Pointers along the way Vol. 1 · Vol. 1 Vol. 1 Jacob Ninan Jacob Ninan Title: Pointers along the...

PointersalongthewayDevotionalsthatmakeyouthink

PointersalongthewayDevotionalsthatmakeyouthink

Vol. 1Vol. 1Jacob NinanJacob Ninan

Title: Pointers along the way Vol. 1

Devotionals that make you think

Author: Jacob Ninan

Published by: Comfort & Counsel

69, Hutchins Main Road,

Bangalore 560084,

India

© 2016

All quotations from the Bible are

taken, except when noted otherwise,from the New American StandardBible (NASB) © The LockmanFoundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968,1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995

ContentsOur individual responsibilityWhat is it to humble ourselves?The perils of "positive thinking"Whose honour do you want?Always learningIs God a spoil-sport?Not my fault!What about good luck charms?How do you talk to your Father?Are you in love with Jesus?How we miss out on God's bestBeware of becoming mechanicalExperiencing the new covenantA value system that propels usBalancing mercy and truthWhen we are weak, we are strong

Peace in the stormTwo types of faithComfort in God's chasteningTime for resolutionsNothing automaticMany voices to choose fromTwo ways of asking "Why?"What can give us depth?Are we childish in Christ?Will we receive the promises?We need the Holy SpiritDemystifying faithRising in faithStanding on our feetThe pressure to give upThe gospel packageMissing the point!Do we really know grace?

Take it to the Lord in prayerExperiencing God's loveA command to loveYielding in worshipMany Ebenezers to strengthen usWhy me, Lord?We need the othersJesus as LordWant to change others?We have a choiceTesting ourselvesBlessed forgivenessThe new testament way of lifeThe excuses we makeFaith vs. obedience?Scared of the Holy Spirit?Faith vs. optimismRemembering God's mercies

The Ephesus syndromeOverflow from insideThe offer of forgivenessThe way we thinkPutting away childish waysActive prayerWhich side are you on?Give and takeHow do we judge ourselves?How we concludeIs God our genie?Curiosity can killHow do we make decisions?Practical forgivenessSometimes just to endureWhy do we backslide?Running to the FatherStanding with the others

Proactive thinkingTalking with GodHow shall it go better with me?The first sacrificeGod's love and the fear of GodWe all make many mistakesTaking our positionLearning relational skillsIn line with the promisesThreefold forgivenessThe comfort of God's companyOur private worldNurturing depression?More blessed to give?Looking for feedbackGetting shaken up?Determination to changeWhen a bad mood creeps in

Persevering faithNurturing temptationsLooking aheadThings that are not promisedMisunderstanding God's wordIt is possible to changeWhat forgiving others is notHelps for humilityAre you lonely and withoutfriends?Thanksgiving from the heartWith a pinch of saltGrace, unbelievable but true

Pointers along the way #1

OurindividualresponsibilityEach of us is an individual creation ofGod. He loves us and deals with usdirectly and personally just as if wewere His only child. He plans for us,teaches us, trains us, leads us,disciplines us, and moulds us into Hisnature as if the whole world wascreated just for us. He causeseverything else - people andcircumstances - to work together forour good (Ro.8:28). But in the end, Herequires each of us to give an accountof ourselves individually to Him(Ro.14:12).

Even though we are a part of a family,church, society, etc., we areresponsible to God for our own lives.We make the choices, and we reap thefruit (Ga.6:7). We receive much fromothers, but then we have to make ourown decisions according to the will of

God. In the end we cannot blameothers, but bear our own responsibility.

Does this mean that we should becomeindependent of others? No. There is aplace for listening to counsel andsubmitting to those who have authorityover us. But we must remember that ifwe are men-pleasers, we cannot serveGod (Ga.1:10). Let us not just driftalong with the crowd, but think forourselves what God would have us todo. Let us be those who will have ourown convictions. Let it be very clear inour mind that our ultimate aim is to doGod's will and to glorify Him, and notto have our own way.


Whatisittohumbleourselves?

The Bible tells us that God gives graceto the humble (Jas.4:6;1Pe.5:5). Weare to humble ourselves in thepresence of the Lord and under Hismighty hand (Jas.4:10;1Pe.5:6). Whatdoes it mean to humble ourselves?

We see from the above verses thathumbling of ourselves is basically inrelation to God. It is not putting up ahumble front in front of people. We cansay that humility involves a soberestimate of ourselves before God. Wemust know who we are in relation to aperfect, loving, kind, merciful,compassionate, holy, almighty, all-knowing, all-wise God who hascreated us. We also must know howdependent we are on Him and on otherpeople.

Humbling of ourselves involves,therefore, taking our small placebefore God. Pride, which is theopposite of humility, is to think ofourselves as being more or greater thanwhat we really are. When we arehumble, even when we see that we arebetter than some others in some things,we know that it is God who made usthat way (1Co.4:7), and also that thereare other things where others are betterthan us.

Humility makes us recognise our sins,sinfulness, human limitations,ignorance, weakness and helplessnesswithout God. It means acknowledgingwhen we have done wrong, both toGod and to our fellow human beings. Itmeans being careful not to go beyondwhat God has assigned to us or tointrude into other people's lives(2Co.10:13). It means obeying God ineverything He tells us (Php.2:8). It

means being thankful for all that Godhas given to us, compared to what wereally deserve for our sins (He.12:28).It means giving ourselves to God toserve Him and to glorify Him(Ro.12:1).


Theperilsof"positivethinking"

There are positive aspects aboutpositive thinking. But if we don'tunderstand them rightly, we may getcaught in some wrong ways of thinkingpositively. The right way is to believein God and His promises, and to holdon to the conviction that He loves ussupremely, He is fully in control ofeverything that happens to us and Hewill work out all things for our good(Ro.8:28). This gives us a positiveoutlook on life, even in the midst ofdifficulties.

On the other hand, there are wrongways of "positive thinking."

1. "If only we keep on thinking thatwhat we want is going to happen, itwill happen." This is just mentalexercise, and it has no power to change

situations.

2. "If we ask God for something, andwe tell ourselves constantly that Godis going to answer that prayer, Hewill." Actually God's promise for ananswer is only if we ask according toHis will (1Jn.5:14).

3. "We must not allow negativethoughts to be in our mind. They arecontrary to faith." If we are thinking ofdoubts about God or His promises, thisis right. But if we are referring tocommonsense that questions ourassumptions, we need to listen to it ifwe don't want to do things foolishly.

4. "We must not allow negativethoughts about ourselves." Recognisingour sins and repenting from them areabsolutely necessary for our salvation.The shame and sorrow that theseactions give us will do us good(2Co.7:10,11). On the other hand,

thinking that we are useless, hopeless,etc., is wrong.


Whosehonourdoyouwant?Jesus once pointed out a poor widowwho had given two copper coins as anoffering to God. In His view, this wasmore than what everyone else therehad given because this was all themoney she had (Mk.12:42,43). No onethere would have recognised the worthof what she had done, nor given herthis honour that she deserved. On theother hand, some rich man who made agreat show of his wealth would havebeen admired by the crowd.

Are we content to be faithful beforeGod's eyes in secret, knowing that wehave done it for Him? This is whatJesus said we should seek to do, givingus examples of giving for charity,praying and fasting in secret (Mt.6). Hesaid that the Father would beobserving all such secret offerings toGod and rewarding such people

openly. He rewards them by givingthem spiritual wealth, and not so muchby giving them honour before people.Will we be content to do things for theLord without caring for honour frompeople?

Ps.115:1 expresses the conviction ofthe writer that glory should go to Godand not to us. When a painter bringsout a masterpiece, the glory does notgo to his paintbrush, canvas, easel orpaint. We are only created beings giventhe privilege of being used by theCreator. What we deserve is shameand misery and finally hell for the allthe sins we have done.

But we all have this craving for glorybefore people. We would like to havethe centre stage at all times and wewould like people to admire us,appreciate what we have done, talkhighly about us, etc. We feel hurt whenwe are neglected, side-lined, ignored

or insulted. We have to 'die' to thesecravings if we are to seek the honourthat comes from God (Jn.5:44).


AlwayslearningThe only one who can stop learning isthe one who knows it all. We maynever say we know it all, but we maybehave as if we do! One of the marksis that we have no interest in learning,but perhaps, only in teaching others.

Sixteen times in the psalms we findthis prayer to God, "Teach me." Is thisyour cry? This is a cry of need fromone who knows that he does not knowso many things, and that he is doing somany things wrong. It is not a matter ofsaying these words, but having thisrecognition about ourselves.

Jesus came to make us His disciples(Mt.28:19,20). 'Disciples' are'learners.' Their aim is to become likethe Teacher (Mt.10:25). We need tokeep learning from Jesus, not tobecome better scholars of theology, but

to become like Him in character andbehaviour. For example, Jesus said thatif we went to Him and learned fromHim, He would make us gentle andhumble in heart (Mt.11:28,29). Ourneed is to become like Jesus - kind,loving, merciful, gracious,compassionate, faithful, obedient,truthful, upright, sincere, etc.

The more we want to become likeJesus, we discover that we are fartherfrom being like Jesus than we thought.This drives us to seek Him more.

If we take our eyes off from Jesus andstart comparing ourselves with others,especially concerning things where weare comparatively strong, we willbecome complacent and self-righteous,and stop learning. Finally we will evenbecome unteachable (Ec.4:13).

The Apostle Paul was so aware of hisneed, that even when his conscience

was clear and it did not accuse him ofany wrong that he had done, he knewthat he was not perfect in God's eyes(1Co.4:4). Therefore he kept onlearning.


IsGodaspoil-sport?This is a lie the devil tells manypeople, especially young people, toturn them away from going to God. "Ifyou go to God, you won't be able tohave any fun in life. He will ask younot to do many things you like to do.See how much fun your friends arehaving without God. God will onlywant you to spend all your timepraying and reading the Bible!" That ishow the devil whispers in your heart.When you think about it, it may be howthings appear to you. But the devil is aliar, and he is only trying to deceiveyou. He hates God, and does all he canto malign Him.

