The Mother Lode

The scripture is full of precious gems that we need to industriously search out; no differently to a miner selling all and then travelling to a faraway land in search of the “mother lode”. There must be a deliberate intention on our part as we set out to find these life changing pockets of treasure. The irony of it all is that they are hidden in plain view. And yet without faith as our key ingredient these life-changing gems will elude the Christian!

I suppose that is why the evil one has chosen to infiltrate “faith” no differently to how he chose to tempt Eve in the Garden! A distortion of the truth is all he needs someone to latch onto to achieve his goal. Things like, “being drunk in the spirit”, “laughing uncontrollably”, “gold dust falling from the roof of churches” and the like is all a distortion of God’s blessings as it is apparently linked to faith by so many.

It is not this “fool’s gold” paragon I seek… my desire is rather to search for the true treasures available to the Christian.

Let us explore further…

For us to be the benefactors of these gems (God’s blessings) we must take Him at His Word; this is where faith becomes imperative! Let us look at some examples; “But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” (Matthew 6:3-4)

How will the Father reward us? There are many differing opinions on this; however there is a certainty no one can dispute; the glittering virtues of Jesus Christ’s character are the jewels; the fruits of the spirit are the best of rewards. That is the “mother lode” I hunt out! Which are; “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.” (Galatians 5:22-25) – It is one thing to say we are believers and that we live by the Spirit, but quite another to “walk by the Spirit”. For Christians to walk in the Spirit, everything in our lives must hinge on faith if we earnestly desire to make these treasures our own! Our minds need renewing! We must learn to understand our Saviours character and it is only through the trial of life that this will become apparent. Our natural tendencies are to avoid hardships, or to buckle under them as we give into sin; testing, or better known as the “trial of our faith” is for our benefit, remember Job! The only way to refine gold is to put it through the fire! In like manner we understand that even the Lord Jesus, an upright man, who lived a life without sin, needed to learn obedience through suffering. “Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him,” (Hebrews 5:8-9) 

And obviously we will never get through our suffering if we do not obey our God taking Him at His Word. For this we will need a perpetual flow on the grace of God; it is needful to constantly search out this treasure, Grace! We must learn to trust God through it all and not base our feelings on our bank balances, but rather look to the Word of God to become our assurance. Remember Sarah, Abrahams wife, she was an old woman who was way past her “expiry date” in relation to child bearing and yet it was by faith that she believed God receiving power to conceive!

How is it that when we see scripture as it is we often tend to look for an easy out, to our own peril I must add, instead of trusting its direction whilst wrestling to make it our own. Here is an example that will illustrate my point rather proficiently; a beggar loiters in rags suffering the cold of winter whilst begging bread, what do we do? Do we help or do we conclude that we work so why shouldn’t he? I have had many a discussion on this topic. Some say by giving him even a few coins we make it easier for him not to find work while others reason it away with some other tactic, resulting in the same conclusion; they withhold what is theirs from the beggar. What should we do? “Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.” (Matthew 5:42) – You see we make it about him when in fact it is all about us; we hold on to what is ours because of our selfish hearts, the test is, are we willing to apply the instruction of scripture to our lives? One may ask, “What does that have to do with faith?” And I must conclude, “Compliance to the Word of God is faith!” It is time to get back to basics; I believed that as time progressed I became wiser, when in fact I have walked past some many precious gems in scripture.

May God give me a heart to trust and obey without the foolish wisdom of this world tainting my understanding as it gets in the way of my relationship with Him! Your struggle will vary from mine, nevertheless the lesson remains, believe God, trust Him through it all with the mind of a child and when He says jump, let us not look at the dangers on all sides but let us focus on the strength of His outstretched arms!

Signing off

Tyrone