Most of us tend to
justify ourselves when we make mistakes, so when we do something wrong, we
start it over again to make it right. If we cannot fix it, we give up and feel
that we are unworthy to serve that particular thing. The more serious example
for this is that some of us feel that we are unworthy to come to the Lord and
Savior if we made so many sins and mistakes in the past, or we wait for a right
moment to serve God for the rest of our lives. I did not want to serve the Lord
through my computer servicing course, for I know that Christian-writing is the
main will of God. Therefore, I decided to cancel the course but because of my
personal issue, I found that going and being at Unitec is the will of God for
me. Nevertheless, I still do not want to serve Him through the computer course
but since Colossians 1:15-20 states that everything has been created
through and for him and reconciled to Himself, I am trusting the Lord (Proverbs 3:5-8) and going to serve Him through serving people
who are doing the computer course (Galatians 5:13-14). This does not mean that I am not going to
study computer servicing.
All of us need to know
that we automatically have been justified by God if we only have faith in Jesus
Christ (Romans 3:25-26; Romans 5:12-21). The main reason for this probably is that
God sent His only beloved Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to crucify Himself
on the cross for our sins (Hebrews 2:14-15), in order to make peace between God and us
through the Spirit (Ephesians 2:14-18). This means that we should make and consider
everything as Jesus-centered (Colossians 1:15-20) as faith without deeds is dead (James 2:14-26). Colossians 1:21-23 declares that only if we continue in our faith
full-devotedly and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel of Jesus
Christ, then God sees us as holy and blameless in His sight. This means that if
we have been justified by God through faith in Jesus Christ, then we would not
face condemnation from Him. Instead, we would be in the eternal kingdom of
heaven after earthly life is gone and faded away from us (Romans 8:1-17). In fact, eternal life begins right now if we
believe and have been baptized in the name of Jesus (Romans 6), as Jesus Christ is the source of eternal
life (John 11:25-26). Hence, the hope of God is not about our
wishful thinking that becomes true if we believe in Jesus Christ all day long.
It is the living hope that God would resurrect us in the glorious form at the
end of our physical lives (Philippians 3:18-21; 1 Peter 1:3-9).
For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a
building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.
Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling,
because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. For while we are in
this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed
but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal
may be swallowed up by life. Now the one who has fashioned us for this very
purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is
to come.
Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at
home in the body we are away from the Lord. For we live by faith, not by sight.
We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home
with the Lord. So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in
the body or away from it. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of
Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while
in the body, whether good or bad. (2 Corinthians
5:1-10)
Although every
follower of Jesus is part of the temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:16), we sometimes have to suffer if suffering is
for God’s sake, whether it is physical or mental one. I think this is probably the
reason that Jesus declares, “If any of
you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross,
and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you
give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save
it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?
Is anything worth more than your soul? If anyone is ashamed of me and my
message in these adulterous and sinful days, the Son of Man will be ashamed of
that person when he returns in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
(Mark 8:34-38) I do not have any physical suffering when it
comes to serving the Lord but I have few temptations. I call temptations as
some kind of mental suffering, even though it is not really mental suffering
because it is natural to have temptations. Many of us would like to give in to
temptations if we have them, because of our natural tendency, but James 1:13 and 1 Corinthians 10:13 say that God does not tempt us and He will not
let us be tempted beyond what we can bear, and if we are being tempted, then He
will provide us a way out. One temptation of mine is fatigue. I often
experience it when I am continuing to write devotionals after I have eaten my
breakfast or brunch. I get really tired that I fall asleep on the bed or on the
chair. After taking a nap, I usually
feel guilty for not continuing to write weekly devotionals. The temptation also
comes to me to lie down on my bed for a short while or to take a nap when I
write a devotional. The another temptation comes to me when I am praying
full-devotedly. I do not know why but all of my energy drains out. Therefore, I
need to endure and persevere my temptations, due to the fact that I am a child
of God (John 1:12-13) and living my life to please Him in every way
through faith (Hebrews 11:6). Without the sense of being a child of God, I
literally do not know who I am and why I am on the Earth for. Therefore, the
hope of God that I am having now is to do everything for the glory of God and
to expand the kingdom of God through Christian-writing. I think that the love
of God has hovered within me so much, that I think having a theological
mind-set is so natural for me. Romans 15:13 states, “May
the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that
you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life
through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through
these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through
them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in
the world caused by evil desires.
For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness;
and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to
self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness,
mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these
qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and
unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But whoever does not
have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed
from their past sins.
Therefore, my brothers and sisters,make every effort to confirm your
calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, and
you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 1:3-11)
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