Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Devotional 161209

Dear brothers and sisters,
Good morning. The misty wet weather indeed makes us sleepy. But the presence of God is our strength. As the Holy Spirit reminds us of His presence, we feel energized again. The joy of the Lord is my strength. And His joy comes according to His promise. A lot of time, it is your worry filled habit that serves as firewall to block His joy and peace from entering into your lives. You need to click the button of submission in order to let down the firewall for God’s grace to enter.

"Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God . . . praying always . . ." (Ephesians 6:13, 18). You have to wrestle against the things that prevent you from getting to God, and you wrestle in prayer for other souls; but never say that you wrestle with God in prayer, it is scripturally untrue. If you do wrestle with God, you will be crippled all the rest of your life. If, when God comes in some way you do not want, you take hold of Him as Jacob did and wrestle with Him, you compel Him to put you out of joint. Don't be a hindrance in God's ways, but be one who wrestles before God with things, becoming more than conqueror through Him. Wrestling before God tells in His Kingdom. If you ask me to pray for you and I am not complete in Christ, I may pray but it avails nothing; but if I am complete in Christ my prayer prevails all the time. Prayer is only effective when there is completeness - "Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God."

Always distinguish between God's order and His permissive will, i.e., His providential purpose towards us. God's order is unchangeable; His permissive will is that with which we must wrestle before Him. It is our reaction to the permissive will of God that enables us to get at His order. "All things work together for good to them that love God" - to those who remain true to God's order, to His calling in Christ Jesus. God's permissive will is the means whereby His sons and daughters are to be manifested. We are not to be like jelly-fish saying, "It's the Lord's will." We have not to put up a fight before God, not to wrestle with God, but to wrestle before God with things. Beware of squatting lazily before God instead of putting up a glorious fight so that you may lay hold of His strength.

Nowadays, many believers chose to squat lazily in front of the computer or choosing to be couch potatoes instead of fighting for the Kingdom of God. They miss the opportunity to experience God in an intimate way. Their walk with God remains on the level of reading a short devotion each day and pray before meals. They wonder why their Christian life is so boring and meaningless. They want to experience God but they are not ready to pay the price in joining the spiritual warfare. Satan will do whatever to convince them to relax and kick back in life, “your life is so busy right now already, why bother to fight spiritual battle through prayer…watch some movie or U-tube, play some video game, think of your next vacation, or simply go to bed…why bother to pray!” Isn’t it a common temptation to you? I am sure you feel totally justified to enjoy life in such a manner.

God wants you to enjoy life. But the way He wants you to enjoy life is to fully utilize the potentials and gifts He gives you for His purpose. The two folded purpose of your existence is:
1) To become the target of God’s love. Christian life is basically a love affair with God. God wants to build a loving relationship with you. All our “religious activities” are only expressions of this inner love we have for God as a response to His love.
2) To become the channel of God’s love to others – this involves more than just building friendship with strangers. It involves fighting against evil forces that plague humanity. That’s what light and salt of the world refer to – we are becoming God’s agent in the world to remove darkness and preserve the world from further decay.

May God give you the strength and vision to change the world! And let His transformation begins from your inner world today.

Love you by His strength,
Lawrence

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