But think some more about God. Doyou think He is one of those who get athrill in making others suffer? No, Heis One who has given us all things toenjoy! (1Ti.6:17). Just think that He is

the One who created all the colourfulflowers, lofty mountains, sparklingbrooks, the roaring seas, and all theother beautiful things in nature for us tosee and enjoy. He has created so manydifferent things for us to eat and enjoy.Think of the pleasures of humour,music, books, movies, games, sports,adventures, etc. What about the joys offamily life, friendships, doing anhonest and challenging job, etc.? Thinkof the different abilities God has givenus to enjoy the pleasures of life and todo things that can help others to enjoytoo.

When God created Adam and Eve, Heoffered them the choice of hundreds ofdifferent fruits to eat. He forbade themfrom eating only one particular fruit.This is a picture of how much He hasgiven us to enjoy, and how little He hasreally forbidden, in comparison. Thisis true, even if it appears to be quite

the other way to us when we aretempted. We imagine, like children telltheir parents, that we are not allowedto do anything!

What are the things God does not wantus to do? Only those things that willharm us and are not good for us. Suchthings may not immediately appear tous like that. The devil tells us that evenif we disobey God and do wrong,nothing will happen to us (Ge.3:1-4).But all that the devil offers us is likesugar-coated poison. Such things maygive us momentary pleasure, but theywill surely hurt us in the long run.Remember this the next time you aretempted to do wrong.


Notmyfault!If someone were to ask you what yourgreatest problem is, you may say it hasto do with money, job, sex,relationships, etc. Someone may evensay that his biggest problem is Mr. orMrs. So-and-so! But do you knowsomething that can be a bigger problemthan all of these, something that mayeven be behind all these otherproblems?

It is that it is extremely difficult to seeour own faults. The Bible says thatevery man's ways are right in his owneyes (Pr.21:2). Even a murderer thinksthat he was quite justified in killing hisvictim. Sometimes we can be sostubborn about it that even whensomeone tells us about some wrong wehave done, we get angry with himrather than admit our fault. Our heart isreally very deceptive (Jer.17:9).

Even after we become Christians, thisblindness does not leave usimmediately. Church history illustrateshow Christians have persecuted oneanother for various reasons. When wethink that we are standing up for Christin some way, we may not realise howwe ourselves are distorting the pictureof Christ in some other way.

It is only in God's light that we can seethings clearly (Ps.36:9). When theHoly Spirit opens our eyes we can seethings we had no idea about before.Then we can see how wrong we wereeven where we were sure we wereright. The Spirit can then start changingour lives according to His pattern.

Recognising that we could be mistakenabout ourselves is a big step towardsdeliverance. Then we will ask God toopen our eyes. We will begin to searchGod's word to learn more about Godand how He looks at us. We will not be

quick any more to reject what otherstell about us.

Searching our own hearts is not whatwe need to do, because we candeceive ourselves. But we must letGod search us and tell us what He seesin us (Ps.139:23). He will alsoencourage us and lift us up because Heloves us and wants to give us Hissalvation.


Whataboutgoodluckcharms?

Do you think that by placing a cross inyour room you can keep away evilspirits? Can you get rid of bad dreamsby keeping a Bible under your pillow?Is God going to bless you if you keep apalm leaf cross from Palm Sunday inyour house? Will a "Jesus saves"sticker on your car keep you fromaccidents? If you claim something inthe name of Jesus are you sure to getit? We can go on...

No. These are foolish beliefs that manypeople have, just like the superstitionsin many other religions. There are nogood luck charms or magic formulaethat work with the God of Christians.He operates in an entirely differentway. He is a Person, and He deals withus on a personal level. He is a Spirit,and He deals with our spirit. He

communicates with us in our spirit.The more we get to know Himpersonally, the more we will get toknow His ways.

The only way to get to know Him isthrough Jesus, God's Son. Jesus saidthat no one could get to know Godexcept through Him (Jn.14:6). Jesus isthe One who died in our place, andtook the punishment for our sins. It isonly when our sins have been washedaway on that basis that we can get nearGod and begin to know Him. Then Heshows us that He has adopted us as Hischildren. And then begins a realrelationship between us and God,where we talk to Him and hear Himspeak to us.

Jesus said that He is the Truth. He alsosaid that when we know the truth, thetruth will set us free (Jn.8:32). It is byknowing Jesus personally that we getset free from fear, anxieties, and all

other forms of bondage. We getboldness from knowing that God iswith us, and then we don't have to beafraid of evil spirits, accidents or whatpeople might do to us. It is not thatnothing bad will ever happen to us. Butnothing can happen to us unless Godallows it. He will not allow it unlessHe thinks it is something we can bear(with His help) (1Co.10:13). At theend He will cause even those badthings to work for our good (Ro.8:28).He is our good luck charm - if weunderstand it the right way.


HowdoyoutalktoyourFather?

The greatest privilege God has grantedto us human beings is that we canbecome His children and know Him asour Father (1Jn.3:1). We can talk toHim, go to Him with our problems, askHim for His advice and guidance, andexperience His compassion,tenderness, mercy, goodness, kindness,patience, understanding, etc., just likelittle children go to their fathers. Ofcourse, it is really not a goodcomparison, because the best humanfather is so imperfect when you look atGod the Father. But I wonder howmany Christians get to know Him andexperience Him as Father, becausepeople have so many wrong pictures ofGod.

Jesus came down to the earth to revealthe Father to us, to show us what God

is really like (Jn.1:18). Jesus showedus what God is like by His ownbehaviour and attitude to people. Poorsinners flocked around Jesus becauseHe did not judge them but wanted tosave and help them. We see God'scompassion by the way Jesusunselfishly spent time, sometimes evenwithout eating, healing multitudes oneperson after another. He would notmind walking many miles up and downjust to reach out to one human being.His anger burned only againsthypocrisy and insincerity. Finally wesee God's heart of love in letting Hisonly Son suffer and die so that we neednot suffer eternal death.

On the other hand, Jesus also showedus as a Man how our relationship canbe with the Father. Jesus enjoyed asimple, frank, open, loving, trusting,respectful relationship with the Father.How about your own relationship with

God?

Are you scared of God, thinking thatHe will find something wrong withwhatever you do? Of course He findshundreds of things wrong with us. ButHe takes no thrill in telling us aboutour faults, but only in helping us get outof our faults. Once we have understoodthat He let His Son suffer in our placefor our faults, we will realise how Hisheart works towards us.

Do you think He will throw you outand refuse to speak to you if you didsomething wrong, maybe for theumpteenth time? No, He won't. If Heasks us to forgive someone who doeswrong to us 70 X 7 times a day, willHe not do that Himself? (Mt.18:21,22).

Do you think He will get upset if youcan't understand what He is doing, andquestion Him about it? Read thewritings of the Old Testament prophets

who did that very thing. No, God cantake it from us people, because Heunderstands that we are reallyperplexed and are only trying tounderstand His ways. Jesus Himselfonce said, "Why have You forsakenMe?"

How do you pray? Do you think thatyour prayer has to have a certain formand has to use, for example, the KingJames English with 'Thou' and 'Thee'and 'doest'? Why don't you just talk toHim in plain language? Tell Himexactly how you feel. You don't have topretend and act pious before Himbecause He knows everything aboutyou and you can't fool Him. You don'thave to be afraid of confessing yoursins frankly to Him because He knowsanyway. Confide in Him, be simple,frank and sincere about it, and He willlove you for it.

Listen also to what He wants to tell

you. It must be a two waycommunication. If you don't quiteunderstand what He is saying, ask Himto explain it to you! Remember, He isyour Father and not your boss orschool principal. Even if yourexperience with earthly fathers hasbeen painful, remember that God is theperfect Father, and He is on your side.There is no one better.


AreyouinlovewithJesus?There are many who say they havebeen born again and that they arechildren of God. Some of them may bedeceiving themselves. But even amongthose who are truly born again, it maynot be always true that they are in lovewith Jesus. They 'accept' Jesus as theirSaviour, but somehow they don't knowHim well enough to have fallen in lovewith Him. They have probably notexperienced the depths of His love,mercy, compassion, tenderness andkindness, or seen Him as being'altogether lovely', and as the 'fairest often thousand.' There was a woman whocame to Jesus and expressed her lovefor Him by pouring out a bottle ofcostly perfume on His feet. Jesus saidthat it was because she knew she hadbeen forgiven much (Lk.7:36-48).

What would your life be like if you are

in love with Jesus?

You would want to spend much timewith Him. Your mind goes back to Himagain and again. You would like tolisten to Him speaking through Hisword and through His Holy Spirit, andyou would like to talk to Him abouteverything in your life. There would benothing you would want to hide fromHim, and you would want to share yourentire life with Him. Isn't that normalfor one who is in love?

You would like to become like Him.He is your Hero, the One you admirethe most. You see in Him everythingyou would like to be. His life,character, values and attitudes topeople and things are such examples toyou that you also want to be like that.

You would like to tell other peopleabout Him. You wish that everyonecould get to know Him like you do.

You talk about Him when opportunitycomes up, and you pass on tapes,books and tracts that can help others toget to know Him.

You would like to do everything Hewants you to do. You want to showHim your gratitude, and you want tofulfil His plans. You have becomeconvinced that He knows what is bestfor you, and you want to be on His sidealways. You want to avoid doinganything that would make Him sad.

If you have it like this, your love forHim is real. If it is not so, you need toknow Him better.


HowwemissoutonGod'sbest

It's a very simple mistake, and we don'tusually realise what we are doing. Butunless we understand and correct it,we can't help but miss what God wantsto give us.

It is just what happened to the childrenof Israel, whom God brought out ofEgypt with the promise of taking themto the land of milk and honey. But outof all that crowd, only two finally gotin there! All the others missed out onit.

It says in the Bible very clearly whythis happened. Disobedience andunbelief (He.3:18,19). Disobediencecame from unbelief. They didn't trustGod to do what He had promised. Atevery difficulty along the way, theymurmured and grumbled in unbelief.

Finally, just outside the borders ofCanaan, the promised land, theydecided that the giants in Canaan weretoo much for them, even though Joshuaand Caleb, the ones who finallyentered Canaan, reminded them thatGod was able to take them through.That was the last test and it sealedtheir fate. They perished in the desert,and only Joshua and Caleb entered thepromised land.

