It’s not as bad as you think it is

While sitting in my car this morning stuck in traffic it occurred to me that the problems this delay was causing were nothing compared to what others were dealing with. Yes I got to work four hours later than what I had planned, but I have been working extra this week so I will still get in all my required hours easily. What about the truck driver who slowed down because of the bad smoke this morning and was rear ended by a car where both occupants died? What about the family of the father and son that died in the accident this morning? Put in perspective my little delay is nothing compared to what these people are experiencing.

For a Christian Jesus never said following him would be all rosy and nice. There will be bad times and there will be good times but throughout all this Jesus did say that he would be there with us. I am reminded of the poem Footsteps where a person is walking along the beach with God. After walking a ways and Looking back at where they had walked and seeing in their times of greatest tribulation there was only one set of footprints the person turns to God and asks Why did you leave me during the times of my greatest need? God lovingly looks back and responds I didn’t leave you I carried you through.

Keep that as a reminder when looking back on your life. God is walking with you through both the good times and the bad, or sitting in your car with you as he was with me this morning during my delay. He was also with that truck driver to comfort him during this difficult time and He is there with the family of those who died in the accident ready to give them assurance and comfort as well.

So looking back on your day was it really that bad?
Were you really alone?
Was your problem greater than what God can handle?

My answer to the above three question is no, what about you?

Christians why are we saved?

I also thought “For what purpose were we saved” would have made a good title.

I was thinking on some scripture the other day, something that I find myself doing more and more these days. Specifically was think on Ephesians 2:8-9
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9not by works, so that no one can boast.
What came to mind was that it was through God’s grace that we were saved, through our faith in Him. There was nothing that we can or could do to save ourselves. It was only through God’s amazing grace that we could be saved. Verse 9 goes on in more detail reminding us that no work done of our hands could save us. That is pretty big thinking that in our daily live there are many things that we are able to work out on our own, so by our own human nature many believe that we can work out our eternal salvation. But as these verses state we can’t.
As I thought about this I was reminded that it doesn’t stop there. So many times when you hear these verses quoted you hear verses eight and nine, but verse ten continues on and states for what purpose God saved us. Ephesians 2:10 says:
10For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
As the first two verses were important to be given to the lost, verse ten is important to be given to the saved. It reminds us that not only did God chose to save us, He chose to save us for a purpose. We are reminded that as a new creation in Christ we are God’s workmanship and here is the whole point of my post. We were created in Christ Jesus to do good works. So God didn’t create us just to sit on the sidelines and do nothing. So many times we forget that important point and we just sit around and do nothing. I know that has been a problem in my personal life. We should all keep this close to heart, we need to be serving. And not just anything we should be doing what God has prepared for us. So how do we find out what good works God has prepared for us to do. We need to pray and read our Bibles. One last thought so God has prepared for us good works, yes, but the verse goes on to say that he prepared these works in advance. Isn’t this awesome! God already knows what he wants you to do and has prepared a way for you complete that task.
With that final thought I want you to think on what good works has God prepared for you to do. Do you know what that is? And are you taking action to follow through with what God wants you to do?

Failure, should it happen?

My title is a big question. Yes we all fail God. It has happened since Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden. Since they first chose to disobey the direct will of God all humanities lives have been filled with failure. I believe that it is just part of who we are now as fallen man, but that doesn’t me that we should be slaves to our failure. Jesus Christ came and gave us victory over our failure and thru our failure. Even when we have failed Christ we still are victorious. God’s grace is sufficient to cover us no matter what stupid things we do, as long as we are under the protective covering of the blood of Christ.
So even though we face temptation every day of our lives Christ has given us freedom over it and our failure. Sometimes it is more difficult than others to resist this temptation. I believe this comes from us not being prepared to face the temptation. Jesus himself said in Luke 22:46 ; “Why are you sleeping?” he asked them. “Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.” In this passage Jesus is in the Garden of Gestheme praying before he is to be taken off to be crucified. He has asked the apostles to pray with him, but what do they do? They fall asleep! Seeing what happens to them later during the time when Christ is crucified shows that they weren’t prepared. They scattered, hid, and even denied that they knew Jesus. I think this very thing happens to us as christians. We go to church sunday day worship and commit ourselves to living a live to Christ but then live the rest of our weeks in failure. We fail to read our Bibles, we fail to pray, and we fail to win over temptation. I know that this is a big problem for me. I love Jesus, and I desire greatly to serve Him more but I fail to read His word and pray to him on a regular basis. This has set me up for failure in my life because I was unprepared to face the trials and temptations in my life. I was blindsighted just as the apostles were after Jesus was taken into custody.
The solution read your Bible and pray to your Father in heaven.
One final thought to help you know that you are not alone and that with God’s help we can get thru any temptation. It is 1 Cor 10:13:

No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.