesians 3: 12

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels (jars of clay in NIV), that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. 2Cor 4:7

Definition of Confident: to trust, trust in, to have confidence, to be bold, to be secure.

Our culture thrives on confidence and looks for every which way to teach us to be confident. Many times the messages we hear from the culture boils down to self-reliance and feeling good about ourselves and our achievements. While there could be some value to that kind of confidence, it doesn’t address our true nature and our true need. We are fragile, needy people. Paul called us, “jars of clay”. A jar of clay has great uses, but it is very fragile. Nowadays, we use jars of clay as colorful decoration pieces in our homes. In Biblical times jars of clay were grayish containers used to hold water or food. They were not decorative items. They had a very useful purpose, but they were fragile and not showy!!

In order for us to be truly confident people, we can’t rely on ourselves but on the one who chose us. Jesus called us and we accepted Him, so our relationship with Him gives us confidence. We can approach the throne of a holy God with confidence at any time of day or night. We have access to the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, because of what Jesus has done for us. Our confidence should not be in our personality, our background, or past experiences. Our confidence should be based on our relationship with God the Father.

Our relationship with the Lord also gives us confidence in areas of our weakness. He will guide us through those times when we lack confidence. Thankfully, we are not left to ourselves to figure it out, but He has given us the Holy Spirit as the counselor and comforter to help us navigate through life. He also has given us instruction in the Bible to learn and to grow from, so we can become mature people.

As we grow in our confidence in the Lord, we depend less upon our own confidence.  We realize that the old ways of doing life don’t work, and as a matter of fact they have caused great damage to ourselves and those around us. We also recognize our vulnerability as a person as to how quickly our emotions can change and take us to the pit of despair or the heights of anger or rage. We recognize that without the Lord we have the propensity to be destructive with our tongue.  It is only in humbling ourselves and asking Him to help us that we show self-control in difficult situations and not lash out at people.

Sometimes people are afraid of seeing their true nature.  If we don’t pay attention to our true nature, which is sinful, it will cause pride and arrogance in our hearts, which in turn affects our relationship with the Lord and others. As a result, in our relationship with the Lord, we feel entitled to all kinds of blessings. Our thinking is, we are special and we are loved!! Now, in our relationships with people, we begin to think that every time something goes wrong it’s the other people’s fault, or the other person is jealous of me because I am called and anointed!!

We are fragile human beings, and when we have accurate view of ourselves it keeps us humble before our God and before people. The accurate view of ourselves brings humility which gives us greater opportunity to get to know Him. Knowing Him builds our confidence because we recognize that the God of this universe invited us to be in relationship with Him. A healthy view of ourselves compels us to depend on Him. We desperately need to be changed by His love and we can’t forget who we are without Him!!

Are you humbly confident?

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
¹⁹ To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”Luke 4: 18-19

This scripture tells us that Jesus came to bring recovery of sight. That means there was a time that we were able to see, but then couldn’t see. Jesus wants to heal those who don’t see. Spiritually, this means that we may have come to salvation years ago, used to see very well, and perceive the things of God, but over time things changed. Offenses, bitterness, and un-forgiveness cloud our vision and taint our perception. We no longer could see clearly, we only see through the prism of our pain; we interpreted everything through the eyes of rejection. When people speak to us about a different reality, we push them away accusing them of being insensitive or blind!!

“Then He came to Bethsaida; and they brought a blind man to Him, and begged Him to touch him. So He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town. And when He had spit on his eyes and put His hands on him, He asked him if he saw anything.

²⁴ And he looked up and said, “I see men like trees, walking.”

 Then He put His hands on his eyes again and made him look up. And he was restored and saw everyone clearly. ²⁶ Then He sent him away to his house, saying, “Neither go into the town, nor tell anyone in the town.” Mark 8:22-26

According to Webster spit means to eject saliva as an expression of aversion or contempt

In these scriptures Jesus is healing a blind man physically. We can also have Spiritual blindness which impacts how we see God and others in our lives. First, we live for ourselves and don’t really think or care about how our life impacts others. Then we come to salvation and we can see better to some degree. We are excited about our vision because compared to the past, we see a whole lot more. We love God and we have a new appreciation for people. Sooner or later, the very people we thought we loved start to annoy us. We see another side to them that we don’t like or don’t really appreciate. This begins to make us wonder if loving our neighbor as ourselves is that easy. Those scriptures about back-biting and gossiping that seemed so foreign to us now begin convicting us because we now have the very issues that we never thought we would have with others.