How does this apply to us? Aren't webelievers who have put our trust inJesus? Who says we don't believe?

If we really believe, why is it wearen't getting all that the Biblepromises us? For example, joy andpeace under all circumstances? Let'ssay we are in a tight spot, and it looksas if there is no way out. What do wedo then? Get worried? We rememberGod's words which tell us that He is incontrol, He is planning for our welfare,

He won't allow things to go out ofcontrol, He won't leave us when weare in trouble, He will make all thingsto work for our good, etc. But ourproblems are real for us, and thesewords appear to be too unrealistic. Wechoose to believe what we 'see' andignore what God has promised. Plainand simple unbelief! Then how do weexpect to get the comfort, grace,guidance, wisdom, etc., which Godwas waiting to give us?

When we see difficulties ahead of us,we must choose to believe in God - atthat point. If we don't do this, all thepromises we have heard andunderstood will not do us any good.Faith is the conviction of things notseen. We can't 'see' God or Hisworking behind the scenes. But if wedecide to believe His word and acceptit as being true in that situation, it givesus strength. Then God is able to give us

what He has promised. Without faith, itis impossible to receive anything fromthe Lord (Jas.1:6,7).


Bewareofbecomingmechanical

When we are learning how to drive acar, we consciously think about whenand how to use the clutch, gear,accelerator, brake, etc. But afterdriving around for several days webegin to operate these thingsmechanically, without thinking. Theseactions which we were very muchconscious of at one time have becomereflex actions for us.

The tragedy is when this happens inour spiritual life. Prayer, Biblereading, praise and worship services,fasting, intercession, and manyactivities connected with spiritual lifecan become mechanical over a periodof time. Then they become meaninglessand useless.

Jesus warned about meaningless

repetition of prayers (Mt.6:7). He wasespecially talking about those whorepeat a prayer a number of timesthinking that the greater the number, themore effective it would be. A prayerwhich does not come from the heartwill be useless even if it is repeated athousand times.

Think about the number of times wecan 'say grace' without thinking aboutor meaning what we are saying. Whatabout repeating the Lord's prayer ondifferent occasions? Or going throughthe early morning 'quiet time' withoutthinking about what we are reading,nor remembering later what we read inthe morning? Or singing songs ofpraise and worship while our thoughtsare wandering all around? Or prayingfor the millions who are getting lost inthe world without a Saviour, withoutany feeling of sorrow in our hearts?We can think of many other examples.

These are all points in our life wherewe could come into direct contact withthe Lord. But doing them over and overagain has made them reflex actionswithout any touch on our heart from theLord. The greater tragedy is when wethink everything is all right because wedo all these things regularly. Is it anywonder then that when we need Him atspecial times we find it difficult to findHim?


Experiencingthenewcovenant

When God made the new covenantwith us through the blood of His SonJesus, He promised to

1) forgive our sins and to rememberthem no more,2) sprinkle clean water on us and makeus clean from all our filthiness andidols,3) give us a new heart of flesh insteadof the heart of stone,4) put His Spirit within us and cause usto walk in His ways,5) make us His people and to be ourGod,6) cause us to know Him from the leastof us to the greatest,7) put His law within us and write iton our heart,8) cause us to live in the promisedland, and

9) multiply the fruit of the tree and theproduce of the field (Je.31:31-34;Ez.36:25-30).

Of course, there are many morepromises - promising actuallyeverything relating to life andgodliness (2Pe.1:3,4) - that God hasgiven to us under this covenant. Thecondition for receiving all theseblessings is that we must ask for them(Ez.36:37).

This is a covenant, involving God andus. God has promised all these thingsfor us, and what we have to do is toask for them. But what does it mean toask?

Can we just say a prayer asking for allthese things and be done with it? No.God's promises concern every part ofour life, and we will keep receivingfrom Him all through life, a little at atime just as in the old covenant

(Ex.23:30). We have to keep on asking.

But is it just asking - meaning, is it justpraying? No. It means a longing ordesire that grips our heart, andexpresses itself in various ways,including prayer. If we have seen whatGod is promising us, and if we areexcited about it, we will long for it -pant for it, as the psalm says. Then it isthat we will start receiving thepromises, because then God sees thatwe really value what He is offering.


Avaluesystemthatpropelsus

One of the main changes that happen inour lives when we get converted is tohave a hatred for sin. The Holy Spiritmakes us, who used to sin withoutthinking much about it, sensitive aboutit. Now we don't want to sin. It doesnot mean that immediately we stopfalling into sin. That is a progressivematter and takes time. But in our heartwe don't want to sin.

But, is our life characterised only byour desire not to sin?

It is possible after we are born againand receive an assurance of eternallife, to slip into a way of life where welive just like everyone else except forthe fact that we try to avoid doingthings we know are wrong. We aredifferent from the rest of the world

when it concerns external thingsprayer, reading the Bible, taking part inchurch activities, etc. But what elsedoes the rest of our life show apartuprightness?

We work hard to make a good living,we get married, we raise children, etc.,just like everyone else. Of course, wetry to do things honestly and uprightly.But is the main characteristic of ourlife only that we are honest and uprightand will not do wrong things?

What about an inner urge to be moreand more pleasing to the Lord? Alonging to be more useful to the Lord,to be a better witness to Him by ourlives and actions? A desire to showour gratitude to the Lord in everypossible way?

Paul said that the love of Godconstrained him so much that he wasno longer living for himself but for

Him who had given Himself for him(2Co.5:14,15). He counted everythingelse as rubbish compared to Christ(Php.3:8). Don't think that this is onlyfor apostles and pastors. This is thevalue system that makes each of uswhat God wants us to be.


BalancingmercyandtruthMercy and truth meet together perfectlyonly in the Lord (Ps.85:9,10). Most ofus tend to take sides, either with one orthe other. God's mercy and truth mettogether in our salvation, when thetruth concerning our sins and Hismercy for us met together in the deathof His Son in our place. But when wetry to imitate this towards others, weeither show too much mercy andcondone their sins, or we show toolittle mercy and judge their sins.

The Bible warns us not to forget whatwe ourselves have been washed from.Have you noticed that when God tellsus to show mercy to others, He links itwith a reminder about His showingmercy to us (Eph.4:32;Col.3:13)? Isthis not His way of helping us to bemerciful to others? He also warns usthat our judgment will be without

mercy if we do not show mercy toothers (Jas.2:13), and that He will notforgive us if we will not forgive us(Mt.6:15).

We want to show compassion on thelost sinners, and we try to avoid beingself-righteous and judgmental. Weremember how much we have beenshown mercy by the Lord, and weshow mercy to the sinners. But if weare not watchful and alert, we slowlybegin to condone their sins and moveaway from God's hatred for sin.

For example, God hates divorce(Mal.2:16). But we feel compassionwhen we see the miseries of divorceesand the children who are caught up inthe process. We try to think with mercyabout why people end up in divorce,and how innocent people suffer, etc. Inthe process of doing this, we comeacross various reasons that seem tojustify divorce in particular situations,

and very soon divorce does not seemto be all that bad in our eyes! See howwe got tricked into moving away fromGod's thoughts! Of course, this appliesnot only to divorce but many otherthings.

We need the balance of God's word topreserve us from this. His wordreveals to us what He thinks aboutvarious things, and we must rememberthat He is right even if we cannotunderstand His ways or feel likeagreeing with Him. His word is trueeven when people in the world changetheir opinion about various forms ofsin. Our safety is to take sides withHim. It is the only way truth and mercycan be kept together.


Whenweareweak,wearestrong

Some preachers and writers wouldlike to project the Christian life as onesuperlative experience where allproblems disappear, all sicknesses gethealed, and everyone prospers in everyway. When things do not happenexactly as predicted above, we aremade to look expectantly to a futureday when they will surely happen.Some are able to continue with thisexpectation, but many give up along theway. But by placing before people anunrealistic hope, such preachers areactually doing them more harm thangood.

It is true that our God is able to dobeyond all our asking or thinking(Ep.3:20). He can supply all our needso that we can have all sufficiency ineverything (Php.4:19;2Co.9:8). But it

is also true that since His ways are fardifferent from our ways, what weexpect Him to do for us differs manytimes from what He wants to do for us.If we do not understand this in the rightway, we are likely to end up indisappointment and frustration.

We also recognise that God doesmiracles for many people. But they arecalled miracles because they areextraordinary. God does not domiracles all the time for everyone. Notall prayers are answered, and not allproblems are sorted out. These arerealities of life. See what the Biblesays in Heb.11:35-39.

It is right to ask God for miracles.Many times we do not receive becausewe do not ask (Jas.4:2), and we do notask because we do not expect that Godwill answer. But it is not fair to accusepeople of not having faith just becausethey do not experience miracles.

But true faith believes in God, Hissupreme love, His wisdom and Hissovereignty in all that His does for us.It is not shaken by some inexplicableturn of events, unanswered prayer, oran apparent lack of solution in adifficult situation. All these thingsmake us weak. We are unable to handlethem by ourselves. At that point ourstrength is in knowing God, andknowing that He is with us. The onewho is able to stand without losingfaith when there is no answer toprayer is stronger than the one whosefaith is untested because his prayerhas been answered. We can have thatkind of strong faith only if our faith isrelated to knowing God rather than togetting things from God.


PeaceinthestormJesus said, rebuking the storm in theSea of Galilee, "Peace, be still"(Mk.4:39). Then He turned to Hisdisciples and asked them, "Why areyou fearful? Where is your faith?" Heexpected them to be bold while thestorm was going on. He would haveliked to tell the disciples first of all,"Peace, be still." Isn't this what Hetells us when we are going through thestorms of life?

We would rather He says that to thestorm and makes it disappear! That iswhat most of us pray for. But we forgetthat He has allowed that storm to comeup, and that He is in the boat with us.He is in control! He tells us, "Be stilland know that I am God" (Ps.46:10).He can still storms with just a word.But it is more important to Him that webecome still even if the storm is raging

on. That is possible when we believe -that He is in control.

Having said that, it is not that weshould not ask God to remove thestorms. On two occasions mentioned inthe Bible, God told them to be still andto see His salvation. Once it was whenthe people of Israel found themselvescaught between the Red Sea in frontand the Egyptian army behind(Ex.14:13). The other time, the peopleof Judah were being threatened by anenemy army before which they werehelpless (2Ch.20:17). In both casesthey were in impossible situations,humanly speaking. Then God steppedin. He can do that for us too.

