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Thought Nugget
Our source of strength as Christians is our restored relationship with God. But this relationship will only provide us with that strength if we maintain it.
Scriptures for today: Psalms 91 and 121, John 15:4-6, 1st Peter 2:1-3
The Complete Thought
Today’s Blogcast almost didn’t happen. I was trying to work on another one which never came out easily like I know the ones I know are truly anointed by God for the weekly message. So I put that one to the side for a later time and decided that I would open up a blank document and let God speak to me. As I was cooking dinner He reminded me of the notes I had made from last Sunday and I knew that this was what He wanted me to write for this week.
A Christian’s source of strength is something that comes as a result of our relationship with God but it is not an easy thing to remember. Oftentimes, we are busy in life drawing us to the point where we forget to make time for Jesus in our life beyond just a quick prayer at meal times and before we go to bed if we even do that much. We end up neglecting Him as a result and this puts us in direct opposition to the command Jesus gives in John 15 for us to remain in Him. But when we look at the King James, the New King James, and English Standard Versions we see that it uses the word to abide in that verse. In Greek the word is ménō whose meaning matches the word abide much better than remain.
Thanks to our wonderful friend Merriam-Webster we can easily look up the word abide. To abide means a few different things depending on context; bearing patiently, enduring without yielding, to wait for, or to accept without objection. Bearing patiently is something that we often see in scripture as a command for us to do. An example is Paul saying we are to bear with one another in love. (Colossians 3:13 and Ephesians 4:2) But that patience is a tricky thing for us to have in life.
Patience requires trust on our part. Trust can only come as a result of making the effort to grow in relationship with God. And as I think about it now, patience is another form of obedience to Him. If we are patient we do not move from one place to another until the proper time and the same is true for settling down. We neither stay nor leave till we have orders one way or the other. Patience is an attitude of how we approach times when we need to wait in life. That obedience also includes how we work to obey the standing orders we last received while seeking for new ones.
When we read the book of Psalms we see that David and many others have written many things about the source of their strength and where their help comes from. I want to read a portion from Psalms 91 and 121 as examples.
Psalms 91:1-4
“Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” Surely He will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you will find refuge; His faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.”
Psalms 121:1-2
“I lift up my eyes to the mountains— where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.”
These are beautiful Psalms when you read them in their entirety and I only read a small segment from each of them to respect your time. Right now as I look at the document where I am writing this I feel like I’m coming up short since we have only just now gotten to the second page when our Thoughtful Thursdays are usually three to four pages long.
As I sit here in front of my computer writing this I am reminded of something I said last year. Before I went silent I had a blogcast where I explained the need for me to have time to focus on reading the scriptures. But I am certain that I also said something else in that blogcast as well. That I was dedicating myself to writing what the Holy Spirit wanted me to write for each week. I wasn’t going to just force myself into blogcasts because it was needed to work the internet algorithms and grow the platform of Isaiah 1:18 Ministries.
I was going to abide in Christ and let that connection be my source of strength. My focus was to nourish that vine which I needed to be connected to so that it could be healthier and deliver me the nutrients required for the fruit of ministry to be produced.
I finish by saying that wherever you are in life don’t push Jesus to the wayside coming and going only when you need Him. That’s not a friendship but a salesman mindset where you come to God to “buy” the new thing you need to survive. The relationship needs to be deep and genuine as you talk with Him.
I think that the reason we fear saying what we are dealing with out loud is that it makes things seem more real to us. And that might be why many people pray shallowly when they could speak to God about what is truly on their hearts and troubling them. Something like a subconscious defense mechanism for us.
I will let you in on something, a bit of a secret in the sense that this piece of information isn’t mentioned often, God already knows these things. Being open with Him in prayer also makes us understand that He is real as well and helps us begin the process of abiding in Him.
And as we go through that process it helps us to remain in Him and be stronger. To have that peace that we need in life to survive the many things we will encounter.
Until next time, Courage and Godspeed.