God's Gift

Our lives are filled with special days, specific days that mean more to us than others. A birthday is often such an occasion. As a youngster it is a highlight to the toil through life. It’s a day that focuses on us and others who are normally favoured within a group take the backseat, at least for a while! Obviously I write to you using carnal understanding for many are yet to understand the importance of putting on the mind of Christ for carnality always dominates and has victory if we continue to reason as we always did prior to salvation.

Life is geared to mislead us in every area of our lives if and when we apply earthly reasoning to our mentality. In a nutshell when we strip all of our objections away from their menacing justifications it will become clear that if we continue to resist the Word of God all this proves is that we are yet babes in Christ, or worse yet we do not belong to the Lord Jesus; we are not one of His.

Let me use an example to depict the difference between a man that is carnal and a man that has put on the mind of Christ; in a trying circumstance the man who reasons with his natural mind will always ask the question why or how come. Whilst the spiritual man will understand that he has been called to live a life of trial for the sake of endurance. The natural man complains about sufferings while the spiritual man understands that it will bring about patience, endurance and character in his life, which ultimately will bring glory to his God. And a man that has matured into a spiritual adult will welcome suffering for he has learnt to understand that it’s for his benefit as well as those around him.   

Here is some instruction from the Apostle Paul to help cement these truths into our brains once and for all, and in so doing, free us to serve the living God with a clear conscience; “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” (Romans 5:1-5)

I understand that one can know something theoretically, but it is quite another matter to live it out; you shall know a tree by its fruit, does a man gather figs from an acacia tree? Therefore it is not rocket science when analyzing our own lives with regard to our maturity as Christians. We have been commanded to put on the mind of Christ. Take any given circumstance within your lives and apply the Word of God to it and it will be clear to us where we stand in Him. Try and apply human wisdom to the equation outside of the mind of Christ and it will always produce fruits of the flesh. In other words we will continue to look for figs from a tree that is filled with thorns. Have you not understood that if we set our minds on the flesh it will only ever produce death? “For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” (Romans 8:6-8) – Test your circumstance; is your life filled with peace in spite of your situation? It will soon become obvious with regard to your maturity in Christ.

Having established that let me now reflect on this day, my fiftieth birthday! I have much to thank God for, He is perfect in Character, in fact, He is faultless in every facet of His existence. He cannot change nor be taught anything, but our lives are filled with valuable lessons if we pay careful attention to them.

As I look around me I see many differing faces that have played an important part in my life. And I know that many would be questioning my example as a Christian because let’s face it, my example has been dismal at times and for this I ask for your forgiveness. However although I have been slow to learn, my Saviour never gave up on me and He continues to apply grace to my life teaching me to put on His mind and for this I will be forever thankful.

For so long folly has followed me but God who is rich in mercy has now begun to favour me and all because of the perfect work that Christ accomplished upon the cross of Calvary. His finished work has allowed me to begin to understand the values of putting on the mind of Christ and before I am misunderstood let me make it very clear that this in itself is a gift of God, I most certainly never deserved His favour and yet I have found it, thank you my great God and King. True salvation and maturity in God will never be capable of boasting as it will never be linked to our own works. It is a gift of God! Today is a day that I thank God for the greatest gift of all, the mind of Christ!

On reflection there is a psalm that illustrates my journey to a tee and here are a few verses from it; “Some were fools through their sinful ways, and because of their iniquities suffered affliction; they loathed any kind of food, and they drew near to the gates of death. Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. He sent out his word and healed them, and delivered them from their destruction.” (Psalms 107:17-20)

Signing off

Tyrone