"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go." Joshua 1:9
Do you believe that? What an astounding promise! To know that we don't have to be afraid or get discouraged. Let me ask you again though, do you believe it? What we as people put our faith in drastically affects the way we live our lives. The Bible tells us that Jesus Christ is indeed the foundation of our faith, but how often do we apply this? Sure it's easy when life is easy, but when life gets tough we stand there asking where the Lord has gone. I've got news for you, He hasn't gone anywhere. Our faith in Him should not be dictated by our circumstances. He keeps His promises. What I think trips people up the most when it comes to trusting God, is the fact that people are fallible. The fact that the things we can see fail us.
We know all that stuff already though, don't we? Ya know, because we're not perfect how could we expect other people to be? Hannah Montana old stuff, right? Sure we do, but it is unfair to compare a perfect and constant God to our limited human ability. Regardless, we tend to believe that imperfect people can and should, meet our perfect expectations. Let me elaborate a bit:
Maybe the expectations that we place on people are the exact ones we should have been placing on God all along. That maybe we have been given each other, in order to be able to learn how to give more. Maybe we have been misplacing our faith. What I'm getting at here is that, I think, we get our relationships mixed up sometimes. That we should be looking to receive from God first and looking for opportunities to serve others always. There is nothing that any human being could give you that is going to outlast what Christ can.
"The Lord God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him." Genesis 2:18
People are gifts, and gifts have never been given with the intention of replacing the giver. The Lord gives us gifts to teach us to be better givers. Not so they can take His place on the throne of our lives. People have been created in His image to glorify Him, not to replace Him. This is the problem with all of us. When we put something else other than God on the throne, it messes us up. It's sin. There is, however, a place for people in our lives.
"Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others." Philippians 2:3-4
Let that sink in for a minute. Value others above yourselves. Not your interests, but their's. This is keeping God first, others second and ourselves third. This kind of thinking is alien to our human nature. We learn selfishness at infancy. "Feed me." "I'm tired." "I need changed." The world revolves around us. I believe that part of the reason the Lord has given us each other is to help sanctify us into selflessness. Refurbishing the image of Himself He created in us, the part that has been defaced by sin. It's a lifelong process. He doesn't stop there:
"Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling." 1 Peter 4:8-9
Jesus said that they will know that we are His disciples by the way we love one another. So, we are to love one another as we love ourselves and value others as greater than ourselves. That alone screams counter-culture! We live in a world that says do what you want, how you want, whenever you want to. As long as it makes you happy who cares what anyone else has to say about it. Who cares how it makes other people feel. You do you. News flash, not everything that brings us happiness is good for us. We dwell in the present, and we can experience nothing outside of it. The world we live in consists of a pattern of beginnings, middles, and ends. We don't always know when the end will come, but it always does. This life is finite, and all good things come to an end. God's Word tells us that this world is fading away along with everything people crave, but anyone who does the will of God is going to live forever. Jesus has offered us something that we can get nowhere else on this earth! We get to live forever with Him.
There is no "I" in the word "Gospel," but there is an "e" for everyone. The gift of grace and salvation is offered to all of us. Christians, realize that we have been given the best example of selfless sacrifice ever provided in history. Jesus took on the Lord's wrath for us, while we were still sinners. "Well, I really just don't care for so and so, for those kinds of people." What if Jesus had said that about us? Our relationships with others should be a direct reflection of the relationship between Jesus and His church. Loving sacrifice and respectful submission. We are God's hands and feet. People see Him through us. Not just in what we do for each other, but how we relate to each other. We need to be the exception in how we speak, treat and think of each other. With all of the recent events that have taken place, and debates, we need to make sure we remember who the real enemy is.
"For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places." Ephesians 6:12
Regardless of what other people are doing around us, in every circumstance, remember what the Lord has said. Remember how He views us and remember how we should be viewing each other. You never know what a little love can do in a person's life.
