The Darkening

They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Ephesians 4:18 (NIV)

We can’t afford to allow our hearts to harden. We can’t let our understanding to darken. The truth is, we can’t survive without God, but if we allow these things to happen then separation from God will surely result.

There are many distractions that can turn our eyes from our Lord. Complacency often comes like a thief to steal our attention. Pride and self-sufficiency make us believe we can go on without our Lord. Ignorance serves to blind us and excuses cripple us.

Our Lord will never leave us, but there is a danger that we will leave him, and so it is very important that we daily refresh our relationship with God. Turn to him continuously for guidance. Pray to him and praise him, acknowledging our Lord as our King and Saviour. If we allow him to breathe life and light into the very core of our beings, then we will never be separated from our Lord and his family.

Ask, Seek, Knock

Part of the joy of being a Christian is that we are able to participate in the glory of our Lord. We are awake in our faith. We are alive in God’s grace. We are not simply fragile keepsakes for God to look after, but precious members of his family.

And as members of his family, we are encouraged to seek out our God in all that we do. He wants to guide us and to teach us so that we will learn and grow and evolve. We are invited to ask God for all that we need because he longs to bless us.

Rather than becoming stagnant in our faith, we are urged to always move forward. We must nurture our relationship with God, but we can’t do that if we shy from speaking with him or avoid spending time with him.

This is why we must ask, seek and knock (Matthew 7:7). It is how we fight complacency, how we stay in relationship with God, and how we learn to rely on him.

The Christian Life

Some people try to categorise Christianity into a small container. They feel the need to label it and box it into a simplified understanding by focussing on one facet of it and ignoring all the others. Some think the Christian life is about pain, sacrifice, duty and rules. Others think the Christian life is about rainbows, freedom, joy and songs. In truth, it is about all of the above and more. Boxing these aspects is to not understand them properly.

A Christian life is a complex creature that is always evolving and growing even though its very core remains forever the same. It is full of unexpected contrasts that can both confuse and elate. It is full of fire and ice, full of passion and the mundane, simplicity and complexity, death of self and life in abundance.

A Christian life is worth living and dying for because truly knowing God’s love is everything.

Mighty Oaks

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendour. Isaiah 61:1-3 (NIV)

Oaks are old, solid trees, with roots that run deep. With their huge leafy canopy, they are also trees that are highly visible in their glory and they carry an air of might and strength. The Lord calls us to be oaks of righteousness. This means we are called to be strong and mighty in our faith. We are not to be hidden but to stand out proudly for all to see God’s glory.

This is the life that God wants for us. He has even prepared us for it if only we would embrace it. We no longer need to stay in the darkness, for he is our light in which we are nurtured. We don’t need to hold onto despair for he has lifted us out of the ashes of this world.

But it all comes down to choice. We can choose to live in poverty of spirit, always searching, yet forever lost, or we can choose to live in and for our Lord and become the mighty oaks he wants us to be.

Pic: Moreton Bay Fig Tree at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney.

Forever

So much changes and so much is lost. Fads burn out quickly, fashions come and go, all things eventually decay, even whole civilisations can vanish. We realise that nothing is here to stay. With the fleeting nature of all things, we are stripped of all hope and all reason for being since everything is so temporary. But we do have hope and it rests in God.

Our Lord will always remain. God’s words are everlasting. His promises will never change. His truths will always be true. His purity will never tarnish, his wisdom will remain strong, and God will never fade away or die. He will remain the same today as he was in the past and will continue to be in the future. Forever.

We can rely on God because he is rock solid and forevermore. We can invest all we have into God because he is eternal, indestructible and unchanging. And what is even more wonderful and breathtaking is that he wants to share all that he is with us. He gives us hope, he gives us purpose, and he gives us a future that will never pass away.

A Lamp To My Feet

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.
Psalm 119:105 (NIV)

God’s word is a lamp to our feet because it lights our way and protects us against stumbling in the dark. His word arms us against any obstacles we might have to face. His word equips us with all that we need in each and every stage of our journey.

His word is his promises. His word is his wisdom. His word is his guidance. His word is powerful. His word is precious. His word sustains us. His word grants us a new beginning and a new life.

These are the things that will keep us on the right path. These are the things that will bring us courage, strength and the knowledge of God’s true and perfect love for us.

To learn God’s word is to learn God’s way. To walk God’s way is to find true meaning in our life.

How to Avoid Problems

There is a trick to avoiding problems: it is being equipped to recognise the problems before they develop, knowing how to deal with the problems when they develop, and moving beyond the problems once they have been dealt with so that they no longer have power over us.

So how do we equip ourselves? We read the scriptures, we use them as a template for our lives, we build a rich relationship with the Lord and we learn to rely on him. The inevitable result is not the end of all problems, but instead our perception of the problems changes.

When we regularly immerse ourselves in all that is godly, we become so well equipped for dealing with the problems, that they are no longer insurmountable or even life-shattering. We no longer run from them, we are no longer ruled by them and we are no longer chained down by them.

The Lord gives us strength and the power to overcome them.

Pic: Under the Sydney Harbour Bridge