Monday, December 22, 2008

Devotional 221208

Dear brothers and sisters,
Good morning. Thank God for a cold sunny day. Comparing with the weather condition of many places in the Country, we are very blessed with such a nice and beautiful day. Do remember many people who are traveling this week in our prayers. Pray for journey's mercy for some of our coworkers who will be on the road for special missions. May God watch over them and their families. I am sure our Holy Spirit will travel with them whether they go. He is a faithful God and a loving Father who will always watch over His children.

"No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him..." (John 6:44) When God draws me, the issue of my will comes in at once - will I react on the revelation which God gives - will I come to Him? Discussion on such spiritual matters with our human intellect is not appropriate. Never discuss with anyone when God speaks. Belief is not an intellectual act; belief is a moral act whereby I deliberately commit or surrender myself. Will I dump myself down absolutely on God and transact on what He says? If I will, I shall find I am based on a Spiritual Reality that is as sure as God's throne.

In sharing the gospel with others, always push an issue of will. Belief must be the will to believe. There must be a surrender of the will, not a surrender to persuasive power, a deliberate launching forth on God and on what He says until I am no longer confident in what I have done, I am confident only in God. The hindrance is that I will not trust God, but only my mental understanding. As far as feelings go, I must venture out ‘blindly’ or a leap of faith. I must will to believe, and this can never be done without a violent effort on my part to disassociate myself from my old ways of looking at things, and by putting myself right over on to Him.

Every man is made to reach out beyond his grasp. It is God who draws me, and my relationship to Him in the first place is a personal one, not an intellectual one. I am introduced into the relationship by the miracle of God and my own will to believe, then I begin to get an intelligent appreciation and understanding of the wonder of the transaction. Therefore, let faith lead our reason but not the other way around.

We get use to over analyze the will of God before we commit ourselves to venture out by faith to follow. We don’t want to make any ‘unnecessary casualty’ in following God’s will or call. Our concern is: “what if I heard Him wrong?” If my faith was secured in a relationship that was initiated and completed by a faithful God, I don’t need to worry whether I heard Him wrong or not. Even if I did hear Him wrong, He would make it right for me because He is my Heavenly Father who always watches over me at all time.

Start obeying God’s will that clearly reveals in His Word. The more we act in accordance to His Will through His Words, the more we grow in our faith to follow His call in our lives. Our relationship with God is a matter of faith or obedience. It is not an intellectual pursuit but a personal commitment of our will and values. During this difficult time of Economic Tsunami, we need to recognize that it is a testing time of faith in our relationship with this Almighty God.

Love you in our union with God,
Lawrence

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