The good fight

 

Once again sleep eludes me as my mind races considering the will of God for my life and the failures that so easily beset. The frailty of the flesh and the way it so easily hankers after so many contradiction. And yet the fight must go on, we must press towards the mark of the high calling of God. There is no other excellent we would ever truly hunt, how can one who has been touched by the grace of God have it any other way? Whilst we have breath we have hope, but then it’s over and it will be too late. We must make haste while the sun shines. “But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”  (Hebrews 3:13) – Sin can be deceptive, look at the root of bitterness and the poison in its bite. Sexual immorality always looking for more, habitual lying to evade judgment to the extent where the conscience has been so seared that one doesn’t give it a second thought and the list goes on, it is boundless...

 

What sin does, is it harden our ability to place the will of God over our own contaminated selfish wants. So here I am, exhorting you to be mindful of these things. I would encourage you to return the favour, continue to remind me of what really matters. Let us not get caught up with the different understanding of various texts found penned for us in the Bible at the expense of unifying the body of Christ. I have lived long enough through the trial of my own struggles to understand this; God is building His church and the gates of hell will never prevail over Him. Read the book of revelation and you will clearly see different influence and the lack to application of the diverse churches, they all needed work. We all have room for growth and so let everyone who names the name of Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour flee from sin, this must become our mantra; “whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved”. This must be become a way of life in every area of our lives. It would be amiss of me to tell you that all will be well, when in fact for some it won’t be. Remember those claiming to know the Lord Jesus at judgment, when they began to mention their accolades, prophecy, casting out of devils in HIS name, and how does the Lord reply? “I never knew you”, that is quite an indictment. And then He singles out their lifestyles, the way they lived their lives, pay attention! “Depart from me you workers of lawlessness” – explained another way, you that work inequity, it is a lifestyles of those looking to frustrating the grace of God. These people who claim salvation were never saved. – “I never knew you” do you see the bridge?  Conquering sin in our lives through the Lord's finished work. Should we be speaking about these issues? “Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall.” (2Peter 1:10) Read the chapter to get the context, but my point, we must find grace to confirm our calling and election to be of substance, it must always be about the will of God our Father. We must begin to bear the fruits of the Spirit, and we would fail to achieve this if we turned a blind eye to our sin.   

 

The time is coming when we will be in heaven with our God and Saviour singing praises unto HIM and what an affair that will be, even so come quickly Lord Jesus.

 

We must keep short account when it comes to sin. We must not bury our heads in the sand and ignore the obvious. Sin is sin and it cost the Lord Jesus his life to breach the divide, how can we habitually continue in it, frustrating the grace of God? We must be aware of it and find grace to overcome. And whilst the struggle is on, we must keep diminutive accounts and the way we do this is through repentance. This type of resolve would be impossible without focusing on our hope. So let me encourage you…

 

The time is coming when faith will no longer be needed to commune with our Father. We will see him face to face, how I long for that day. We will receive a glorified eternal body, which will be like the Lord Jesus’ resurrected body. In the ages to come we will be able to point out our beloved Saviour and inform others of what it cost Him to rescue us. He will continuously be praised and we will be the ones praising Him. Our home will be heaven, God will be our Father and we will be His sons. We will receive a new name that God himself will give us. We will be able to eat from the tree of life, which was forbidden after the fall in the Garden of Eden. We will not be hurt by the second death that millions if not billions will face. Some will be given rule over nations. We will walk with the Lord in white raiment’s. To the one who conquers they will be pillars in the temple of God, the backbone of a structure. They will receive great honour and be branded with the name of God. “The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. “ (Revelation 3:21)

 

My final thought then, it will be worth it all, we must encourage one another to fight the good fight, because before we know it, we will be with our God, signing Him praises. It is therefore imperative that we search out the grace of God in order to overcome whatever obstacles crosses our path.

 

“The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen.”

 

Signing out

 

Tyrone