Tag: weakness in the flesh

The Blessings of Obedience

Deuteronomy 30:16
If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you today, by loving the LORD your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it.

Who does not wish to live and be blessed in the land where they dwell? Almighty God placed these desires in all of our hearts and provided simple instructions for us to attain them – obey My commandments.

All simple and easy enough, right? Well, our all knowing, sovereign God added an interesting wrinkle for us to deal with. He gave us free choice. He allows us to find the unique purpose and plan that He has for our lives through the choices that we make. Unfortunately, more times than we would like to admit to we make the wrong choices. In the flesh, we are ill equipped to make the right choices all the time.

Knowing the inherent weakness in our flesh, our all loving and merciful God included an infallible resource to help us overcome our frailties. He provided through our acceptance of His Son, Jesus, as Our Savior, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit provides us with supernatural assistance in making our choices. The Holy Spirit provides us with gentle urgings toward the path of obedience and clear stop signs when we are veering off the path.

As we learn to listen and respond to the Holy Spirit, our life choices come more into alignment with God’s commandments. The good and right way become more clearly defined in our minds and hearts. Ultimately, our choices will be the same as God’s choices for us. Ultimately through our obedience, we will experience the blessed life that God has set aside for us.

Let us rejoice in knowing that God has provided a Comforter to come along side of us to aid us in making our life choices. Let us heed the urgings of the Holy Spirit as we position ourselves through obedience to receive all the blessings that Our Heavenly Father promises us.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the blessings that You promise us if we are obedient to You. We confess our sins that separate us from You and repent of them so that the blessings that have been set aside for us can be released. We rejoice in knowing that You have provided victory for us over our sins through the sacrifice of Your Son, Jesus. We bless His name. We thank You for providing supernatural assistance for us as we make our life choices. We pray that You will open our ears to hear the urgings of the Holy Spirit. We ask for the grace to respond in obedience. We ask all these things in the name of the Lamb without blemish, Jesus Christ.

Called by His Grace

Galatians 1:15
But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace,

When it pleased God, He called us from darkness, blindness and ignorance into the light and knowledge of the Gospel. When it pleased God, He called us out of bondage to sin into the liberty of Christ. When it pleased God, He called us from the fellowship of men into fellowship of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. When it pleased God, He set us apart to have our names written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. It was all through His grace. It was all in His timing.

When it pleased God, He called us from dependence on our own righteousness to trusting in His Son, Jesus Christ. As we learn to focus entirely on Jesus and less and less on ourselves, our eyes are opened to see how everything God does is done in perfect timing when it is pleasing to Him.

Unfortunately, even as we grow in faith and in knowledge of Almighty God, we continue to be limited by our weakness in the flesh. In the flesh, we expect God to show up exactly when we want Him to and in what manner we want Him to. In doing so, we often miss Him when He shows up in the birds, in the trees and in the smiles and words of those around us. The facets of Our Almighty God are beyond our understanding. Most of His good work goes unseen and unappreciated by us. It is the shallowness of our relationship that creates this phenomenon.

Let us strive to find a deep and intimate relationship with Our Savior. Through Him, let us find and cherish Almighty God in every moment that we live.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the never ending flow of Your grace in our lives. We rejoice in knowing that You have a perfect plan for our lives and that You will release it according to Your perfect timing. We pray, Father, that you will help us to turn our focus away from ourselves and turn our attention to Your Son, Jesus. We pray that the Holy Spirit will open our eyes so that the fullness of Your grace is revealed to us in every aspect of our lives. We ask these things in the name of the Resurrection and the Life, Jesus Christ.