But at other times when we are in aposition to do something to deal withthe problem, to sit still without takingaction is to tempt God (Mt.4:6,7). Ifsomeone refuses to take medicinewhen it can heal him, or to ask

someone else for help when he cannothandle something himself, it isdownright stupid.

We tend to jump to the wrong side evenhere, as usual. When we should bedoing something we leave things inGod's hands, and when we findourselves in impossible situations westill try to work things out instead ofcalling for help! Why don't we becomequiet in our heart and mind by trustingin God, and then do what the situationdemands?


TwotypesoffaithA lot of confusion regarding faith canbe removed if we understand that thereare two types of faith.

There is a faith to live by. This is faithin God, our trust and confidence in HisPerson, character, attributes and Hisways with us, including the way ofsalvation He has given us through HisSon Jesus Christ. This faith is whatgives us a relationship with God and achannel of communication with Him.Without this faith it is impossible toplease Him, because then we do noteven have a connection with Him(He.11:6).

By this faith we believe what God hassaid, believe that He will do what Hehas promised, obey Hiscommandments, accept the values Heplaces on everything and allow Him to

work in and through our lives. If wedoubt His love, wisdom, power andsovereignty, it shows that we lack inthis faith.

But there is another type of faith. Thisis a gift of faith that God gives forsomething specific which is not givenas a general promise for everyone.Some people get this for a ministry.Others may receive this for particularoccasions. By this faith we get anassurance in our heart for expectingsomething extraordinary.

Let us look at an example. We knowthat God can do any miracle or healany sickness. That is faith of the firsttype. But at the same time we do notknow whether He will actually do itfor us on a particular occasion - untilwe hear God's voice in our heart andreceive this faith. When that happenswe know without a doubt that God willdo it.

Every one of us must have faith of thefirst kind. But the second type of faithis not entirely up to us (1Co.12:9). Wecan limit it by our unbelief in God -referring to a lack of the first type offaith (Mt.13:58). But we cannot decideby ourselves to exercise it.

Now we can understand the confusionthat arises when we try to imitatesomeone else's faith, claim things by'faith,' etc., when we have not receiveda specific promise from God for that.There is nothing wrong in asking Godfor something based on our confidencein His goodness, but we are not surewe will receive it unless we receivesuch a faith. It is good to be challengedby the faith we see in others. But weshould avoid condemnation if wecannot do the miracles others havedone even though we believe God cando them.

We can also see how we cannot blame

others for not having the particularfaith we have. God may have usedsome verse from the Bible in aparticular way to give us faith for thatsituation. But we must be careful not toform a doctrine from that for everyoneunless we see it as a general promisefor everyone.

The closer we get to God, the betterwe get to know His heart and voice.Then we can exercise faith for all thethings He wants us to have and do.


ComfortinGod'schasteningChastening is not the same aspunishment, in spirit, even though theforms may look alike. Courts and otherworldly authorities mete outpunishments to those who do wrong.They are expected only to considerwhether the people are guilty of wrongand then to give out a just punishment.But chastening comes typically fromloving parents who want their childrento turn away from the wrong they havedone and to turn to good ways.

God chastens His children becausethey are His children (Am.3:2). Healso cares for the other people andwould like them to become Hischildren. He provides for their earthlyneeds because He is the One whocreated them (Mt.5:45). But it is forHis children that He takes the bestcare. His aim is that we should become

like Him in our character(Ro.8:28,29;He.12:10).

God chastens us when we do notrepent after we have sinned. Hisintention then is that we should realisewe have done wrong and repent. Hewants to forgive us and get us back onthe right way.

Sometimes God also chastens us afterwe have repented from our sins. Theidea is that we should remember whatwe have done so that we would becareful with sin in future. This is whatHe did for David after he had sinnedand repented (2Sa.12:13,14).

We don't like chastening. We wouldlike to be forgiven and treated as if wehad not sinned. But God knows allabout our flesh. He knows that we havea tendency to take sin carelessly if wedo not taste its negative results(Ec.8:11). Our fleshly tendency is to

avoid admitting our sin unless we areforced to, and we would like to getaway without any damage. Godtherefore takes special care to help usin this area.

When the chastening comes, let us notcomplain that it is too severe. Godknows what He is doing. Let us notforget that what we really deserve ishell. Let us also not ignore what God istrying to tell us through the chastening,by trying to deal only with what we aregoing through externally (He.12:5). Letus see His rod and staff as a comfort,knowing that He is there watching overus for our very best (Ps.23:4).


TimeforresolutionsOne of the tricks of the devil is to makejokes of serious matters. There are somany jokes about new year resolutionsthat people feel too silly to make any.Christian life needs resolve anddetermination, and New Year's Day isjust as good as any other day to makeserious resolutions.

Daniel made a resolution as a youngman not to defile himself with foodfrom the table of the King of Babylon(Da.1:8). This was due to Daniel'sstrong desire to be pleasing to God. Hemade up his mind that no matter whatthe consequences were going to be, hewas not going to defile himself in thatparticular way. God noticed this, andimmediately started working all thingsfor Daniel's good (v.9).

We may be afraid to make resolutions

thinking that we would look silly whenwe are not able to keep them. We willcertainly look silly if we make rashand impractical resolutions which wecannot keep. But there may be thingswe have to give up, and there may beother things we need to adopt. It is Godwho tells us what we should do andgives us a desire to do them, and then itis His strength that He gives us(Php.2:13). It is with this confidencethat we can make our resolutions.

If we fail after that to keep any of ourresolutions, that is not enough reason togive them up. It is only a time to seekmore earnestly for God's grace.

Let us make practical resolutions thatwould help us get to know Jesus moreintimately, because that is eternal life(Jn.17:3). Let us also resolve to becareful with things that can distract usand lead us away from Him.


NothingautomaticThere is nothing automatic aboutChristian growth. There is asking, andreceiving. There is seeking, andfinding. There is knocking, and doorsopening. What if there is no asking,seeking or knocking? Can we stillexpect to receive?

Actually, all of us need many thingsfrom the Lord, not only for earthly ourearthly life, but also for our spirituallife. Then why is it that we don't ask?

Perhaps we are caught in a trap ofprosperity. We have enough money forour needs, we are healthy, our job isfine and our family is doing well. Whatis there to ask for?

Perhaps we are caught in the trap ofunbelief. We have asked in the past andnot received. So why bother?

Is it that we are too busy with the dailydemands of life that we don't have timeto think about God?

Are we caught in a situation which, wethink, not even God can solve?

Don't we believe that God knowsevery detail of our life and, as a lovingFather, has good plans for us(Zeph.3:17 LB)? Is His arm too shortor weak that He cannot save? If wehave had problems understanding someof His ways, isn't the reason our lackof understanding rather than any faultof His? The One who created thewhole universe has enough wisdomand power to solve all our problems,doesn't He? Isn't the reason why wedon't receive much from the Lord thatwe don't ask for much (Jas.4:2)?

God wants to help us, save us, guideus, protect us, show us many wonderfulthings, teach us, transform us, and do

many things for us. Let us not stop Himby not asking, seeking or knocking. Letus fully receive the blessings He wantsto give us.


ManyvoicestochoosefromDo you hear voices? Of course, we do.I am referring to the 'inner' voices thatwe all hear. They come from differentsources. They may be our own ideasputting into words what we would liketo hear, or ideas we have got fromothers which are playing in our mind.They may be from our conscience, orGod seeking to guide us. Or they maybe from the devil trying to fool us. It isour responsibility to choose. Whetherwe realise it or not, all of us chooseone or the other voice.

As Christians we say we want to obeyGod and do His will. But many timeswe don't know His will for us. Jesussaid that we could understand God'swill if we were really bent on doing it(Jn.7:17). Jesus could always hear HisFather's voice because it was clear forHim that He was always going to do

the Father's will and not His own.Maybe we are not so firm about this.The question is whether we are surethat if we knew God's will we woulddefinitely do it.

There are several checks that can tellus that a certain voice is not from God.If it is prompting us to do somethingsinful, or if is contrary to God'sinstructions in the Bible, we can besure it is not from God. The more weunderstand God's ways from the Bible,the clearer this distinction willbecome.

But what if the voice quotes the Bible?If the devil quoted Scripture to try andfool Jesus, he can do the same with us(Mt.4:6). We also can misquote theBible. See if the quotation is in theright context, and in agreement with thespirit of Christ.

Are we being prompted to do

something stupid and against commonsense? This is a particular danger forthose who have made up their minds toobey God at any cost. One of the thingsthe devil suggested to Jesus was tojump off from the top of the temple(Mt.4:6).

Can we feel a strong pressure behindthe voice, threatening us with direconsequences if we don't actimmediately, even though we are nottoo convinced about what is beingsuggested? Take care, it is not fromGod. He is not the type who will forceus to do anything. It is another thing ifwe know what is the right thing to doand God reminds us about doing itquickly.

If what comes up in our mind is clearlyaccording to the Bible and the spirit ofChrist, it is easy to decide. If it is notagainst the general direction of theBible but it is still not clearly

instructed there, we need to understandthe mind of the Lord and the leading ofthe Holy Spirit. This discernment takestime to learn (He.5:14).

Of course we may make mistakeswhile we are learning to makedistinctions among these voices. But besure that if we are sincere in wantingto do God's will, God will protect usfrom making fatal mistakes(Ps.37:23,24).


Twowaysofasking"Why?"All through time people have beenasking this question to God, "Why areYou doing this to me?" Most of us haveasked this question ourselves. Theunderlying implication is that we thinkwe do not deserve this kind oftreatment from God and that Godshould treat us much better. This is anattitude of complaint, rebellion, pride,self- righteousness, etc. People alsoask other variations of this questionsuch as "Why does God allow theinnocent to suffer?," "Why does Godallow evil to have power in thisworld?," etc. It is wrong to ask suchquestion with bitterness, self-pity,complaints and rebellion. This iswrong because in this way we dare toquestion and accuse the One whocreated us, just as if a pot complainedabout the potter.

