Michael continues that it's
easy to be consumed by so-called "righteous indignation." However,
righteousness is only in Jesus Christ. To make progress in our salvation
we must work out the spirit of Christ in us. Working out the spirit means
to walk according to the Word of truth found in the Bible. Work means that
we must make a deliberate, purposeful, and intentional effort to walk in
proximity with our Lord Jesus Christ. "Blessing those who persecute
you" is working out our salvation.
There's a lesson from the
scene in the movie, "The Pink Panther." Inspector Crusoe asked
the man at the hotel, "Does your dog bite?" The man answered,
"no." When Crusoe reached down to pet the dog, the dog growled
and bit his hand. "I thought you said your dog didn't bite," said
Crusoe. The man replied, "He's not my dog." The adversary (the
devil) uses this same ploy. He says, "go ahead and find pleasure in
sin." He won't tell you that Sin always bites back. The
devil will promise the world and everything in it. However, what doth it profit a man if he gains the
whole world but loses his soul.
God loves to help us to be
patient, kind, and merciful. Our heart will be restless until we find our
rest in Him. We cannot begin to seek the Lord until He's already found us.
He's the hound of heaven who will pursue us until we're ready to turn to Him. He
will cultivate in our heart a hunger for the fruit of the Spirit. The beginning
of working it out is "I have been
crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I but Christ lives in me
and the life that I now live I live in the flesh I live by faith of the Son of
God who loved me and gave himself for me."
Jesus said, there is none good, no not one. However,
Jesus Christ himself, who was without sin, became the perfect sin sacrifice on
our behalf that we may become the righteousness of God in him. Do all things
without grumbling and complaining. The language of Heaven is
encouragement. According to Ephesians 4, Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that
which is good to the use of edifying that it may minister grace unto the
hearers.
An attitude of gratitude is
the secret to living the abundant life. All God requires is that we fill
our hearts with awe and gratitude. That you
may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of
a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world.
May our prayer be according to Psalm 19: "Let the words of my mouth and the
meditations of my heart be acceptable unto thee O Lord my strength and my
redeemer."
May God richly bless you!
Your brother in Christ, Michael
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