9/17 - Don't Give Up

The words of Isaiah,

"He will not fail nor be discouraged, till He has established justice in the earth; And the coastlands shall wait for His law" (Isaiah 42:4)

In this chapter, Isaiah speaks about the characteristics of Christ and gives a prophetic outlook into some of the things He will accomplish. Christ would come to offer a new covenant and to be a light to the Gentiles, who at this point had little hope for salvation. This was His purpose. Verse 4 says that He would not fail nor be discouraged until the time His task is completed. What does it take to have this sort of confidence?

I believe that Jesus first knew what His purpose was. He knew who sent Him for that purpose. The One who had sent Him couldn't fail and He, having the same Spirit of the God who sent Him, also could not fail. As imitators of Christ, I think this is the same attitude we ought to have. We ought to be confident that whatever God has sent us to do, it will not fail in its purpose and we ought not be discouraged. For me, it happens too often. People don't show up to events or I get little support for something I'm trying to start and I get discouraged. If we can attain this sort of confidence, that whatever God has called us to do it will succeed, I think that would even drive our actions a little differently. Instead of moving cautiously, we'd move boldly. Instead of defining success by numbers or whatever other measures we use, we find a new & more accurate measure. I'm not saying we lower our expectations to build our confidence. I'm saying that we define success by our obedience. Were we obedient to what God called us to do and did we do it to the best of our ability? Did we water the field? Because only He can provide the increase anyway.

Please keep me in prayer b/c honestly a lot of this was for me. Going through some things that have had me discouraged & unfocused. I'll keep praying for you guys too.

7/21 - Philippians 3

To those reading this who have confessed & believed in Christ and are now saved, reflect on this fact this morning: we have been chosen by God. Take a just a few moments. There's so much in that simple statement. So much to rejoice about, so much to stand in awe of.

"For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh," (v.3).

We believe in Christ as our only means of sufficiency, truly as our Lord - our leader & guide without whom we'd be lost. The more I read this chapter the more I realize that growing in faith is relying less and less on yourself and more and more on God. It's a rigorous process since everything around us tells us to be self-sufficient. Make sure you have an IRA, invest in your future, save enough emergency money for 6 months, always look out for yourself first, if you don't look out for yourself no one else will, etc. Hey, these statements may have some merit but I'm trying to establish that this manner of thinking is ingrained in most of us. Maybe this is why I trust in my own ability to handle my finances rather than give God full control. That might be a topic for another day but I just imagine that a check book under God's complete authority will look a little different than that of a half-surrendered, half-invested believer. Yea...topic for another day.

The verse says we should have no confidence in the flesh. Paul goes on to list why he could be confident in the flesh: "circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless" (v. 5-6). Today that might sound like "I was raised in the church, I'm there every Sunday, my daddy was a deacon, uncle was a minister, mother was a trustee, a faithful tither, I read my Bible everyday and serve on 5 church committees." Again, nothing wrong with any of that. But the point in this chapter is that our sufficiency comes from true faith in Christ and all of our "stuff", no matter how good it is, is still inadequate for salvation. Our abilities and achievements apart from God are a wash. Verse 7, "But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ."

So we should continue on in our well doing, and even do more (as God has called us) but our confidence should remain in Him - "that [we] may gain Christ, and be found in Him, not having [our] own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith" (v. 8-9, emphasis added)