Years go by, and we live at a plateau thinking we are doing pretty well until someone brings up the name of the person we have tried to avoid for a long time. Every part of us wants to scream and defend ourselves and tell everyone how we see this person, but now we realize that there isn’t really a lot of love on our part for that person. The offenses, the hurts, the un-forgiveness, have created a tree out of this person or group of people. They look like trees without the image of God on them. This is the reason you can so easily talk badly about them, or at the minimum think evil of them. The image of God has been stripped off of this person. If he/she is a brother or sister in Christ, the image of Christ has been stripped too. A tree is an object. It doesn’t have a soul, so we don’t give our affection to it. We lose compassion for people, and we lose sight of the Lord’s love for them.

Sometimes we see people as trees because they are obstacles to achieve our goals or happiness. In ministering to others, people lose their uniqueness to us. We may have a cookie cutter answer to their issues because we don’t want to take time understanding their pain, fears, or issues. We have an objective and clinical answer to this object called a tree. This is when the Lord has to heal us the second time!!

What is interesting in verse 23 is that Jesus uses spit to heal this man!! Do you know how that word was used in other places in the New Testament? It was used when they were mocking Jesus and ridiculing him that they spit on Him. You see, spit does not seem to be a loving action. It actually appears humiliating; but when Jesus used it, the blind man wasn’t offended because He knew that Jesus was touching him for good not for evil. When things happen in our lives that don’t make sense or look humiliating, we need to wait and see how God wants to use it to help us see Him and others better instead of jumping to conclusions.

Do we always know that we are blind? According to Revelation 3:17-19, we are not always aware that we are blind. It is the work of the Holy Spirit; sometimes those who really love us tell us that we are blind. The Lord wants us to have recovery of sight. He wants us to know Him intricately; to know people more deeply and allow their humanity and uniqueness to touch us. This will allow us to minister to them better.

We are called to receive the recovery of sight. If there is a person, or even the Lord, who looks like a tree to you, would you ask the Lord to heal your vision? It will take humility before we can see. You can read Acts 9 about Saul and his amazing conversion!! He became a humble man because the Lord had to blind him before He could restore his true vision. When he saw believers as trees, he was out to get them and persecute them because they looked like a threat to him, but now that He saw Jesus the TRUTH, his vision was completely restored. He became a humble man and a servant of all and was willing to lay it all down for His sake.

Lord, please heal our vision. If we have become blind, give us the recovery of sight. If we see you or people as a tree, please forgive us Lord and heal our vision. If we have blind spots to certain areas where we have resisted you and others, please give us another chance to see those areas. Father thank you that you are the healer of our sight!! We want the 20/20 vision. We want to see right and perceive right. Amen!!

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. James 1:17

God’s gifts don’t always come in fancy packages. His gifts don’t have all the bells and whistles of modern day packaging, with all the tissues, bows and ribbons, making it look so significant and valuable!!

When you get real jewelry as a gift, many times it comes in a smaller, simpler package. It does not have a lot of fluff, but when you open it, you truly see the treasure in the little box. That’s how God’s gifts come. They look small and simple, but once you open up the gift, you find a treasure that is truly the good and perfect gift that the Lord has sent!!

His ways are not our ways!! How the Lord operates in our lives is so different than how the world tries to get our attention. Have you ever thought about the fact that the Lord is not a big advertiser? If He really wanted to make himself known, He could have used a variety of ways to show Himself, thereby bringing attention to Himself. But that’s not who our God is. As a matter of fact, many times, His ways are quiet, gentle, and unassuming. We could so easily miss them or dismiss them.

When the Israelites were hungry in the desert, God sent them food from heaven, they called it manna which means, “what is it?”. This so called food was a thin wafer that didn’t amount to anything. For more details see Exodus 16:13-16. If they had been given any other option, they would have completely ignored it. They might have even stepped on it as they moved on their journey, but they couldn’t because they were desperate for food. So they called it, manna asking, “what is it”; because it seemed insignificant and it didn’t look like any food they were used to.

