I hope we all are adding these powerful verses to our arsenals, so that we can fight this good fight of Faith. Hear this great weapon:
“Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling,”
Php 2:12 NIV
Paul is talking to a church he planted in Philippi about obeying the teachings of Christ he gave them while he was spending time there with them. They had taken to heart what Paul said, and in his presence, they all began to learn how to follow Christ closely. While Paul was with them, they could always run to him with any questions or when they just needed extra encouragement or when they required some gentle guidance. In his presence, it was almost easy to follow this new way of living. Almost. Are we like this too?
Anyone can act all holy when we are in church. Anyone can be encouraged when we are at a Christian conference getting fed the Word of God. Anyone can stand up to the challenges of life when they have others around them supporting them, rooting for them. And this is why belonging to a congregation is so very vital for our Christian walk. We need each other and we need to be in the presence of each other. I think this was one of the many hard things about this recent pandemic. For various reason, our churches were closed and this fellowship, this gathering of God’s people together, left many hungering for the Presence of Christ around them. But here is the Gospel truth, my Friends, Jesus is ALWAYS with us. We are always in His Presence, but is He always in ours?
It is difficult to put in words, but I sense Him within me. I sense His Voice impressing upon my heart. I sense His guidance, encouragement, strength to keep on keeping on. For those of us who are born again, the question should never be is God with us? But HOW is HE with us? We must become sensitive to His Presence in our hearts, making sure we learn to discern when it is Him, or one of those three enemies we talked about a couple of weeks ago. This is important because following His Word requires that we are in His Presence. And also that we know He is with us even on those occasions when we do not sense His Presence. More on that tomorrow…
Join me in memorizing 52 verses this year:
January: 1- Jn 3:16; 2- 2Co 5:17; 3- Jas 2:26; 4- Eph 2:10
February: 5- Jn 10:10; 6- Ro 6:23; 7- Rev 21:4; 8- Php 4:13
March: 9- 1Pe 5:7; 10- Jn 8:32; 11- Dt 30:19; 12- Jn 3:30; 13- 2Chron 20:3
April: 14- 2Chron 20:12; 15- 2Chron 20:15b; 16- 2Chron 20:17; 17- Ro 8:28
18- 1Co 13:13
19- Php 2:12
<>< Peace, Diane
