John
15:4-5 “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the
branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide
in Me. I
am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for
apart from Me you can do nothing.”
I heard an
interesting analogy this week of how we, in this distractive material world,
tend to not see and all too easily forget that it is not us that have the power
in this life. But it is through the Providence of Almighty God that we stand, and through
abiding in Christ that we are productive in life; first in deliverance, then
equipped for good works, and finally to eternal life. We are not born with the
“full armor of God”, we put it on to stand against schemes of the devil
(Ephesians 6:11) and unless we are grafted into the Lord by regenerated mind, body
and spirit, we act by the wrong intentions, purposes and goals, and maybe even
come to the belief that it is by our power and ingenuity alone that we live and
accomplish, equipping ourselves, detached from the true vine ... the unseen power
of God. Then where are we placing the praise, honor and glory?
Sometimes, we
have an up-side-down view of life where we improperly focus on our resources
and our own strength, instead of properly focusing on our inadequacies,
limitations, and dependency on God. In reality, it is truly like the Sports Fan
(short for fanatic) that says, “We won!”. Anyone could tell that person: Hey,
you didn’t personally touch a ball, run or compete … you did nothing.” But the
Fan can say, “Yeah, but our champion won for us.” Jesus is our Champion. Abide
in Christ and enjoy the victory.
Psalm 54:4 “Surely God
is my help; the Lord is the one who sustains me.”
Grace &
peace, Brian
4 comments:
love this perspective...and how true..Jesus is our champion.
Annmarie, Thank you for the comment. In a world that does not know the Lord, we are bombarded with up-side-down messages. As my dear late cousin Laura used to tell me: "flip it", and see the "right" prospective in life. Putting Jesus first and seeking the Kingdon of God & His righteousness first is the proper view to the abundant life. Jesus is our champion indeed! Blessings.
Hi Brian,
I love how you related what God does with a sports game!! Isn't that so true, the fans watching shout we won when in truth they really didn't do a thing. :)
All of this is because of God and none of this is because of us. It is Him who enables us. I love thinking about Job. His story clearly shows us that it is God who provided for him and it was God who allowed it all to be taken away. Then again it was God who restored him to health, wealth and family again.
This is a big hurdle for my husband to overcome. Knowing it is God who is ultimately providing for our family and not my husband's hard work. When my hubby got his mind around the fact that God enables him to do this work and in his obedience to working hard at what he does it is God who is the provider.
Blessings brother, I enjoyed this. :)
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Child of God, we do tend (this side of heaven) in our fallen condition to think more highly of ourselves than we should. That is why Paul reminds us in Romans 12:3 "For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith." When we remember in humility the grace awarded to us in our salvation, we keep a healthy perspective of our Christian walk. We all have issues with pride and need to get our mind's around God's Providence and trust in the Lord, because we are a work in progress, in the process of sanctification.
As it is written in Job 1:21 “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord.” Good points sister.
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