The promises of God through Christ, are the hope (guarantee) of His children’s eternal salvation, and the ways of Christ are a light to His children’s path; but the extent of our daily experience of these immeasurable blessings, is largely subject to our daily commitment to seek and obey Him.
“Then Jesus said to all of them, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me.”
Luke 9:23
“If anyone wants to come after Me…”; Many people don’t want to go after Christ at all, they intentionally find numerous other interests to occupy their allotted time, some hate the Father and the Son “but now they have seen and hated both Me and My Father. But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated Me without reason.'” John 15:24-25, while some others are substantially committed to Him, some of these are very visible in commitment by the nature of their calling to ministry, while some though very committed to other forms of ministry, are less visible to most people; but God sees all. Due to our condition of having sin present in us (1 John 1:8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.) we each have degrees of commitment, the same can’t be said of the cherubim described in Ezekiel, they immediately do all that God instructs;
Wherever the spirit would go, they would go, and the wheels would rise along with them, because the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.
This is the living creature I saw under the God of Israel by the River Chebar, and I knew they were cherubim.
Ezekiel 1:20 & Ezekiel 10:20
Cherubim don’t move at a slow pace, when there’s instruction to perform a task, they move with the speed of lightning:
And the living creatures ran back and forth, in appearance like a flash of lightning.
Ezekiel 1:14
But some people base the level of their commitment on what has been described as “a balance” (I’m sure the cherubim don’t act by this perspective); In the context of some discussions, I’ve heard the “balance” perspective expressed in at least a couple of ways including:
“Don’t be so heavenly minded, that you’re of no earthly good”, or
“Don’t let your Christianity reduce your experience of pleasures/life experiences, to less than you reasonably deserve.”
The question I have to ask myself, is, what am I allowing in my life, that’s a compromise to Deuteronomy 6:5?
And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
Deuteronomy 6:5
What I think is “reasonable” in terms of personal activities and actions, can be quite easy for me to determine on the basis of what I believe is generally accepted by other Christians, or by the practises of my relatives, or as by the personal standard I’ve maintained or developed over time. But God doesn’t leave His children to try to develop a suitable standard, He’s provided The Word to deliver it; the instruction to have no other god’s beside Him, conveys that God is to be the central and first consideration of all our decisions; fear and love of God should govern all our actions and words. Our intention to proceed with any activity, should always be prefixed with “If God so wills, and if I live, I will do this, or do that…” James 4:15. Every transaction of time, possession or money, should be subject to Christ’s instruction to lay up treasures in heaven (Luke 12:32-34).
But first and most importantly seek (aim at, strive after) His kingdom and His righteousness,…
Matthew 6:33 (AMP)
My prayer may be:
“Please help me to deny myself more”, or
“Please help me to deny myself”.
Both prayers are a move in a good direction, but still, the first request can leave room for a bit of self, while the other says “I will strive with all my might and with Your help, to serve You with all my heart, soul and strength!”.
The action of denying self and following Christ, doesn’t separate us from relating to others; some have thought that it requires retreating to a cave in the mountains, but contrary to that, it’s substantially applied in fulfilling responsibilities to everyone we interact with daily, such as employers, employees, customers, retailers, suppliers, teachers, students, family and neighbours…
“The one who loves his father or mother more than me isn’t worthy of me, and the one who loves a son or daughter more than me isn’t worthy of me.
Matthew 10:37
We’re not instructed to love our family less, we’re instructed to love God more than them.
- Is my love of God stronger than my desire for anyone, or anything other than Him?
- Is my love of God strong enough to keep my actions from selfish eternally irrelevant pursuits?
- Could my love of God be described as a desire that I don’t try to satisfy with anything else?
I’m not able to be all that I’d hope to be; as much as I desire to be constantly aware of God’s presence, and as much as I hope to have His Word govern all my decisions, my treasure is presently held in an earthly vessel; Just as the disciples struggled with staying awake to pray in the garden, we can be easily overcome by the weakness of the body and it’s carnal mind, or we can be distracted and occupied with matters and objects other than those that further His kingdom. But God tells us to have passion for Him that is greater than any earthly desire, He draws our thought to the consideration of the reality of emotion felt at the graveside:
Set me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm.
Song of Songs 8:6
For love is as strong as death, passion as intense as Sheol.
The flames of love are flames of fire, a blaze that comes from the Lord.
We’re told in the Word, to be ready for Christ’s return “Therefore keep watch, because you don’t know the day on which your Lord will come.” Matthew 24:42, but as we’re surrounded by so many who have no concern for Christ, or of His return, it’s easy to inadvertently practise portions of their ways. Sometimes God sends, or allows adversities to turn us from contrary lives, sometimes we make decisions that bring us to a place where we call out for God’s forgiveness and help; these occasions can be great refreshment and restoration of zeal to serve and seek after God.
Do not let your zeal subside; keep your spiritual fervour (intense and passionate feeling), serving the Lord.
Romans 12:11
Zeal (dedication, devotion) and spiritual fervour toward God, aren’t necessarily expressed in the form of “powerful” words or substantial actions, they can be expressed in unseen service to others, and in meditation on God’s Word.
And she (Martha) had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word…. 41 And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.”
Luke 10: 39-42
I used to work with a friend, who occasionally mentioned how earlier that morning, he’d had his “quiet time with The Lord“, he spoke of this time spent on the beach or in the back-yard; I had cynical thoughts of him when he spoke of this, until God mercifully softened my heart by bringing me to consider “how could spending time with God be anything other than good?“, so with God’s help, I started spending intentional time reading the Word and praying; rather than breakfast or my work plans for the day being the first focus of the morning, God helped me to make Himself the focus, then everything else in the day became relative to Him rather than being relative to me.
While reading over the sermon from last Sundays service, I was brought to consider the word “prayer”, our teacher had brought us to consider the Greek words for “prayer” and “ask“, as they were represented in Matthew 21:22:
Prayer proseuchē: a place set apart or suited for the offering of prayer
- a synagogue
- a place in the open air where the Jews were wont to pray, outside the cities, where they had no synagogue
- such places were situated upon the bank of a stream or the shore of a sea, where there was a supply of water for washing the hands before prayer
This type of prayer is of similar nature to what my friend engaged in; an intentional going out of the way to be before God reverently, in quietness, where one would ask (aiteō: ask, beg, call for, crave, desire, require) of God.
The description of the word proseuchē, mentions washing the hands before prayer, this can be applied in preparing our minds to be free of common thoughts before praying, by reading the Word first so that our mind is focused first on God, on His omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence and glory, recognition of Him within our limited ability to do so, then governs and encourages our prayer request in Jesus name, where we have rest.
Hebrews 4:10 For whoever enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from His.
Bless the LORD, all His angels mighty in strength who carry out His word, who hearken to the voice of His command.
Psalm 103:20-22
Bless the LORD, all His hosts, you servants who do His will.
Bless the LORD, all His works in all places of His dominion. Bless the LORD, O my soul!
Consider Jesus’ words in His prayer recorded in John 17:19
“… And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.”
Morrish dictionary comment:
“He was set apart by the Father for the accomplishment of the purposes of His will. ” And His prayer was that we would be sanctified (set apart) for His purposes also.
APO 11-May-July-2021,
Study like a Berean! 