devotional 200509

Dear brothers and sisters,
Good morning. We praise God for another beautiful day to be in His service. Remember. No matter where you ‘make your living,’ you are the servant of God. You are being placed in that corner of the earth for a reason. You may not aware of your purpose in where you work right now. All you need to do is to conduct your life in accordance to the Word of God that you know. By doing so, God will use you to be His vessel of grace and blessings to the people around you. If you lack of strength, you just call on the Holy Spirit to grant you more strength to live out your faith.

"By standing firm you will gain life" (Luke 21:19). When a man is born again, there is not the same forcefulness in his thinking or reasoning for a time as formerly. We have to make an expression of the new life, to form the mind of Christ. "Acquire your soul with patience." Many of us prefer to stay at the threshold of the Christian life instead of going on to construct a soul in accordance with the new life God has put within. We fail because we are ignorant of the way we are being made in Christ; we blame everything to the devil instead of our own undisciplined natures. Think of the way we react when we are stimulated or agitated.

There are certain things we must not pray about - moods, for instance. Moods should never be removed by praying, moods should be handled by kicking. A mood nearly always has its seat in the physical condition, not in the moral. It is a continual effort not to listen to the moods, which arise from a physical condition, never submit to them for a second. We have to take ourselves by the scruff of the neck and shake ourselves, and we will find that we can do what we said we could not. The curse with most of us is that we won't. The Christian life is one of incarnate spiritual courage.

It seems to be one simple statement or spiritual principle. Yet, it takes us a lifetime to practice. By my own strength, I don’t think I can stand firm on God’s word. It is easy to preach the Word; it is definitely very difficult to live the Word. Our human nature normally rejects the Word. The Bible said, “He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him” (John 1:10-11). God knows the limitation and distorted nature of ours, that’s why the Holy Spirit came to dwell among the followers of Christ – those who desire to be Christ like. Therefore, God will provide us timely guidance and empowerment to stand firm on His Word. God reminded us through Zechariah 4:6, “'Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit.” The Spirit of the Lord is powerful because He is the Almighty God. And this Awesome Power of God lives within us for one single purpose: “He may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith” (Eph 3:16-17).

Once our inner being is strengthened by His Spirit, He will accomplish much greater things through us beyond our mind can ever imagine. Therefore, stand firm is not stand still. The more we grow in Christ, the stronger we stand firm on His Word. The reason why we need to stand firm is because we will be confronted by different challenges in life. Suffering or hardship is a norm in life, though we try hard to avoid it. No place on earth can give you problem free life or true security. The key is how you build your foundation of life. In another word, we, who choose to live in Bay Area, cannot avoid earthquake. The question is how we build a house that can withstand earthquake. To stand firm on His Word is like a wise man who builds his house on the rock. It is difficult and time consuming to do so. But when “the rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock” (Matt 7:25). God wants to help us stand firm on the ‘rock’ – the eternal Word of God.

Love you according to His Word,
Lawrence

Ps. I will have a whole day of Board meeting tomorrow. Therefore, I will not be able to send you my devotional. Please pray for those who fly in for this meeting.