This blog is to sharing biblical devotions for men and women striving to walk with God who attend Celebrate Recovery at The Church at Rocky Peak.
You as the reader have an opportunity to reflect by leaving comments. If there is any topic dear to your heart, please share as to guild this devotional.
Note the archive to the right. All posts will be archived for each month if you miss a day or want to read a post again. Archives will be listed in order from last to first.
___________________________________________________________________
FIRST SEEK TO UNDERSTAND...
If you’re like me, you seek understanding NOW!
To get it.
To want to control the situation or outcome.
This attitude can be effective in certain situations, but also toxic. When it comes to developing a spiritual foundation for living, that which works in the business world can be counterproductive in the spiritual world.
Life is built on principals of wisdom. This is the same for all people in time and space. The accomplished musician did not sit behind a piano and crank out Mozart. Just didn’t happen. Those prodigies who can play classical music at the age of four are not the standard, but the extremely rare exception. Even the prodigy has a foundation built on wisdom, they just processed it at a much faster rate than the classical musician at age twenty-one. It’s all done the same way.
God’s principles are present for both believer and unbeliever. The atheist farmer plants his seeds just like the God-fearing farmer. It is God who causes the growth every time. The unbelieving farmer however has no interest in giving God glory and is completely unaware (spiritually blind) of God’s grace towards him.
What does this all mean? Simply this--one must humble themselves in effort to “first seek to understand”—Blessed are the poor in spirit (Mt 5:3) In order to play the instrument or farm the land effectively, one must first practice the basics--the essential rudiments to build a strong foundation.
This idea of growing in a natural manner (some call it horse sense) is obvious with children. There is a period of growth, that for the toddler is natural—what first grade student can write a 500 word essay? It is obvious children must learn the basic rudiments to learn. This is why it is called elementary or grammar school. Yet for the adult there is the assumption that they have passed grammar school and are mature. Their basic learning is over.
As one seeking God and walking with Him, this attitude of, "I've got it down already" can hinder one's spiritual journey. The humble man realizes he knows more about nothing than anything. One must have a humble attitude to learn, to understand, to see and hear what God has to say in His Word…and yes, this does require effort and discipline. Those are not bad things, although they do seem to scare some of us because it taps into several fears. One of which is rejection, the other is it’s cousin, failure. These can be overcome in God’s gracious provision over time, like any other personal difficulty if we are willing to submit and exercise patience. Just like the musician who longs to play a complex piece of music, the fact is it will take time to accomplish and a lot of daily effort. This is the horse sense part of faith. It is also where many of us struggle with the insanity of pressure, anxiety, fear, depression, emptiness...and the list goes on. Celebrate Recovery helps to uncover the insanity that can control our lives and keep us free to love God and others.
One of the core aspects to our faith in Christ is understanding what He did for us. If we are to stand on Christ as our cornerstone, it would be helpful if we understood what Jesus did on our behalf. We need to ask what the gospel message really is in a child-like way.
How can we say like Paul, “I am not ashamed of the gospel?” It starts first with the prayer of understanding, that God would open our hearts and minds. This is essential. Then we must listen to the message of the Cross.
In the days to come, we will look at why Jesus came and died for us. Why did Christ suffer and die? Not why in the sense of cause, but why in the sense of purpose.
Many people who claim to be Christians seem to know so little of what Jesus actually did on their behalf. Why is it the great Apostle Paul always wrote about what Jesus accomplished in His death to the early churches? This was the foundation of their faith and it is our foundation as well. How can we who claim to be followers of Christ not give an answer to the questions the unbelieving world is asking about the Lord we follow? There is so much confusion today about who Jesus is and what He accomplished.
We are going to start a short series of daily devotions by asking and answering many of the important questions about why Jesus came to die on our behalf as the Bible gives us clarity on these issues. This short series will give us a foundation for all the other devotions that follow. All the devotions are available here to read over or to share with another. Like the musician who plays their instrument well, we also need to develop a firm foundation to our faith. Our foundation is in Jesus!
We all need to be equipped to combat the battles we face within and without. We need spiritual power and knowing Jesus deeper is the answer to free us from the chains that weigh us down and keep us in depression, doubt, and confusion. God will be blessed as we turn our hearts and minds to reflect on what Jesus did for us. You will be blessed as you fill your hearts and minds with truth about Jesus, and your neighbor will be blessed as you walk in the Spirit of God.
What did Christ achieve by his passion?
Why did he have to suffer so much?
What great thing was happening on Calvary for the world?
We should grow in deep appreciation of the amazing sacrifice He made on our behalf. Yet, like mentioned earlier, the great temptation is to ask, “Yeah, that’s all great, but what about me…NOW!”
May we seek understanding to the questions that matter most, so we can change from the inside out to live a life that matters, to make our lives count! May we not be like the young boy who sat behind the piano at age eight only to play the same songs at age sixty-eight!
One of the scribes, when he came forward and heard them disputing and saw how well he had answered them, asked him, "Which is the first of all the commandments?" Jesus replied, "The first is this: 'Hear O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these." Mark 12:28-31
Take a moment and thank God for giving us purpose to life and that we would have patience with those who walk in spiritual blindness as we begin our day.
Tomorrow--God the Artist
1 comment:
This is so good, thank you. TomT
Post a Comment