Some Christians have been soconcerned about this way ofquestioning God that they believe thatwe should never ask such questions toGod or about God. Though they meanwell, I think it stunts their own growthand also puts off people who aresincerely seeking for answers.

The second way of asking "Why?" is toask it in humility, with a desire tounderstand and learn. God delights insuch people, just as a good father isthrilled when his children come to himwith their questions. He does not getangry with them, and He does not pushthem away.

God hardly ever answers the first typeof asking "Why?" But He does giveanswers to those who have the secondtype of question. He may not give theanswer they expect, when they want it,or in the way they look for. But Hetakes such people to the answers little

by little, from one small step toanother. His desire is not to satisfytheir intellectual curiosity but to leadthem to know Him and His ways in away that builds their trust in Him. Theylearn the way of understanding "byfaith" (He.11:3). They slowly come tothe place where they can stand withoutbeing shaken when they cannot 'see.'

Isn't that the answer we really need?What is the use being to explainmysteries in a philosophical mannerand impress others when we areunable to stand in the midst of stormsourselves?


Whatcangiveusdepth?Jesus mentioned about the seed whichfell in a rocky ground which sproutedup fast but withered quickly when thesun came up - because the soil had nodepth (Mt.13:5,6). Jesus compared thistype of ground to people 'who had noroot in themselves' (v.21). What are thethings that we should take care of sothat we can have roots which go deep?

The first and foremost thing is a deepand real love for Jesus. This comesfrom a recognition of His love for us inthe face of the fact that we don'tdeserve it. If we don't recognise this,our relationship with Jesus will besuperficial - without depth. On thecontrary, the more we appreciate Hislove, the more we will want to pleaseHim and to do His will.

Another important factor is our

determination to love Jesus and toplease Him. The degree of ourdetermination will decide how wewould face opposition and hindrances.If we are not absolutely clear aboutwanting to please Jesus no matter whatit would cost us in terms of earthlythings, we would wither up as soon asthe heat starts coming.

Someone has said that we should gaugethe depth of our love for Jesus byseeing how much we are willing tosacrifice for Him. Wealth, earthlyhonour and pleasures beckon us onevery step in life. Some of them temptus directly to sin, while others wouldtend to lead us away from Jesus. If weare not willing to deny ourselves inorder to be pleasing to Jesus, we canhardly hope to have any spiritual depth(Lk.9:23-25).

Finally it is our faithfulness in thesmall things of life that will contribute

to our depth. Carefulness with thechoice of words, sensitivity to ourattitudes that direct our words andactions, willingness to acknowledgequickly when we go wrong and alwaysbeing willing to learn, will send ourroots deep down. Then we will be firmand stable, and not easily shaken.


ArewechildishinChrist?We may be in Christ, as children ofGod. We may have asked Jesus notonly to come into our hearts but also totake control of our lives as our Lord.Yet it may be that we are actuallyliving our Christian lives in a childishway, and that may be reason why wedo not experience many of the thingsthat God has promised for us in Hisword.

Paul talks about this in Galatians 4. Weare heirs to all that God has kept readyfor us in His kingdom. But we are onlybabies in the spiritual realm when weare born again and become Christians.If we do not grow up to maturity andlearn to take possession of ourinheritance, we would actuallycontinue to live just as if we werepaupers or slaves.

One of the things about children is thatthey do not know what is good forthem. They 'want' many things, andeven when the parents tell them thatsome of those things are not good forthem they still want them!

Are we like them? Do we just cravefor many things even when we knowthey are not good for us? Do we havethe habit of thinking that giving in totemptation "just this once" won't hurtus too much? Have we never learnedto say "No" to ourselves? Do we liedown and throw tantrums (or drivel inself pity) when we can't have our ownway?

Maturity comes by saying "No" to thethings that are bad for us and choosingto obey God (He.5:13,14).

Perhaps some of us have never had ourparents teach us to obey. They mayhave let us have our way most of the

time. Even if it has been like that, wecannot afford to continue in thischildish way any more. Let us learn toobey God in everything.


Willwereceivethepromises?

The story in the Old Testament of theexodus of the children of Israel fromEgypt to Canaan is well known. Itstarted with the promise of God to takethem from slavery to the promised land"flowing with milk and honey." Theentire episode is marked withmiraculous interventions from God,first in obtaining release fromPharaoh's tyranny in Egypt and then inovercoming what looked like manyinsurmountable obstacles along theway to Canaan. Finally only two out ofthe multitude of people who left Egyptentered Canaan. What made thedifference?

In Numbers 13 and 14 we read ofIsrael standing just outside Canaan andsending out twelve spies into Canaanto bring back a report on the situation

there. All twelve agreed in reportingthat the land was really one flowingwith milk and honey, and all twelvereported that there were giants in theland. It was a really good place to goto, but nobody denied that there wasreal danger facing them if they tried toget in there. The difference came up intheir approach to the danger.

Ten of the spies backed out saying thatit was too dangerous to go in. Theywould rather go back to Egypt. All thecrowd agreed with them except Joshuaand Caleb, the two spies who finallyentered Canaan. Their logic wassimple. God had promised to take themin. So far He had brought themmiraculously through severalobstacles. He would do something thistime also to fulfil His promise.

God made a judgment that day thatdivided Joshua and Caleb from the restof the crowd. He said that because the

people refused to trust Him even afterhaving experienced miracle aftermiracle in the past, they would not beallowed to enter the promised land(Nu.14:11). It was a matter of trust.

Why don't we trust in God, that He willfulfil what He has promised us? Ourown faithfulness is important, but thatis not the issue here. The question hereis whether we would consider God tobe trustworthy. If we murmur andcomplain, it demonstrates exactly theopposite. If we don't believe what Hesays, or doubt His love, power orwisdom, we would be like the tenspies and the crowd who lost out.

It is not that we pretend that there areno obstacles, or that we believe wecan manage quite easily by ourselves.No, sometimes there are some realinsurmountable obstacles along theway. It is possible that we look likegrasshoppers in front of those giant

obstacles, like the ten spies felt. Butdoes that change the fact that God isable to do what He has promised? Letus trust Him.

We are not unrealistic to think that oncewe trust in Jesus He would just waveaway any trouble that comes our way.There would be battles like the onesJoshua and the others discovered oncethey entered Canaan. But they believedthat God was with them, and as theydid what God told them to do theycame to enjoy more and more peaceand rest in the land.


WeneedtheHolySpiritThe night before His last day as a Manon earth, Jesus requested His disciplesto stay with Him in the Garden ofGethsemane and support Him withprayer (Mt.26:38). He prayed threetimes to the Father concerning thethings He was going to go through, andat the end of each session He came toHis disciples looking for fellowship.Each time He found that they had dozedoff. He told them these famous words,"Keep watching and praying, that youmay not enter into temptation; the spiritis willing, but the flesh is weak" (v.41NASB). Yet some days later thesesame disciples were on fire for theLord and unstoppable in their work forHim. What made the difference? TheHoly Spirit.

If we are honest with ourselves wewould also admit that our flesh is weak

even though many times our spirit iswilling. Sometimes we cannot evensay that our spirit is willing. But if weare willing to be made willing, Godwill help us (Php.2:13).

What kind of help are we looking for?Someone to make our problemsdisappear with a word or a wave ofHis hands? That would be unrealisticbecause Jesus Himself said that in thisworld we would have trouble andproblems (Jn.16:33). But what Jesusoffers us is Someone who will be byour side in our troubles, and who willcomfort, encourage, strengthen, lead,guide, warn, correct and rebuke us -the Holy Spirit!

Caught in controversies about the giftsof the Holy Spirit we tend to miss whatthe companionship of the Holy Spiritcan mean for us.

The Holy Spirit is the One who can

make our relationship with Jesus real(Jn.16:14,15). He speaks to us in ourspirit, bringing to our thoughts what weneed to hear at that time, whether it is aword of comfort, guidance or warning.It takes time to become able torecognise His voice, but when we do,that is the best help we can have.

Jesus said that the Father hardly needsany asking before He gives us the HolySpirit (Lk.11:13). Let us seek for theHoly Spirit as a Person, and not for thethrill of His gifts. And let us treat Himwith respect lest we grieve Him orquench Him.


DemystifyingfaithSome people make faith look somysterious, difficult, lofty and rare thatordinary folks like us think we willnever be able to have it. Yet it wasordinary people who had faith in thedays of Jesus, while the scholars andVIPs rejected Him. So true faith mustbe something within the reach of all ofus. Let us look at a few instances oftrue faith.

Once when Jesus was inside acrowded house, some people openedup the roof to lower a paralysed maninside (Mk.2:1-5). It says Jesus sawtheir faith. What did He see? Just thatthey believed He could heal, andexpected Him to. A Roman centurion'sfaith was seen in that he believed Jesuscould heal his servant with just a word(Mt.8:8). A Canaanite woman wasadmired for her faith because she

asked Jesus persistently fordeliverance for her demon possesseddaughter (Mt.15:22-28). A woman gothealed for believing that a touch ofJesus's garment was enough to heal her(Mt.9:21).

What was their faith? Just that theybelieved in Jesus' supernatural abilityto heal and deliver. They knew who Hewas and what He could do for them.Once He asked two blind men whetherthey believed that He was able to givethem their sight (Mt.9:28). That wasthe crucial issue.

In one place Jesus was not able to domany miracles because of theirunbelief (Mk.6:5). Their unbelief wasthat they did not expect anything greatfrom Jesus because they thought of Himas an ordinary Man whom they knewvery well! (v.3).

So in simple terms, faith is to expect

great things from Jesus. When we go toJesus with everything that bothers us,that is an expression of our faith.Unbelief is to think that Jesus is notable or willing to do anything for us.

It is not that He will always do whatwe want, because we do not alwaysknow what is good for us. But whenwe have faith, we open the way forJesus to come in and take action. If weare unbelieving, we shut the doorourselves.


RisinginfaithWe hear many people saying (perhapswe have said it ourselves), "Oh, I don'thave that much faith." The implicationis that faith is something that is basedon our capacity. But this is a falseunderstanding! Faith is not arecognition of our strength or ability. Itis a recognition of God's ability. Ourfaith is not in ourselves, but in God.So, if we say we don't have that muchof faith, what we are really saying isthat we don't believe God has thatmuch ability! I am pretty sure that isnot what we meant to say.

