Michael continues: Jesus did three things: 1. He bore up under suffering, 2. He sacrificed for the good of others. 3. He stood in the face of danger. Likewise, our testing and trials, through tribulation and pressure, reveals God’s true character within us. Jesus warned the people about the false prophets who look like sheep. They are ravenous wolves disguised in sheep’s clothing. Their purpose is to ravage and devour the flock. They serve the thief whose ultimate purpose is to steal, kill and destroy God’s flock.
Unbelievers question God’s motives: they question the love of God and the Word of God. However, believers walk by faith and not by sight. For faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen through the eyes of the flesh. As believers who walk by the spirit, we see through Christ’s eyes behind our eyes. Through His eyes God reveals to us the hope of His calling and the riches of His glory in Christ Jesus. The devil will distract us to focus on the problems of this world. When we fight against the worldly powers, as Martin Luther said, “Did we in our own strength confide, our battle would be losing, were not the Right Man on our side, the man of God’s own choosing. Doth ask who that may be? Christ Jesus it is He. And He must win the battle.”
When we approach God’s throne of grace with meekness and humility, He will teach us what is really important in this life. The understanding is gained in the crucible of refinement. As the Psalmist said, the crucible is for silver and the furnace for gold, but God refines the heart. Paul learned this lesson the hard way. After he had prayed three times for God to remove his thorn in the flesh, God finally answered Paul’s prayer. But the answer was not what Paul expected. God finally revealed the hardest life lesson of all: God said to Paul, My strength is made perfect in thy weakness, My grace is sufficient for thee.
When Paul wrote the epistle of joy to the beloved believers in Philippi, he told them, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. As Jesus had said, seek ye first the kingdom of heaven and all these things (the necessities of life) will be added unto you. To live for Christ is to die to self and to the things of this world. For I was crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I but Christ lives in me and the life that I now live I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Jesus Christ raised the standard of the Word of God to cull the crowd. Christianity is not a popularity contest. In God’s eyes the majority doesn’t win. God wins according to His word. One with God is a majority (of power, grace, mercy, and love.). The victory is on God’s terms.
On God’s terms, the greatest victory is in the greatest surrender. In surrendering to Jesus Christ and submitting our will to God’s will and our desire to His desire, our greatest blessing is to bless the Blessor. According to Psalms, Delight thyself also in the Lord and he will give thee desires of thine heart. Therefore, thanks be unto God who always giveth us the victory in Christ and makes manifest the savor of His knowledge by us in every place. Be therefore steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord in as much as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord that according to His terms we may live to love God above all to the praise of the glory of His grace,
Your brother in Christ, Michael
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