What a Marvelous God, what a Wonderful God, He has done marvelous things for us. What a wonderful God what a marvelous God, He use to do marvelous things in my life. The things that are impossible, the things that money cannot buy, they are things that He has done for me. What a Marvelous God, what a Wonderful God, He has done it again and again.
Father, we cannot but thank You for all the great things You have done for us. Gracious Redeemer, we come with our heart full of gratitude; with our mouth full of praise on this last day to say ‘Thank You, Ancient of Days’. For preserving us all through the month.
You blessed us; you honoured us; You healed us; You keep our going and our coming back; You preserved the works of our hands; You gave us good health and sound mind; You provided for us; You give us reason to be happy; You delivered us from all evil. Blessed be Your Holy Name forever and ever. Amen!
Thank You for the month of greater glory, thank You for the Wonders Your hand wrought for us. glory be to Your Name forever Amen!
Beloved, as way of recap, this month brought to us the wisdom that in giving both to the Lord and to our fellows as one way of receiving God’s blessing in our lives. Another way of receiving from God is by offering our service in His kingdom, participating actively in our ministries. Why? the glory of the Lord is visible in His temple, of which we are one by His grace.
Are you available? Are you willing to be part of it? Helping the poor or the needy as we discussed extensively can come in various forms. There is no one that has nothing to offer. You may be surprise to discover that the rich man or woman as you think needs nothing, need true companion. All that surrounds him or her are there either because of what they will get or take. Discovering a true relationship will bring great peace to them.
These you can do by offering Christ to them. Well, am not writing on it again in details but one thing I want us to take home is to know that in all our are doing, let us do it as unto the Lord, Who will greatly reward us and not unto man.
Recently. I got involved in some things in my ministry in my local church and along the line something happened. (And I know I offered myself in service to honour God). Without being told I knew it was not these fellows who are behind the acts but the enemy, who wants me to angry and thereby lose my reward and by the grace of God I shun the devil and I said to myself, I have made this sacrifice; I must be rewarded by God. I will not allow the devil to steal my blessing from me, so I stayed cool despite all odd.
Why am I sharing this? Is to let you know that even when you have decided to honour God either with your substance or in kind. The devil will come to steal your reward either by making you feel offended by someone or a group, gets you angry, or you allow pride to set in. One way or the other, the devil will accuse you in such a manner that will make you lose your reward. But if you are alert in your spirit man you will sense his signal and be wise against his devices. Please the Lord. Read more below:
And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men.—Colossians 3:23
There is an important difference between doing something for people and doing something for God. God always deserves our best effort. People will disappoint us, betray us, neglect us, and mistreat us. Some will constantly ask for what we can give while offering nothing in return. From our human perspective, these people deserve our minimal effort at best.
What then should motivate us to serve people, except our love for God? God deserves our love, and He demands that we love others in the same way He does. We are to love our spouses, not as they deserve, but as God commands (Eph. 5:22–33). We are to treat our friends, not as they treat us, but as Christ loves us (John 13:14). We are to labor at our jobs, not in proportion to the way our employer treats us, but according to the way God treats us. God is the One we serve (Eph. 6:5).
Mediocrity and laziness have no place in the Christian’s life. Christians must maintain integrity at home and in the workplace. Working for God, as opposed to working for other people, changes our perspective as we view our endeavors in light of what He has done for us. Our toil then becomes an offering to God.
We not only worship God at church on Sunday, but our labor throughout the week is an offering of worship and thanksgiving to the One who has given us everything we have. When people do not measure up to our expectations and we feel our efforts are being wasted, we must keep in mind that we are toiling for holy God. He is worthy of our best effort.
Did you get something from the message above? There are people who the devil will always want to use to get at you. Your Christian maturity comes in when you don’t allow them to either distract you or put you off the race. You see yourself getting upset and quarreling unnecessarily when you should be exhibiting Christian virtue as ordained by God. Worst still, you bring yourself to the lowest level by being in enmity with your brethren or neighbor whom you are meant to love.
Let us chose to work in kingdom of God rather than that of the devil. Get involve in kingdom business because the coming of the Lord is at hand (Phil 4:5b) Christian discipleship is not a theoretical class but a practical one. You are a moving bible or gospel, so let us beware on how we live or we have no testimony to share:
We proclaim Him, warning and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ.—Colossians 1:28
Discipleship is personally transferring the full dimensions of your relationship with Christ to the person you are walking with. It is not the imparting of spiritual disciplines as much as it is acquainting another with a Person you love. Paul said that he would teach and urge with all his strength that every person God placed in his life would come to a complete experience of the person of Christ (Col. 1:29). He was not satisfied with people becoming partially like Christ. He would not rest until those around him were perfect, or complete, in Christ. That is, that the fruits of the Spirit were being fully expressed through each life and the character of Christ was reflected in each person (Gal. 5:22).
We can mistake Christian activity with becoming like Christ. Christian activity and Christlikeness are not the same things. We must not assume that because our friend attends church and reads her Bible, she is growing as a Christian.
Christian activities are an important expression of your relationship with Christ. They can lead you to a relationship, but the danger is assuming that your religious activity is the relationship. If you are only encouraging those around you to attend Christian activities, then you have not “discipled” them the way Paul did. You do your fellow Christians an injustice by teaching them that Christian activity is equal to Christian maturity.
Do not rest until those around you have become “perfect” in Christ. If God has put new Christians under your care, you have an obligation to “stay with them” until they have reached Christian maturity.
Being matured in the Christian life is more than the activities we get involves in. Is when we are not move by what we heard or what people do around us. When we let go the wrong done us but rather choose to focus on Christ who uttered no word when He was being led to be killed on the cross. He rather chose to forgive His killers because they know not what they are doing.
The grace to live like Christ may we receive this last day in Jesus Name, amen!
See you next week, next month by God’s grace. Have a wonderful weekend. I love you.
Remain blessed in the Lord.