The Lord does the same thing in our lives. He whispers something in our ear like, go and talk to the sister in the church and reach out to her, and we can find all kind of excuses as to why we don’t need to go. All along there is a blessing in obeying His voice. He could be trying to free us from our insecurities, or the other person may have a need that He wants to bless them by you reaching out to them. But, because His word comes softly, often not how we expect it, like manna, it doesn’t seem that important to obey or to obey right away. When you think about the Israelites in the desert, they were sustained by “what is it?” for decades, and even their children and their babies didn’t lack anything eating the same thin wafer.

Walking with God will require faith. In a world that is a great advertiser of goods and many times over-promises and under- delivers, God does the opposite. He comes quietly and gently. He asks us to do something not telling us “why”. Then, when we do it, it delivers joy, peace and growth in our faith. However, we must be in a spiritual place to see it. He always delivers!!!

There are other times that on initial review doesn’t appear to be a good gift. This could be a relationship that ends, a job loss, any other tough or sad situation. This is when a deeper faith is required. It demands a trust in God that what He has brought into our lives will still work for His good because what He brings is good and perfect. He doesn’t make mistakes and He doesn’t change His mind. Joseph’s pit turned into a situation where he could help the very brothers who threw him into the pit. David’s service under Saul and fleeing whenever he was chased by Saul caused him to write some of the most beautiful and comforting Psalms. Paul being imprisoned for sharing the gospel led him to write many of the New Testament books that help us to grow. Sometimes the benefit, or the beauty, of the gift is not seen for many years that is why the scripture tells us to think of the gift as “good and perfect” because in the current time, it does not look good or perfect!

Are there situations or people in your life that you don’t consider as a good and perfect gift from God, but you know the Lord has allowed them in your life for a purpose? Pray and ask the Lord to change your heart and your mind about the situation.  Trust that while it’s difficult or painful, He has brought this situation for good, and it will produce good fruit in your life and/or those around you.

Now I say this, that each of you says, “I am of Paul,” or “I am of Apollos,” or “I am of Cephas,” or “I am of Christ.”  Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? 1Corinthians 1:12-13

Here, Paul is saying that our loyalty needs to be to Jesus. Since Jesus declared himself to be the way, the truth, and the life, our allegiance is to the Truth. If we decide that we are loyal to anyone else or anything else except to the truth, we become divisive and a political spirit develops. People, creeds, denominations, church, etc. are not perfect. If we have an allegiance to a person or an organization to the level that we are willing to deny the truth, deny the mistake, or not address sin, we can actually go against truth.

In recent history we have seen this with clergy’s improper relationships with members of their congregation, or a coach of a well known college having inappropriate sexual relations with minors. These and many other examples continue in various places.  It is time for God’s people to speak up and be loyal to the truth!

Mistakes happen and sin occurs.  In order to not show partiality, we must be loyal to the truth and address the issue. Always defending someone means they are always right, which is not true. There are times that they could be wrong and there are times that there could be more than one accurate view of the situation.  By defending only one position we cause hurt, injustice and divisiveness. We need to come to the place of seeking God’s heart in any situation and not move on flattery, religious spirit, friendship, or the fear of man.

Paul asks three questions that need to be addressed in our loyalty.

1. Is Christ divided?

If we are truly followers of Jesus Christ, there should be peace and unity in relationships within the body. That doesn’t mean that there won’t be disagreements, but in everything people are submitted to one another, they are controlled by humility, and they are under their designated authority.  Psalm 133 describes how pleasant is the unity of the brethren. Unity does not mean we must keep peace at all cost or not address issues that need correction. The Bible clearly tells us how to deal with correction or offenses, so it is done properly and doesn’t cause division within the body. That allows us to be loyal to the truth, but handle situations with grace so as not to cause division.

2. Was Paul crucified for you?

This is clearly speaking of putting great significance in someone other than Jesus. There are very important people in every one of our lives’. The person who led you to Christ, your mentor, your spiritual leader, a spiritual celebrity or just a very gifted person are all examples of someone you may hold in high esteem. Regardless of their importance in your life or their significance in the body of Christ, your faith must be founded on Jesus being crucified for you and not on anyone else. No other person should have the place of Jesus in our hearts regardless of what we think they can offer us.