There was this incident when a manbrought his demon possessed son toJesus' disciples for healing(Mk.9:17,18). This man pleaded withJesus to help him if He could (v.22).Jesus said, "'If You can!' All things arepossible to him who believes" (v.23).

Immediately the man said, "I dobelieve; help my unbelief" (v.24).

What Jesus pointed out to this man wasthat there was no question about Jesus'ability, but what was needed was thisman to have faith in that ability. Whenthe man's attention was turned awayfrom himself to Jesus, immediately hereceived faith.

Isn't this what we should do when weare faced with situations that lookimpossible? Look at Jesus. See Hisalmighty power, perfect wisdom andunending love towards us. Then we toocan rise in faith - trusting that Jesus canhandle this for us.


StandingonourfeetIt is a great day when a baby takes hisor her first step. Just before this, thebaby had learned to stand up withsupport, and some babies had alsolearned to 'walk' using baby walkers.But when a baby actually standswithout any support and takes the firststep on his own the parents are thrilledbeyond measure!

It is great if we have many or at leastsome people around us to support us inour Christian life. In one sense there isnever a time in life when we don't needanyone else. Perhaps there are areas inlife where, by the grace of God, wehave become able to stand, and otherswhere we still need support. But evenin those so-called 'strong' areas therecan be special occasions where weneed support from others. Rememberhow Jesus asked for support from His

disciples in Gethsemane (Mt.26:38).

But we must not become so dependenton others that we always look to othersto take care of us, solve our problems,tell us what to do and to clean up whenwe make a mess. Our progress inChristian life must be such that we notonly learn to bear our own burdens inan increasing manner but also becomeable to bear the burdens of others.

If we think about it we can see thatultimately we ourselves have to bearthe brunt of our burdens, even whenthere are others who are willing tohelp us. Others can comfort us andencourage us and maybe finally tell uswhat to do. But then we have to do itor go through it ourselves. We can'tescape that.

If we always look to others to help usout through their prayers or spiritualgifts, we are unrealistic and heading

for disappointment. God provides ussupport, including through otherpeople, so that we will become strongenough to stand and also to help others(Zec.8:13). If we set this as our goaland constantly seek God for it, we canbe sure that God will help us along inthat direction.


ThepressuretogiveupThe Bible mentions that in the last daysthe devil will be furious, knowing thathe has only a short time left(Re.12:12). Through the centuriesChristians have felt as though theirtime was really the last hour. We nowfeel that this present time could verywell be the last few minutes before thecoming of the Lord.

Can you feel the fury of the devilcoming at you personally, almostforcing you, if possible, to give upyour faith in God and to give in to theworld? He cannot force us, but that ishow we feel. All around us we seemany falling away from the faith, andwe remember the words of Paul thatthere would a falling away beforeJesus came (2Th.2:3). Even Christianleaders are compromising, andChristian churches are giving in to the

philosophies of the world that make theword 'sin' irrelevant. Many areconfused because they cannot find trueshepherds to guide them, and becausethey are facing unjust situations beyondtheir control and complicatedproblems they cannot handle.

It is in such situations that the word ofthe Lord becomes relevant to us, thatsays, "Beloved, do not be surprised atthe fiery ordeal among you, whichcomes upon you for your testing, asthough some strange thing werehappening to you" (1Pe.4:12). TheLord calls us to persevere under thistrial, which is actually a test of ourfaith, so that He can finally give us thecrown of life (Jas.1:12).

How can we hold on? By holding on tothe One we have placed our trust in.His faithfulness is unquestionable. Noone who continues to hope in Him willbe put to shame (Is.49:23). We may

face hardships or earthlydisappointments. But we shall see ineternity that He has not caused us tolose out.

It is a test of our faith if we would bewilling to bear with earthly sufferingsin order to gain eternal blessings. Paulsaid that if we had only this earthlylife, we could as well let ourselves goand live for our desires (1Co.15:32).But Jesus has prepared an eternity forus and He is waiting for us. Let us trustHim.


ThegospelpackageWhen John the Baptist came preachingjust before Jesus started His publicministry, he was trying to prepare thehearts of the people to become ready toreceive Jesus (Lk.3:4). He told themthat they should repent from their sinsin order to receive forgiveness of sins(v.3). When different people came tohim wanting to get baptised, John toldthem specifically about what theyshould stop doing and what they shouldstart doing. The Bible says that Johnpreached the gospel to the people withmany other exhortations (v.18). In otherwords, he was urging them strongly todo many things that would change theirlifestyle.

Now, exhortations are not somethingthat we usually associate with thegospel. Those of us who have heardthe gospel many times have understood

that God wants to give everything to usas a free gift and that there is nothingwe can do to earn salvation or todeserve it. (That is, of course, a goodemphasis to place before people whothink that somehow they have to dosomething to become pleasing to God.)Having learned to accept salvation as afree gift from God, we may find itdifficult to understand whatexhortations have to do with it.

But remember that John was trying toprepare the people to be able toreceive what Jesus was going to comewith. If we are to receive from God allthat He wants to give us, we also mayneed to do certain things that would setour heart right and bring us to a placewhere we are receptive towards God.This may include repenting from oursins, setting things right with God andpeople, changing habits, taking harddecisions, etc. If we don't want to hear

such words, we are ourselves cuttingoff what God wants to give us.

Salvation comes as package. There arethings God wants to give us, and thereare ways in which we have to respond.If we neglect certain parts of thepackage, we will miss some of theother parts too.


Missingthepoint!When God gave the people of Israelthe Sabbath day, His goal was that theywould have time to put away their ownwork and seek Him and spend timewith Him (Ex.20:9,10). But theymissed the whole point when theyconcentrated on determining what theywere not allowed to do on a Sabbathday. They went on to define whatconstituted work in terms of thedistance they could travel and theweight they could lift legitimately onthe Sabbath. The Pharisees tried toextrapolate the restriction on work toridiculous extents when they objectedto Jesus healing sick people on theSabbath (Mt.12:10). Even now inIsrael there are those who believe thatswitching on lights on the Sabbath daycan cause minute sparks in the switchwhich would be against the law

forbidding lighting of fire on theSabbath day!

Are we Christians really any better?Don't we unconsciously major on"what we are not allowed to do"instead of thinking about how muchcloser we can get to God? Evenchurches sometimes make unwrittenrules on what is acceptable, and it isnot uncommon for people fromdifferent churches to compare notes onthese when they meet each other. Aschildren grow up they associateChristianity with what all that they arenot allowed to do. We too have missedthe point.

Jesus asks us to seek God and Hiskingdom first, promising us that thenall other things will fall in place(Mt.6:33 free paraphrase). We canbegin to see all things in the properperspective only when God occupiesthe focus of our lives. Is this not the

same thing Jesus meant when He saidthat only when our eye is clear ourwhole body will be full of light?(Lk.11:34).

Let us put God first in our lives andseek Him deliberately, consciously andwith all our heart. Then we willunderstand and experience what Godhas really prepared and kept for us.Then we can also see how questionsabout what is allowed and not allowedresolve themselves.


Dowereallyknowgrace?What? Love our enemies? Do good tothose who hate us? Bless those whocurse us? Let someone who hasalready taken away our coat take ourshirt too? (Lk.6:27-30). What rubbish!How unreasonable! How silly andtame! Is that how we feel? Then wehave not understood grace at all.

The question is if we want God to dealwith us the same way we want to treatothers - taking revenge, teaching them alesson, showing them who we reallyare and what we can do, letting themknow that they can't get away with it,etc. Surely not. We want God to bemerciful to us, forgive us our sins,bless us in spite of what we have doneand how we have been, etc. Then whyis it that we don't want to be like that tothe others?

Perhaps it has not sunk into our headshow much mercy God has had to showtowards us! How patient He has had tobe towards us. How He has had tooverlook what we really deserve whenHe gave us abundantly of manyblessings. How He has had to set asideHis feelings of anger and revulsiontowards our sins when He came toembrace us. How He would not listento His sense of righteousness andjustice when He wanted to do good tous.

Perhaps we have never understood thisat all. Perhaps we just 'accepted' Jesusinto our hearts and thought that now wewere safe from hell. Or perhaps wehave been forgetful of how God hastreated us.

If God has been gracious to us, howcan we hard towards the others? Thisis the point Jesus tried to bring, againand again. See Mt.18:23-35, and many

other passages.


TakeittotheLordinprayerHave you heard of the saintly mancalled Augustine who lived in thefourth century? He was so wayward asa young man that his mother Monicawent to her bishop with the problem.His advice was, "Stop talking to yourson about God. Talk instead to Godabout your son." The result was therefor everyone to see.

There are many things God expects usto do. But we all know that there aremany things that are beyond ourabilities. Our problem is that when wecome to such situations we despair andgive up instead of casting them on God.We recognise that we can't handlethem, but we still behave as though weare expected to handle them ourselves.

Jesus asks all who are stooping downfrom trying to carry heavy burdens to

go to Him (Mt.11:28). He promises usrest, and a lightening of our burdens(v.29,30). How can He do that if wewon't hand over our burdens to Himbut insist on carrying them ourselves?

See what will happen when weactually hand over our burdens to theLord. See Him keep His promisesbeyond our expectations. We will feelso foolish for not having done thisearlier itself!

The picture of Jesus waiting outsidethe door of our heart and knocking isrelevant even in this context (Re.3:20).He will not force His way in. But if weopen the door for Him He will come inand dine with us. It is not that we haveto prepare dinner for Him. He willprovide a feast for us.

Let us learn to take every one of ourproblems - big and small - to the Lord,and give Him authority over our lives

to bless us the way He wants to. Let ustrust in Him that He knows what is bestfor us and how and when it should bedone for us. Those who trust Him inthis way will find honour and glory inthe end, even if sometimes we have towait for them.


ExperiencingGod'sloveGod loves all people and there is nopartiality in Him. He does not wanteven a single person to perish, and thatwas why He sent His Son Jesus to diefor our sins (Jn.3:16).

