"By this we believe…." Jesus answered them,
"Do you now believe?" —John 16:30-31
{CHAMBERS} “Now
we believe….” But Jesus asks, “Do you…? Indeed the hour is coming…that you…will
leave Me alone” (John 16:31-32). Many Christian workers have left Jesus Christ
alone and yet tried to serve Him out of a sense of duty, or because they sense
a need as a result of their own discernment. […] Our soul has gotten out of
intimate contact with God by leaning on our own religious understanding
(see Proverbs 3:5-6). […] But once a person realizes how he has hindered
his understanding of Jesus Christ, and caused uncertainties, sorrows, and
difficulties for himself, it is with shame and remorse that he has to return. […]
We should get in the habit of continually seeking His counsel on everything,
instead of making our own commonsense decisions and then asking Him to bless
them. […] We become a prideful, arrogant person, thinking we know what to do in
every situation. We have put our sense of duty on the throne of our life, instead
of enthroning the resurrection life of Jesus. We are not told to “walk in the
light” of our conscience or in the light of a sense of duty, but to “walk in
the light as He is in the light…” (1 John 1:7).
{ELGIN} Being born again means that we are born into
a new, spiritual reality. Our lives are
not our own. We belong to God. (1
John 4:4) Yet, we often behave as though we are not God’s own possession
but are gods ourselves. Making decisions
about how we will live, how we will treat others. Some deserve our grace and mercy, others do
not. We reserve the right to treat
people poorly, we are easily provoked or maybe we are just in a bad mood. We say unkind things to people we say we love.
We have been called to a life of love. (1 Corinthians 13: 4-8) “Love is
patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It
does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it
keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices
with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always
perseveres. Love never fails.”
The only way we will be consistent with the way we live and
love is by having a deep and abiding relationship with the Lord. That takes work. Deliberate effort. There is a person I know who has a spiritual
interest. They love attending church for worship, fellowship, and discipleship. They share the Word with their friends. Yet, at
the same time, they see nothing wrong with getting angry with family members,
saying unkind things, treating themselves as being first and others last. It’s a strange paradox, but actually all too
common. We all have spiritual blinders. We see nothing wrong with the exceptions that
we exercise. In fact we feel
justified. Why do you have this problem? Because we are lacking in the way we have
yielded our lives to the Lord. We have held
something back in our relationship with God and yet think ourselves as being
right in our walk. The thing is, the
closer we get to Jesus, the clearer our sinful condition is contrasted to His
holiness. We should stop trying to be
holy on our own and embrace Him. (Galatians 2:20) “This life I now live in
the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself up
for me.” It’s time to live the life.
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