Today, I will lift up my voice in Praise for I know God is on my side, truly You are my all in all. Almighty Father, we say thank You for the blessed week that just went by. Let everything that has breath praise the Name of the Lord.
I will lift up my voice and worship the King of kings, the Almighty One. You are the Lion of Judea The Great I Am. Blessed be Thy Holy Name. In the Lord is my Peace for You are the Prince of Peace, not as the world giveth. Your peace stilsl every storms and siege in our lives and situation.
Beloved, I believe the Lord has blessed you through His ministration all through the week, you have also change levels moving from one glory to another level of glory, His grace has been made available to you to be whatsoever you desires of Him.
Our God is too Faithful to fail you, remember you will never be forgotten by Him. He loves you and thinketh much about you. With Him by your side you have no need to be afraid. Praise be the Name of the Lord.
We saw in this week devotional how God qualified the unqualified and made her a carrier of Goodnews. She was the first to see the risen Christ, beloved “Grace – So Amazing”.
In our journey of life sometimes God want to use us. He make us partaker of his doings. He wants to accomplish His biddings through us. We only scream when it entails sufferings, shame and humiliations, but in all honesty dearly beloved. What does the cross signifies? Or can I put it the in another way what does the cross typified?
The Word of God made it clear that Christ was humbly but what He suffered. It also said that “knowing the joy that was set before Him, He endureth the cross, despising the shame, and is sat down at the right hand of the throne of God (Heb 12:2). So Christ reign in glory did not come because He was the Son of God but His reign came from His obedience learnt through what he suffered (Heb 5:8).
So, if Christ suffered that He may reign, why should we avoid it or run away from it? For just as Christ suffered, so also we having suffered for a while we will also reign with Him (Heb 12:5; 1 Pet 1:6-7; 4:12-14, 19).
So beloved, sometime like Simon, the Lord will want to partake of his suffering with Him, Christ being humble by what He suffered likewise we also we obtain our reign through humility that can only found in Christ Jesus but there is a “but” in it. Come let see how much of these suffering we actually partake and the Lord see us through each we humbly accept His cross for us.
“On Him they laid the cross, that He might bear it after Jesus.” Luke 23:26
We see in Simon’s carrying the cross a picture of the work of the Church throughout all generations; he is the cross-bearer after Jesus. Mark then, Christian, Jesus does not suffer so as to exclude your suffering. He bears a cross, not that you may escape it, but that you may endure it. Christ exempts you from sin, but not from sorrow. Remember that, and expect to suffer.
But let us comfort ourselves with this thought, that in our case, as in Simon’s, it is not our cross, but Christ’s cross which we carry. When you are molested for your piety; when your religion brings the trial of cruel mockings upon you, then remember it is not your cross, it is Christ’s cross; and how delightful is it to carry the cross of our Lord Jesus!
You carry the cross after Him. You have blessed company; your path is marked with the footprints of your Lord. The mark of His blood-red shoulder is upon that heavy burden. ‘Tis His cross, and He goes before you as a shepherd goes before his sheep. Take up your cross daily, and follow Him.
Do not forget, also, that you bear this cross in partnership. It is the opinion of some that Simon only carried one end of the cross, and not the whole of it. That is very possible; Christ may have carried the heavier part, against the transverse beam, and Simon may have borne the lighter end. Certainly it is so with you; you do but carry the light end of the cross, Christ bore the heavier end.
And remember, though Simon had to bear the cross for a very little while, it gave him lasting honour. Even so the cross we carry is only for a little while at most, and then we shall receive the crown, the glory. Surely we should love the cross, and, instead of shrinking from it, count it very dear, when it works out for us “a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.”
Beloved, did you see that “the cross works out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” Praise the Lord! Let’s go further dear:
“Before honour is humility.” Proverbs 15:33
Humiliation of soul always brings a positive blessing with it. If we empty our hearts of self God will fill them with His love. He who desires close communion with Christ should remember the word of the Lord, “To this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at My word.” Stoop if you would climb to heaven. Do we not say of Jesus, “He descended that He might ascend”?
So must you. You must grow downwards, that you may grow upwards; for the sweetest fellowship with heaven is to be had by humble souls, and by them alone. God will deny no blessing to a thoroughly humbled spirit. “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven,” with all its riches and treasures. The whole exchequer of God shall be made over by deed of gift to the soul which is humble enough to be able to receive it without growing proud because of it.
God blesses us all up to the full measure and extremity of what it is safe for Him to do. If you do not get a blessing, it is because it is not safe for you to have one. If our heavenly Father were to let your unhumbled spirit win a victory in His holy war, you would pilfer the crown for yourself, and meeting with a fresh enemy you would fall a victim; so that you are kept low for your own safety.
When a man is sincerely humble, and never ventures to touch so much as a grain of the praise, there is scarcely any limit to what God will do for him. Humility makes us ready to be blessed by the God of all grace, and fits us to deal efficiently with our fellow men. True humility is a flower which will adorn any garden. This is a sauce with which you may season every dish of life, and you will find an improvement in every case.
Whether it be prayer or praise, whether it be work or suffering, the genuine salt of humility cannot be used in excess.
The Lord is calling on us not allow this grace to be in vain but that You and I will make maximally use of it. So that at the end, we will reign with Christ having endured the cross with all humility (2Pet 3:10-18).
I will leave with this beloved to ponder upon, …but “grow in grace”.
Remain blessed in the Lord.
