TRUST AND OBEY

When we think of love, the picture that comes to mind is that of the latest celebrity couple kissing each other at some party at some exotic locale. Then when they finally speak to the press about their relationship they talk about “how much in love” they are. Therefore when we think about the word love, we somehow seem to associate the word love with the word sex. And that’s why we somehow find it hard to understand the love of God. It’s hard to make a sexual association with someone you can’t see. However God’s love (and love generally) has nothing to do with sex but it is a deep and abiding commitment to our welfare and our well-being. God’s love is predicated on his deep desire to have fellowship with his creation and he understands that his creation cannot have a meaningful life without fellowship with him. Therefore, the reason for the fact that he seeks fellowship with his creation is not so much that he is looking for someone to worship him, it’s because God desires the best for us. Therefore the relationship that he seeks is not for him but for us because he realises that we cannot be all that we can be without him.

In his word, God is constantly telling us of his love but it seems we are either hard of hearing that we can’t hear him or we just don’t believe him. In the end God gave us the ultimate proof of his love. He sent his one and only son to die for us so as to rekindle the relationship that we had let die. He was so heartbroken at the separation that sin brought about between us and him that he sent Jesus to show us the way back. Jesus said unless we exercised faith like little children we would not see the kingdom of God. The Bible tells us that God is so concerned about his word that he watches over it jealously to bring it to pass. He even has more respect for his word than his name. We need to take him at his word about his love. Trust him. And lean on him.

JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO published by WestBowPress, a division of Thomas Nelson publishers.http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU000194087/Deceptio.aspx and LOST, BUT FOUND available at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DPLLEUQ/.

Truth

Jesus once told his disciples that they had the erroneous impression that he had come to the earth to bring peace. He told them that this was not so. According to him, he had come to bring conflict between father and son, mother and daughter. According to him, he had come to set fire to the earth. He even said he wished it was already kindled!

The book of Proverbs urges us to buy truth and not sell it. The other day I was listening to a preacher and he was talking about the difference between hard and soft messages. According to him, soft messages were to get people to seek Christ and come to church. Once they had come to church, then they could hear the hard messages. Jesus told his disciples that if they wanted any part of him, they had to drink of his blood and eat his body. Most of the disciples left him at that point. When he asked Peter whether he too would leave, Peter wondered why they would leave. According to him, Jesus had “the words of life”.

Truth is hard. Most times, the harder it is for us to accept something, the likelihood of it being the truth is greater. A lot of people accept that Jesus lived and that he was a “good” man but they have issues with him being the Son of God. Major news outlets refer to the Bible as myth but yet they accept that a lot of the places in the Bible like Babylon exist. The fact is that you can’t take one and reject the other. You have to accept the truth the way it is and not chose the truth you will accept.

While we wait ...

"But let patience have her perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing." - James 1: 4

"Patience is not the ability to wait, but how you act while you're waiting." - Joyce Meyer.

There are things in our lives that we are hoping on God for. When the Bible talks of waiting patiently for God, the idea most of us have is that of waiting at the bus stop of life twiddling our thumbs hoping that God does his "magic". That gives us an out and lets us off the hook with regard to taking responsibility for our lives. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Patience in the context of the Bible has nothing to do whatsoever with being idle. Even as we wait for God for certain things that our out of our hands which only he can provide, there are things we need to do. Reading and meditating on the word as revealed in the Bible is one of the things we need to do while waiting patiently. Through the word, we build up our faith and our trust in God. Through the word we gain insight and receive revelation on what to do. Through the word, we find inspiration for living one day at a time.

Prayer is one of the things we need to continue to do in the time of of waiting. Going to sleep will not bring what we are trusting God for any faster. Neither will worrying about it. Prayer will help to build our faith and hope that what we are hoping for will come. In prayer, we receive direction. Through prayer we might even find out the solution to that problem we are waiting on God to "supernaturally" solve.

Another thing we need to do while waiting is to act in faith. The Bible at James 2:20 reminds us "that faith without works is dead." When we are believing on God for something, there are corresponding actions we need to take to show God that we are ready for what we believe he is about to do. Using myself as an example, I believe that God has called me not only to be a lawyer and do justice, but he has also called me to write books. From following people like Michael Hyatt the Chairman of Thomas Nelson Publishers on Twitter, I have come to understand that getting published is not all cut and dried as I would like it to be. While I have written a novel, I don't know whether someone will think it's good enough to represent as a literary agent let alone publish. I have sent proposals out and I have already received two rejections. (It seems there is an opinion that unless you have been rejected many times, you're not really a writer yet). I have told myself that because of what I believe, I am not going to let a rejection stop me. I am going to keep sending proposals out because I believe that someone will have faith enough in my work to represent me. I have also told myself that I am going to keep writing novels, in the hope that I'll get better at it and I might just write something someone wants to represent. That is my act of faith by my works.

What else do you think one needs to do while waiting patiently?