Spiritual Work-Out (Part 5) Exercises to help you stretch and develop spiritual muscle: 4. Service Galatians 5:13-15 It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don’t use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that’s how freedom grows. For everything we know about God’s Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That’s an act of true freedom. James 2:14-18 14 Dear brothers and sisters, whats the use of saying you have faith if you dont prove it by your actions? That kind of faith cant save anyone. 15 Suppose you see a brother or sister who needs food or clothing, 16 and you say, Well, good-bye and God bless you; stay warm and eat well -- but then you dont give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do? 17 So you see, it isnt enough just to have faith. Faith that doesnt show itself by good deeds is no faith at all -- it is dead and useless. 18 Now someone may argue, Some people have faith; others have good deeds. I say, I cant see your faith if you dont have good deeds, but I will show you my faith through my good deeds. Service is one of those exercises that can be the most uncomfortable and painful. This is because it stretches us beyond our selfish nature. We are born with a desire to gratify our flesh, to do what feels right instead of what is right. Our wild nature uses the survival of the fittest mechanism to seek whats most convenient, to put us at an advantage over others, to give us satisfaction. For the most part our decisions in life and the choices we make everyday revolve around ourselves. Its a life we call self-centered. But when Jesus is born in our hearts and His presence and character is to grow stronger, we must build in ourselves a Christ-centered life. Thats when things begin to change and our vision and perspective begins to shift and our priorities are no longer directed toward us but toward others. Christ has set us free from our selfish nature so that we can devote ourselves to serving others. Thats really the way in which the results of whats happening inwardly begin to show outwardly. We will never truly develop love if we have a hard time serving someone who in our criteria does not deserve it. We will never develop kindness if it costs us so much to meet the needs of someone we barely know. We will never develop peace if we dont bite our tongue and respond kindly to someone whos being offensive. We will never develop faith if we dont give from what we dont have. How much are you stretching your spiritual muscle if you only love those who love you back, if you only lend to those who can pay you back, if you only give if you have enough? The widow gave ALL the money she had, Mary Magdalene poured ALL the perfume that was of most value to her, Abraham was willing to sacrifice His very own son of the promise, Jesus gave it ALL!!! Yet we refuse to give until it hurts? And we dont dare to serve until we lay our very selves down completely? If youve been seeking to boost up your spiritual training, if your spiritual muscle is getting flabby from the lack of challenge, its time to push yourself beyond those limits and seek opportunities to serve someone today!!! Put love into action! Put faith into action!!! My own little world youtu.be/M9Yasgzjc0w
Posted on: Thu, 15 Jan 2015 19:43:11 +0000