Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Do you ever feel like you are taken for granted in the Body of Jesus?
When you are ill or discouraged or maybe absent from Cell group or Service and no one calls or attempts to minister to you, do you feel forgotten?
The devil smiles and gladly steps in to minister to you – in harmful ways.
He plants a multitude of questions in your mind that only grow darker.
You begin to question whether you are truly loved in the body, whether anyone evern notices or appreciates you.
Paul doesn’t want us to take each other for granted.
We all need to hear words of encouragement, words that affirm the Father’s love for us, words that strengthen our faith.
All of us have that unspoken expectation of God and our church family, and when that expectation is unmet our struggle to feel confident of our place in the body can begin to erode.
Respect those who work hard among you.Do you think Paul is addressing how we ‘feel’ about our leaders or are there some things we might ‘do’ to hold them in ‘highest regard in love’?
God, I thank You for Jean.Live in peace with each other.When we have that peace Jesus left in the world, the peace that affirms our place in the Father’s favor, we have the confidence to allow it to cushion our relationships with each other.
Warn those who are idle.Idle means lazy.
If a person is lazy in one area of life, they are usually lazy in every area of life.
Some may think the word ‘warn’ a bit extreme.
Warn them about what?
Is that an ‘or else’ kind of warning or is it a more friendly suggestion?
‘Warn’ really stands out if you read it in the context of the urgency Paul was suggesting.
Maybe Paul is telling us to not ignore them and write them off as a lost cause.
They need to hear God’s warning about their lifestyle or their lack of spiritual sincerity.
We share a God mandated responsibility to minister to them in a loving, firm way.
Encourage the timid.2 Timothy 1:7 For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.Timidity or fearfulness will not achieve God’s purpose for the Church in a hostile world ruled by an evil dictator.
Fear can immobilse our faith.
Paul encourages Timothy to remember God’s anointing and the teaching he had received.
Timid people need encouraging, a sense of God’s mission and their role in God doing what God wants to do in their world.
You know someone who needs that encouraging word.
Watch for your next opportunity to speak that word to them and give them a new vision of themselves.
Help the weak.Paul says, help those who are weak without becoming their judge and jury.
Real love is more powerful than the devil’s lies.
Be patient with everyone.
None of is born with patience, we have to learn it.
Patience is one of the fruits born in our spirits by the Holy Spirit.
Patience is not the result of some miracle of God’s Spirit.
Patience is a developed skill as we learn to ‘keep in step with the Spirit’.
What might the statement of thought ‘I’m just not a patient person’ indicate about your spiritual development?
None of us is perfect, we make mistakes and we need others to realize where they,, too, have come from and show us the same understanding they received.
Always try to be kind to each other.
Human kindness like patience is learned.
We are a selfish animal and among the most unkind in all the animal kingdom. And we have a brain to think with. We just fail sometimes to use it in the right way.
Kindness must replace retribution.
Vengeance belongs only to God because only He is qualifies to judge,
Be joyful always.Joyful is a bright outlook, an optimistic assumption about life and its possibilities.
Some of the most joyful folks I have ever been blessed by are the elderly people in nursing homes and hospitals.
Though they have much they could focus on and be depressed over, many of them see the glass half full and just keep on having fun in life.
They bless everyone around them and are always eager to share the things that give them joy. Of course, I have met some of the other kind, too, who poison that air in every room that inhabit. Thank God they are in the minority.
The devil cannot rob you of that joy if you tenaciously hold on to the hope Jesus had give you.
Pray continually.Don’t stop praying – ever.
Prayer is the power of God put into action.
Don’t stop praying just because what you have asked for hasn’t come to pass.
Continual prayer is both a mindset and a lifestyle that recognizes the work of God in daily life.
- Kent Sutherland, Yes Lord, I'm listening
11:20 AM
