Everlasting Father, Everlasting Son, Immortal Holy Ghost be Thou Glorify. Thank Jesus You are the owner of my life, Alpha Omega You are Worthy to be praise. I have a big God Who is always by my side. Worthy worthy is the Lamb.
Father in heaven O God, we thank You for all You have done for us. This week was indeed a glorious one. We are grateful for every step of progress you have allowed us to make. We are not unmindful of the secret battles you are fighting on our behalf. We thank You Lord. We bless Your Holy Name.
Beloved, wonderful week I must confess. Thank God you are still standing tall in Christ Jesus despite all odd. The arm of the Lord have sustained and preserved you from falling into errors and traps of the evil one. Be thankful. That which you are yet to achieve will soon drop at your feet by the way of your gratefulness.
Christianity is not a way of life but life itself. How do I mean? It means Christ–like and Christ is life. Therefore, we are to get committed to it no matter what. The road though narrow but leads to life but wide is road that leads to death. Apostle Paul is encouraging us to run the race set before us with “Patience” (Heb 12:1). Another suitable word for it is “Endurance”, “Perseverance”, “Forbearance” and some others you might add.
There are so many things on the way to discourage you on finishing the race or getting to the finishing line. Look at this verse very well, it said we have cloud of witnesses, layside (Weymouth said ‘fling’ aside) every encumbrance and the sin that so readily entangles our “feet”. In Eph 6:13;15- laid emphasis on your feet. That is, your standing in Christ is symbolical with your feet. And Heb 12:1 – also laid emphasis on those things that entangles our feet.
Beloved, we must be truly concern with our right standing with God (Rom 5:21) not even the satan dare accuse us when we are sure standing in Christ (Rom 8:33). The question is ‘are you standing right with God?’
You stand on your feet naturally, so we must make sure we are truly standing right with God by putting evil far away from us. How do we succeed in doing this? In verse 2 – ‘simply fixing” your eyes on Jesus (weymouth). ‘Looking,’ ‘focus,’ ‘keeping’. Beloved, did you notice ‘eyes.’ Both ‘eyes’ must be on Jesus. He is the ‘champion’ ‘source’ ‘guide’ ‘author’, finisher’ initiator’ ‘perfecter’ ‘prince leader’ of our faith.
It therefore means that we are to put away evil by standing right in Christ Who is Author and Perfecter of our faith, fixing our eyes on Him to run the race set before us with endurance.
Wow! Beloved, outside Christ, you can do nothing. Your righteousness is just like a flirt rags, you will keep on struggling to please God instead of leaning on the salvation wrought for you by Christ. Praise God.
Another strong antidote in putting away evil is by “fleeing”. Read more of these from the message below:
You must purge the evil from you.—Deuteronomy 22:21b
It is a dangerous and costly mistake not to take temptation seriously. The sad testimony of many who have succumbed to sin’s enticements is that they thought they were strong enough to remain in the midst of temptation and resist it. God requires that His people remove evil from their midst (Deut. 21:21). One way to do this is to remove anything in your environment that may tempt you to sin. When wickedness surrounds you, you are in danger of becoming anesthetized to its destructive potential. Never assume that you are immune to temptation. Do not underestimate the craftiness of the evil one.
God does not tolerate evil, for evil cost the death of His Son. Sin causes untold pain and destruction to everyone it touches. Treating evil lightly shows foolish disregard for God’s redemptive work. An honest evaluation of your life will reveal temptations that you should remove, such as some forms of entertainment or ungodly relationships. When God convicts you of evil in your midst, remove it immediately!
There are times, however, when you are powerless to remove ungodly influences, so you must remove yourself from the temptation. Paul urges us to avoid every kind of evil (1 Thess. 5:22). When Joseph was enticed to commit adultery by his master’s wife, he fled immediately! (Gen. 39:12).
Do not lose your abhorrence of sin. Be diligent to keep any form of temptation out of your home, out of your relationships, out of your mind. You can do this only by maintaining your love relationship with God, recognizing that you are powerless to resist temptation in your own strength. You will not be able to walk closely with God unless you see sin as He sees it. Darkness and light cannot coexist. Run from the darkness to the light!
Another evil that must be put away is “lying”. Let’s find out more:
Since you put away lying, Speak the truth, each one to his neighbor, because we are members of one another.—Ephesians 4:25
Because you are a Christian, your life ought to be permeated with truth. When you were born again, God put the Spirit of truth in you (John 16:13). The Spirit’s role is to guide you into all truth. The Spirit wants to fill your mind with whatever is true (Phil. 4:8). If you allow the Spirit to fill you with God’s truth, you will be truthful in your actions and in your relationships. According to Jesus, this means that your yes will always be yes, and your no will always mean no (Matt. 5:33–37).
The world considers truth optional. Deception permeates every corner of society because the prince of this world is the author and father of lies (John 8:44). From his first contact with people, Satan has been lying to them and persuading them to live in falsehood rather than in truth.
The world will tempt you to compromise the truth. You may be fooled into thinking that you can accomplish greater good by withholding the truth. That is a demonic deception. You cannot use deception to build the kingdom of God! God refuses to use sinful means to accomplish His holy purposes. You may be tempted to live a lie by projecting a false image of yourself. Jesus condemned this as hypocrisy (Luke 12:56). When you sin, you will be tempted to conceal the truth; yet only as you confess the truth will you be forgiven and set free (James 5:16).
What you say reflects what is in your heart (Matt. 12:34). If your heart is filled with deception, your mouth will speak falsehood. Ask God to permeate you with His truth so that you find falsehood, in any form, abhorrent.
At the beginning we establish that Christianity is not a way of life but life itself. In Christ there is no evil nor lie. And so ought to be our life also.
Are struggling in any of this area, turn to Christ the author and perfecter of our faith for help. He is ever willing, constantly knocking, and will never turn away anyone that comes to Him.
Take advantage of this opportunity, catch in it, zero in, dive at it and you will never remain same, ever (2 Cor 5:19-20) (Must Read). I love you. Hope to see you at the finish line.
Be yea encourage. See you again next week by God’s grace. Love you.
Remain blessed in the Lord.