3. Were you baptized in the name of Paul?

Galatians 2:20 tells us ,” I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me”.  When we get water baptized, we are identifying with Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection. Our only hiding place is in Christ. We cannot hide behind our culture, our family, a person,  our education, or job title. Our only hiding place is Jesus because we were baptized in Him. The life we live has to continually be right with the Lord and intimate with Christ. If our loyalty is to someone or something else, it takes away from being hidden in Christ, and then our loyalty has been unlawfully given to someone else.

Where is your loyalty today?

Do you sift everything through the lens of truth?

Are you impartial when you have to  make decisions or judgments that involve others?

Are you hard pressed right now? Be be of good cheer you are not alone!!

We need to concentrate on every word Paul is speaking in the below scripture.  Those words are hard words but so true!! So many times we think, that Christian life is one victory after another, but when we look at Paul, we see a complete and continual death that he experienced in life.

We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;  persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed— always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. 2 Corinthians 4:8-10

Praise God that Jesus has won the victory over sin and over every battle that we will face in life. However, we will all still be faced with opposition, persecution, misunderstandings, and rejection from the world, from the enemy, and from our own desires that battle within us.

In every battle there can be injuries and that may result in pain, but the injuries don’t need to take us out!! We don’t like to be in place of weakness or brokenness. Sometimes we think brokenness or weakness is reserved for special seasons of our lives, but once it’s over, our lives will be on cruise control!! That’s not the story of Biblical characters.

The Bible has many stories of when a believer decided to follow Jesus their lives became everything but easy and ordinary!! They knew they could not live for Christ and live for themselves at the same time. The cost of following Jesus was so high that they needed to have a resolve for things that were going to come at them. They needed to be ready and focused on His kingdom rather than their own wants or dreams.

Why do we struggle so much with this place of brokenness and humility?  Unfortunately, from an early age, we teach our children by reading to them Disney books about beautiful girls finally finding their knight and shining armor and they live happily ever after.  We would like to think difficulty and discomfort are a temporary state of affairs which will eventually turn into a long lasting bliss!!

The ultimate bliss is heaven but Jesus very clearly told his disciples that, “In the world you will  have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)  Jesus did not claim that life will get easy when we start walking with Him, but He told us that we will have the ability to overcome difficulties because He has overcome them!!

Many times Christians focus on God’s love for them to the degree that they think the Lord will save them out of every troubled situation. When that doesn’t happen, they get disappointed or bitter towards God, and start questioning God’s love for them.

Additionally, we are so comfortable with our faith and our walk in our culture that getting uncomfortable and in pain is not the norm.   If anything happens to us, we think something is wrong. We like and enjoy our independence,  and we also like to know and to understand what God is doing in our lives. We don’t like to be surprised, and we don’t like not knowing. We need to remind ourselves that the Lord uses discomfort and hardship to do His work in us and through us. It keeps us dependent on Him, and it also keeps us humble because we can’t figure out God!!

You may ask why do we need to go through times of discomfort and difficulty? The scripture gives us several reasons; below are a few that the Lord laid on my heart.

1. God disciplines His children.

And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons:

“My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord,
Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him;
⁶ For whom the Lord loves He chastens,
And scourges every son whom He receives.” Hebrews 12:5-6

In times of difficulty, we should ask the question, “Is this a correction for something I’ve been doing?” Sometimes it takes time to get clarity on this, but the Holy Spirit can point this out to us. The key is to stay open if the Lord wants to rebuke or correct us. We must remain in a position of receiving and not become so overwhelmed with self-pity that we miss it.

2. We need to mature in our walk with Lord.

My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.  But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. James 1:2-4

Children don’t know how much they lack in maturity. Only parents can see this clearly and hope to guide that process in their lives. The same is true with our God. Sometimes we think we are more mature than we really are!! Until we are tested in an area we don’t realize how much room we have to grow and mature.

3. We will Strengthen Others.

 And the Lord said, “Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.” Luke 22: 31-32

Many of our Biblical characters, including Peter and Paul, had to go through great times of difficulty which illustrates a great example for others. Through their brokenness, God used them even more powerfully to minister to others because it wasn’t about them anymore . It had become all about Him!!

If you are in a season of difficulty, please stand fast and know that the Lord has not forgotten about you. Even in times of silence, the Lord is still at work and He is watching over His children very carefully and diligently!! He has a purpose but more importantly we know He is good, so what He is doing will in the end produce good in our lives and in His kingdom!!