Good day, Mdm!
Praise be to God! I've to tell you the moment you grasp hold of Grace (Jesus), life will never be the same.. I'm blessed by this revelation and it has proven from time and time again Grace is the key to life! Amen!
This week, I was told to attend a departmental meeting (which i kind of not comfortable of; having to deal with my boss is nothing easy). My manager on a last minutes decided to leave me alone to handle the situation. I was filled with rage but left with no choice. I started praying in tongues for I knew fear & stress started to build-up. I whispered softly "I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, it is not about me nor my fear. I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus... Not by my might nor by my power but by the power of the Spirit!"
Just before the meeting, I whispered again "Grace Grace.." The meeting started of with my boss leaning on the table. He apologized and said he was tired. The meeting was light, with occasional jokes thrown around the table. I went through my department minutes & agenda in last than 10 min! It was so much easier than I thought, knowing my boss is a difficult person....Praise the Lord! After the meeting, my colleague came and told me usually the meeting will last 2 hrs! That day was super fast... Probably the boss was "tired". I smiled and said to myself "Thank God for Your Grace! Lord, You must have made my boss "tired" so that he made the meeting a chop-chop one... Praise the Lord!
Ok.. back to Bible study... We've been talking about faith for the past few weeks... Have you wonder how we can have more faith in the Lord? Some may say if only Jesus is physically next to me, I can talk to Him directly, eat with Him, go everywhere He go, my faith will be at all time high! Really?
Let's take a look at this passage...
Matthew 8:23-27
23 Now when He got into a boat, His disciples followed Him.
24 And suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea, so that the boat was covered with the waves. But He was asleep.
25 Then His disciples came to Him and awoke Him, saying, “Lord, save us! We are perishing!”
26 But He said to them, “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.
27 So the men marveled, saying, “Who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?
Here, the disciples had been with Jesus for a while... They ate with Him, they followed where He go... But yet, Jesus said they had "little faith!" Note that Jesus was with them all this while!
What happen? If staying close to Jesus is not the answer to a greater faith, then what is?
Let's take a look at another passage...
Mathew 8:5-13
5 Now when Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, pleading with Him,
6 saying, “Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, dreadfully tormented.”
7 And Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.”
8 The centurion answered and said, “Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed.
9 For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
10 When Jesus heard it, He marveled, and said to those who followed, “Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!
11 And I say to you that many will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.
12 But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
13 Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go your way; and as you have believed, so let it be done for you.” And his servant was healed that same hour.
Here Jesus commented the centurion of his great faith... Interesting, isn't it? This centurion had not been eating with Jesus, this centurion had not been following Jesus around and yet Jesus said he has great faith! How come?
Let's do a comparison between these two passages and see if we can find some answers...
What do you think the disciples were feeling when the storm arise in their midst? Fear? Yes. The natural (storm & wave) was so real then that they said to Jesus they were perishing!
What was Jesus doing then? Sleeping! What does that speak of? Peace, rest, undisturbed by the surrounding activities. He was above all things at that time and now of course!
But did the disciples saw that? Nope, they were overwhelmed by the storm. They didn't see that Jesus was way above the situation. In other words, they were sensing the trouble around them more than they were sensing the presence of Jesus whom is way way above these troubles!. They were merely "fighting for victory" - Little Faith
Let's take a closer look at the story of the centurion....
When Jesus initiated his intention to go to the centurion house, the centurion said he was unworthy for Jesus to make that trip. Can you see how much he esteem Jesus and valued Christ over his situation? The centurion was so confident of the Lord that Jesus just need to speak and he knew his boy will be cured. He indeed was "fighting from victory" - Great Faith! Amen!
Where do you stand today? Do you fight for victory or do you fight from victory? How do you view Jesus today? Is He above your troubles or is the troubles troubling you till you forgotten Jesus is with you?
Whenever there is a "toxic" emotion (eg fear, guilt, anxiety, condemnation, rage), it mean that there is a wrong thinking and the wrong thinking come from a wrong believing and the wrong believing come from a wrong hearing... Are you hearing the right gospel message? Are you hearing the right gospel that say God is for us? Or are you hearing the wrong gospel that say God is angry with you because you just throw your temper at your kids?
God can never ever be angry with us anymore. Why? Because His fury and anger was all consumed by His Son at the cross. All the judgement of sin for all of us are dealt with at the cross once and for all. Today, our standing before God is righteous because of Jesus. And because of that, God promise He will never be angry with us again. If He does, He would have broken His promise and we know God will never lie, He will never break His promise. If He does, He is no longer God. Amen!
Faith in essence is right believing , believing the right gospel. And when we have right believing, we will produce right living. Amen!
With this, I leave you with this verse (we will probably go through this verse next week)
Matthew 8:28 (The Message)
28-30 “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”
This is a beautiful passage. Love it. My favorite verse for this year!
Shalom
Bro
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