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One of the hardest truths we humans do not want to experience is the cross. The cross is the place where our old sinful nature is killed. Once it is destroyed the renewed personality will be ready to receive God's wisdom and favour. The power of God can be easily manifested through us when our nature is cleaner of the ego's urge which the apostles in the new testament repeatedly taught about crucifying. But this crucifixion doest not get dealt with over night. It will be part of our life's journey here on earth because we will be cleansed regularly to grow to the image of Christ. The best thing we can do is to minimize the damage on both the soul and the body because surely the cross accompanies with it the bleeding of the soul and the suffering of the body. But the faithful God comes into the person's life bearing the fruit of ressurection. This is the repeated cycle- death and ressurection, which happens to a persuer of God inorder to grow fast to the highest life destined for us. So to make the pain of the inevitable cross as low as possible, it is a wise thing to act in love beforehand. Today's benevolent action will help you decrease the hurt of tomorrow's challenge. It is a wise thing to be modestly optimist and pessimist at the same time. The optimistic disposition is about the abundant grace and goodness of God, while the pessimistic disposition is about the dark night the soul will need to experience inorder to regularly purify itself.
When we become children of God where we get to be members of the kingdom of God here on earth, new rules are appended on us which are crucially important to keep ourselves secured. Truth is about knowing these rules and walk according to them. Freedom is one of the most needed and persued attributes of the human soul. And Jesus has told us (John 8:31-32) that it is obtained through knowing the 'truth'. There are different levels of truths. Some are personal which is to say that they are applicable to each of us differently. So the rule for one might be meaningless for another. So we have to figure out these personal truths independently. The other kind of truth is general which applies to all of us. So the prerequisite to understanding truth is living in love and regularly reading the bible. When the bible is read it should be noted that no part should be jumped just because it seems irrelevant. So once we do these the path of freedom will start to get revealed to us.
Knowing Our New Nature
One of the purposes Christians' life is to be the soldiers of Christ fighting on behalf of the Lord of hosts. This is one of the names of God which is mentioned multiple times in the bible. And the word 'hosts' can be described to mean army. This is to imply that one of the sides of our life-style is to be soldiers of Christ. Christ reigns through us, His proxies. Our matured state and trustworthiness is so important for God's Kingdom and Its universal agendas which are to be achieved also as we co-work with Christ. So as soldiers who are always at standby to fight the enemy we must learn some important things. As much as our holiness and purity is important to let God work through as, our carelesness also make us vulnerable more than anybody. This world and its spirits has a side of enemity to our new nature and for this reason as our strength has a power to subdue it to Christ, our weakness also make us prey to its attack. For this reason it is important to be prudent against any enticing ideas and offers we get along our ways. We should always prioritize our spiritual devotions. And in addition we should wisely make our conversations lest we give ground to others to undermine our faith and identity, as Jesus told us also not to share our holy identity carelessly with others (Matt 7:6). We can observe from the bible how mistakes are consequential for our earthly life. Look at what emotional actions costed great men of God. Abraham's impatient decision, Moses's angry reactions, David's carelesness, and many more.
The Favour Of God
Proverbs 3:3-4 (King James Version)
3 Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart:
4 So shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man.
As stated in the above verses the two virtues, mercy and truth, are the required inputs to find favour from the Lord. We know about mercy. It is an action of goodness and forgiving that is backed by faith. We need faith to be merciful because it requires great persuation against the ego to be willing to forgive and be kind. It sometimes costs sacrificing our fleshly old-self which, if done, will eventually attract God to the soul. Though it is right, it might not amount much to be kind and smily towards the great and rich people,
James 2. But when those we esteem less need our compassion the old-self may list on the mind many reasons not to be kind and forgiving. It might even spiritualize its badness in the name of justice and spiritual war. But such points in life are those that are opportunities to practice faith. It is important to excercise mercy since it is one of the major laws of God. And we can know how God is serious about His laws by just studying the judgments the israelites went through in the time of Moses and the prophets, or just read the famous Deuteronomy 28. Mercy is more about supressing the worldly old-self to let the volition act in patient, kind, and forgiving manner hopping God will amend any unjust burden the person may be carring for the sake of love. God is faithful in giving justice to our causes. But at the end of the day it will be best if the person stayed faithful in being merciful,
Rom 12:19-21.
What about truth? We can observe at different points in the scripture that truth is mentioned after mercy, love, and faith. It is also easy to notice when we read our bible that Truth, Light, Freedom, and Favour of God are also inter-related. The fleshly nature in us will think logically to callously disregard others for the sake of self-serving. But our faith will give us persuaded willingness to be sympathetic and empathetic. So once we stepped our feet on love in such manner, we can seek truth from God because the door to heavenly light will be open for us. This light is what will help us see and uderstand the will of God. God's will is the truth, it is this truth that will help us live the higher life, and it is also what will give us freedom and prosperity. But to know this truth is not that cheap and easy. It costs us love, as explained earlier. So once we have passed this challenge to love and started to get enlightened with the truth, then spiritual gates will open for us to help our inner senses perceive wisdoms of life.
On Proverbs 8, wisdom itslef talks about itself by describing how decoding it or receiving it is the key to our purpose in life. On the final part of the chapter it claims that favour and life are obtained through it and failing to find it results in death. It seems black and white as we either ought to live the higher life through light or darkness will overtake us to hell.
If we are called to the kingdom of God it is important to be aware of our purpose in life. Such knowledge about our call will help us lead our life with the right expectation by guarding our soul from losing hope. Before our spirit gets born-again, which happens when we acknowledge and accept Jesus Christ and His work of salvation, our life was about revealing our potentials to our benefit. But once we are Children of God it will be wrapped to be about revealing Christs glory and authority in this world. Our spirit is the tabernacle of God, 1 Cor 3:16 (Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?) And the sole purpose of our life will be to let God do His plans in the world through us. That is why it is a great and different responsiblity to live as a Christian. This does not mean we ought to preach and focus only on the bible and spiritual activities. But the implication is that whatever we do and want to persue, be it our acadamic passion or any useful thing, God can also be part of it and use it for His glory. So such wide perspective will be helpful to excercise our devotions and to live in benevolence.
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