But all of us do not experience God'slove to the same extent! That is notbecause God shows partiality, butbecause it depends on us. The Biblesays that God came into the world andto the people whom He had created,but most people rejected Him(Jn.1:10,11). But those who receivedHim were given the privilege tobecome His children (v.12). There wesee that it is our choice that makes thedifference.

Even among those who received Himand became His children, all do notenjoy His love equally. That again is

not because He has some favouritechildren, but because it depends onhow we obey Him. Jesus said that ifwe obeyed Him, the Father would loveus and come and live with us(Jn.14:23). Jesus Himself obeyed theFather in everything, and so Heenjoyed the Father's love to themaximum (Jn.10:17). The Fatherreferred to Jesus as His Beloved Sonwith whom He was delighted(Mt.3:17).

God tests us sometimes to see if wewould love Him more than everyoneelse and everything else. God waswatching Abraham as he left hishometown and started off to anunknown place at the command of God,and also when he decided to let hisnephew Lot take the choicest part ofthe land in order to avoid a quarrel.When Abraham made the choice tosacrifice his son Isaac rather than

disobey God, God was delighted andblessed Abraham tremendously(Ge.22:12). Is it surprising that whenGod decided to destroy Sodom andGomorrah He decided to take Abrahaminto confidence about it?(Ge.18:17,18).

Can we see what we miss if we ignoreGod and live our own lives?


AcommandtoloveIt was a new commandment that Jesusgave to His disciples, to love oneanother as He loved them (Jn.13:34).We can find a catch as well as comfortin that commandment. The catch is thatwe are not just to love, but to love asJesus loves us. The comfort is thatJesus loves us tremendously, and themore we experience that it becomeseasier for us to love others in the sameway.

Our problem is that we find it difficultto love those who are not lovable -those who do wrong to us, who treat usunkindly or unjustly, who don'tappreciate what we have done forthem, or even those whose face ormanners we don't like. But what Jesusis telling us is to love even suchpeople, because that is how He lovesus. Looking at us from His state of

perfection, everything about us is soimperfect, sinful and wrong! Yet Heloves us. So when He tells us to loveothers He is not telling us to love onlythose who are lovable but even all theothers out there who come through tous as those who do not deserve ourlove. He asked His disciples oncewhat was so great about loving thosewho loved them, challenging them tolove even their enemies (Mt.5:44-47).

The closer we get to God, the moreclearly we see our own imperfections,and what we had thought were 'small'sins take on an ugly appearance. Thenwe begin to appreciate better what itmeans for God to love us. Anotherthing that happens is that the littlethings that used to irritate us aboutothers are no longer so big in our eyes,and the sins that we notice in others arenot so unforgivable anymore!

That is a wonderful thing to happen.

But this joy of drawing closer to Godand experiencing His love and Hiswork of transformation in our livesgoes side by side with the pain ofrecognising how small, weak andcorrupt our love is. This should driveus to cry out to God for pouring out Hislove into our hearts through the HolySpirit (Ro.5:5). This paradoxicallooking experience is what a godlyman has as he is drawn nearer to Godand draws himself nearer to God(Php.2:12,13).


YieldinginworshipThe dictionary rightfully definesworship as an act of adoration. That iswhat we should think of when weworship God. We think of who God is,the different aspects of His nature andcharacter, what He has done for us andwhat He has planned for us in thefuture, etc., and 'fall' or 'bow down'before Him in worship. While it maynot be always practical to express ourworship to God physically in that way,a submission in our spirit before themajesty and the greatness of God is anessential element of true worship.

Over the recent years there has been aclear revival all over the world inworshipping God. There is a lot ofemphasis on worshipping God in spiritand truth (Jn.4:21-24). We understandthat the important thing is not the placeof worship or the particular form we

adopt, but in the attitude of our heart.Musicians and songwriters havebrought out innumerable songs ofworship in different languages, andthese are used not only in worshipmeetings, but also by Christians whilerelaxing at home, travelling, working,etc.

While songs are a big help for us inworshipping God, we know that meresinging of words without our spiritreaching out to God is meaningless.But whether we worship God throughspoken words or songs, we must notforget that without yielding ofourselves to God in response to seeingHis majesty will make worshipincomplete.

The apostle Paul points out thatyielding of our bodies to God as 'livingsacrifices' is the reasonable form ofworship in response to the mercies ofGod (Ro.12:1). Let us remember to

yield ourselves afresh to God everytime we worship Him.


ManyEbenezerstostrengthenus

A thought that most commonly comes tous is that no one else has had it as badas we! Even when we know in ourmind that this is not true we feel as if itis. But let us not go by how we feel butwhat is true.

1. Of course we know how manyothers are in worse conditions. Wewill see this when we start thinkingabout it objectively. Let us, as the songsays, start counting our blessings andsee what the Lord has done. Myfavourite position at this point is toremember the bottom line - that theLord has forgiven my sins and mademe His own, while billions of othersdo not know Him at all.

2. Many times earlier in our own liveswe have felt like this and then the Lord

has brought us out and taken usforward. This time too He will do it.

3. Many others have gone throughtougher situations and experienced thelove and power of God through themall. They have come out of them asbetter persons and more useful to Godand men.

4. There are many, many promises forjust such situations, as "I will neverdesert you, nor will I ever forsake you"(He.13:5), "I will not leave you asorphans; I will come to you"(Jn.14:18), "And my God shall supplyall your needs according to His richesin glory in Christ Jesus" (Php.4:19),"For I am confident of this very thing,that He who began a good work in youwill perfect it until the day of ChristJesus" (Php.1:6), "Ask, and it shall begiven to you; seek, and you shall find;knock, and it shall be opened to you"(Mt.7:7), etc.

When God gave the people of Israel amiraculous victory over the Philistines,the prophet Samuel took a stone,placed it before them and called it'Ebenezer.' When they faced a difficulttime in the future they were to look atthat stone and remember, "Thus far theLord has helped us" (1Sa.7:12). If welook back at the way the Lord has takencare of us and the others in the past, weshall have many Ebenezers tostrengthen our faith. And, of course, thegreatest Ebenezer is Jesus being raisedfrom the dead - from a state ofhopelessness and despair to one oftriumph, glory and hope for everafterwards.


Whyme,Lord?"Why do I seem to have all the badluck? How is it that others seem tohave an easy time when things don'tseem to be working out for me at all?Why is it that others can givetestimonies of miraculous answers toprayers and deliverances while I amstuck in my problems in spite of manyprayers? Etc." These are age oldquestions that many Christians haveasked. Philosophical answers do nothelp us when we are caught in adesperate situation ourselves. It is onlyfaith that can take us throughtriumphantly.

Peter, James and John were threedisciples of Jesus who were close toHim. After Jesus ascended to heavenand the disciples started preaching thegospel, King Herod caught James andput him to death. He then caught Peter

and was about to kill him when anangel rescued him from prison(Ac.12:1-10). Now think of what therelatives of James would have thought.

"Why James and not Peter? Weren'tthey both close to Jesus? If James wasa sinner and he got punished that wouldhave been something else. What wasthe point in training him so much andthen throwing up an opportunity for afruitful ministry? How come Jesusdidn't listen to our prayers for Jamesand listened to the prayers for Peter?Etc."

If we look at this from merely anintellectual point of view, it is difficultto find answers that can explaineverything. But look at it through theeyes of faith. Here is God the Fatherwho has power to do whatever Hewants (Ps.115:3). He could have easilysaved James, but He chose this way.The fact is that God has different plans

specifically for each of us. All of us fitinto different parts of the large canvasGod is painting.

Each of us can contribute somethingdifferent to the total witness of God inthe world and also to the building up ofthe Body of Christ. Some may haveprosperity while some face adversity.Some may glorify God through theexercise of outstanding gifts, and someothers may do it through passing on thecomfort they receive from God in theirsuffering. Some may even do it throughtheir death (Jn.21:19).

When we love God and want to do Hiswill, serve His purposes and glorifyHis name we are willing to go any wayHe chooses.

Questions, complaints, comparingourselves with others anddiscouragement disappear as wechoose to please God and humble

ourselves under the mighty hand ofGod (1Pe.5:6).


WeneedtheothersNo man is an island. God has arrangedit in such a way that we are alldependent on one another, not only forour life on earth but also for ourspiritual life. But we may find it easierto recognise and accept ourdependence on God than on people.Since God provides us much of Hishelp through people, we tend to missthem when we neglect the process ofreceiving help from one another.

As believers and disciples of Christ,our sufficiency is of Him (2Co.3:5).When it says that we are complete inChrist (Col.2:10) it is not meant to bean abstract theological statement. Itmeans that whatever we lack, inwisdom, understanding, ability, etc.,we can draw it from Him. But whenChrist wants to give us some help thatwe need, He does it many times

through one of the other members ofHis Body. If we lack the properhumility of heart and recognition of ourneed of these others, we end upmissing this help altogether.

Since, as members of the Body ofChrist we are all different from oneanother in terms of our function in theBody as well as our naturaltemperament, abilities, etc., this helpmay come to us in a form that is notstraightaway fitting with our ownways. This poses an additionaldifficulty, that we may reject it evenafter we receive it.

For example one person may expresssomething in a crude or blunt mannerthat is unpalatable for our ego. His orher viewpoint may be entirely new tous and we may reject it just because ofthat. The things that grip and move theother person, or the way he or sheworks with them, may be different

from ours because our functions in theBody (ministries) are different and wemay find it difficult to relate to them.Perhaps out of ten things that a persontells us only one may be of directrelevance to us, but we may get put offby looking at the other nine. Etc.

We need to realise how small we arein the whole Body of Christ, eventhough each of us is individuallyprecious in the eyes of the Lord. Weneed to also see how He has placed usall together, each part supplyingsomething to the others for all of us togrow (Ep.4:16). Then we will be opentowards the others and also thankfulfor each one of them.


JesusasLordThere were two sons, Jesus said,whose father wanted them to do somework. The first one said he would doit, but never did it, and the second onerefused to do it, but finally went anddid it (Mt.21:28-30). Jesus was tryingto contrast the religious Jews of Histime with the out and out sinners(v.31). But this can very well apply tous, Christians who listen to God, agreewith everything He says, but finally donot do it.

There are many things concerning thewill of God which we are not sureabout. But ignorance is not the reasonwhy we don't do many things which wehave heard from God. Whether wehave read from the Bible or heard frompreachers, there are many things wehave understood as the will of God forus. We also agree that we should do

them. But yet it happens that we don'tdo many of them ultimately. Theapostle James saw this danger veryclearly when he warned people thatthey should be doers of the word ratherthan mere hearers (Jas.1:22).

If we have understood the will of God,agree in our heart that we should do it,and also desire to do it, why is it thatwe still don't do it? It seems that wehave not given Jesus His place as theLord of our day to day life (Lk.6:46).We choose to do our own will in spiteof knowing what the will of God is.

Jesus said that if we loved Him wewould do what He said (Jn.14:15). Butas it is, we love ourselves more. Wesee Him as Someone to serve us ratherthan as One we should serve. But if wesee Him as One who gave Himself forus, the natural response should be togive ourselves for Him, to do His will(2Co.5:15). It is not enough if we make

one act of commitment to Him, but wealso need to take up our cross daily,deny ourselves, and follow Him(Lk.9:23). That is the way to show ourlove for Him.


Wanttochangeothers?From the days of Adam and Eve,people have been thinking that the faultis on the other side. We try to play oneup with the others for what they havedone to us, giving tit for tat and more,trying to teach them a lesson, or tellingeveryone around us how wrong theothers are. We are always trying tochange the people who give us troubleby telling them their faults, givingadvice whether it is asked for or not,reminding them every time they dowrong, or praying for them.

We are waiting and waiting for theothers to change, but to ourconsternation this does not seem tohappen. Many times things seem to getworse! We tend to forget the fact thatwe human beings, in addition to beingmostly unaware of our faults, canrarely tolerate others pointing out our

faults.

Out of all the methods people use tochange the others, prayer may be thesafest. In some cases this may be theonly practical way that is open for us.God listens to our prayer and takesaction. We must persist in this even ifwe cannot see immediate results. Buteven prayer does not seem to work inmany cases.

Jesus has something to tell us in thisconnection. First of all He tells us notto judge the others (Mt.7:1). This is notsaying that we must not have anyopinion about what they do (SeeJn.7:24). It means we must not viewthem with contempt or condemn them,as though we ourselves were angels(Lk.18:9). Jesus goes on to tell us notto be occupied with the specks in theother's eyes while we have logs in ours(Mt.7:3,4). To put it in the context ofour subject, it means that these others

are put off by our pious attitude inwhich we are trying to pick out theirspecks while they can see logs in uswhich they see we are totally ignorantof!

This is what makes the whole thingineffective. God too cannot answer ourprayers when He sees such an attitudein us towards the others.

Jesus shows us the way. First take outthe logs, and then we can see clearly totake out the specks (Mt.7:5). Keepworking on our own lives to see howmuch we are unlike Jesus and toremove those logs. Then perhaps wecan be of help to the others too.


WehaveachoiceOne way the devil fools us into a sinfulbondage is by making us think thatthere is no way out. He tells us thatGod has made us the way we are, onlyHe can change us, and that He has notbothered to change us even after wehave asked Him. We feel weak withthe memory of past failures, and wehonestly feel like agreeing with thedevil. But a little voice seems to tell usthat there must be still some hope withGod. Of course, the devil is a crookand a liar, and there is hope with God.

One of the things God has created uswith is the ability to learn and to makechoices. We did not have a choiceabout how and where we were bornand the circumstances we grew up in.We don't have a choice about manythings other people do to us. But we dohave a choice about what we do with

the given circumstances. We cancomplain, give up and give in tofoolish reactions, or we can turn toGod and earnestly seek for help.

When we yield to sin, a little bit ofcorruption sets in, and our ability tomake the right choice next timebecomes less (Ga.6:7,8). The naturalcourse then is to make more sinfulchoices that ultimately get us into acruel bondage that makes us miserable.But the good news is that God canbreak this vicious chain, if we turn toHim honestly, sincerely and inrepentance.

There are two important issues at thispoint. 1. Do we really wantdeliverance and victory? (Jn.5:6). 2.Do we really believe that Jesus can setus free? (Jn.11:40).

Perhaps we have become so weak inour bondage that we doubt our ability

to 'want' or 'believe' consistently. Butif we, for a moment, turn our eyesaway from ourselves to Jesus, can't wesee that He is not weak, but powerfulto save the worst of sinners from anytype of bondage? We 'believe' whenwe see that, and then we also 'want' tobe saved. Then we can make thechoice to turn to Jesus, and seek Hishelp till we get it.


Testingourselves"The Message" Bible says, "Testyourselves to make sure you are solidin the faith. Don't drift along takingeverything for granted. Giveyourselves regular check-ups. Youneed first-hand evidence, not merehearsay, that Jesus Christ is in you.Test it out. If you fail the test, dosomething about it" (2Co.13:5). It ispossible that some of us may beassuming for ourselves that "JesusChrist is in us," that we are Christians,while it may not be true. Do you thinksuch a thing is not possible for you?Jesus said that on the judgment day Hewould have to tell some people whohad even prophesied, cast out demonsand done miracles in His name that Hedid not know them (Mt.7:22-23).

Some are afraid of taking such a testbecause they think they might fail!

Some even think that it is the devil whobrings such 'doubts' in their minds. Butthe intention is not to confuse orcondemn anyone, but to help everyoneto make sure that he or she is really'in.' Isn't it better to take the test nowwhen we can do something about theresult, than wait for the judgment daywhen there will be no moreopportunity to set things right?

Do we have a personal, livingrelationship with Jesus, or is it only animpersonal knowledge about Him?This danger is especially there forthose who have grown up in aChristian background. The one whohas recognised himself as a sinner,repented and gone to Jesus forforgiveness knows Him personally,while the one who knows about Himonly through tradition, rituals andhearsay has not really met Him.

The test that Jesus gave Peter was, "Do

you love Me more than these?"(Jn.21:15). We don't know exactlywhat He meant by 'these.' We canassume that He meant whether Peterloved Him more than he lovedeveryone and everything else, becausethat was what He had taught thedisciples earlier (Lk.14:26,27,33).Those who really know Jesus cannotbut love Him like this. Why don't weget to know Him like this?


BlessedforgivenessThe Bible says, "How blessed is hewhose transgression is forgiven,whose sin is covered!" (Ps.32:1). Whyis it that a lot of us who believe andproclaim that God has forgiven oursins don't feel so blessed? Why do wefeel diffident, uncertain and hesitant inour relationship with the Lord, andwonder at times whether He is with usor not? Why do we give the impressionto the others that we are still carryingsome burdens along?

That may be because our eyes have notyet been opened fully to see what Jesushas accomplished for us (Ep.1:18,19).We do see a little bit, but not clearlyenough.

If we have truly repented from our sinsand trusted in Jesus for forgiveness, Hehas indeed forgiven us. When God says

that He has forgiven us our sins, whatdoes it mean?

1. Even though our sins were dirty red,now our hearts have been washed andmade white like snow (Is.1:18).

2. Even though we were guilty enoughto be sent to hell, we have beendeclared "Not guilty" and qualified forheaven (Ro.5:8,9).

3. God has put our sins as far awayfrom us as the east is from the west(Ps.103:12).

4. God will not remember our sinsagainst us any more (Je.31:34).

So our relationship with God is just asif we had never sinned. Our guilt isgone! We don't need to pay attention toour feelings of guilt. Now no one canaccuse us about our past. Can't we nowhold our heads up, look people in theireyes, stand up to the devil boldly and

live out the new life that Jesus hasgiven us?


Thenewtestamentwayoflife

One essential difference between theway of life in the old and newtestaments (not the books but thecovenants) is how we obey God. Theold covenant gave a list ofcommandments which had to beobeyed, and whenever there was needfor further explanations the peoplecould go to the priests or the prophets.What is the difference in the newcovenant? Is it that we have been givenmore number of commandments or ahigher standard?

The difference is that in the OldTestament people obeyed a set ofcommandments, and in the NewTestament we obey a Person. Anotherdifference is that in the Old Testamentpeople obeyed because they wereafraid of the punishment for

disobedience or because they wantedthe rewards of obedience, but in theNew Testament we obey because welove Jesus who has given Himself forus (1Jn.4:19:Jn.14:15).

The Bible says that God has not left uswith laws or commandments but givenus Someone who will be with usforever (Ro.7:4). In other words, wedon't have to mechanically refer to thebook of the law and see what weshould do, but we can turn to Jesus andask Him, "What do You want me to do,Lord?"

When Jesus went up to heaven, He sentus the Holy Spirit as our Comforterand Helper who would be with usforever (Jn.14:16). He will lead usinto all the truth, and bring to our mindwhat we have learned earlier(Jn.16:13;14:26). He will not only tellus 'the truth,' but He will do it withcompassion, understanding and

encouragement.

If we seek Him and listen to Him, wewill also grow in our relationship withHim and experience the riches of Hisgrace upon our lives in every way. Letus learn this way of life.

It is not that we don't need the Bibleany more! The Holy Spirit teaches usHis ways through the Bible which wasinspired by Him in the first place. Hemakes the words come alive for us inthe different situations. But it is nolonger a cold dependence on thewritten word but a day by dayrelationship with the living God.


Theexcuseswemake

We human beings are very clever atmaking up excuses. Look at some of thecommon ones for sin.

If it makes me happy, it's all right.

If it doesn't hurt anybody else, it's allright.

Since 'everybody' does it, it's all right.

You have to live in this world.

Nobody is perfect.

God wouldn't mind us having some fun.

Nobody will know about it.

I can't help it.

I don't know what made me do it.

God can't send me to hell for a smallthing like this.

There are no absolute rules. Sin iswhat you think it is.

I know Christians who do it.

I am willing to take a chance.

I can always repent later.

This will surely be the last time.

I can quit any time I want.

God is the One who made me like this.

God is a God of love. He is not alegalist.

The devil made me do it.

My father (mother) was like this.

If only you knew what I grew up with!

I couldn't take it any more!

I gave it back to him.

It's not as if I committed murder orsomething.

Etc.

But we really have no excuse, becauseJesus has come to take away our sins(Mt.1:21;1Jn.3:5). If we don't go toHim and ask Him for salvation, it isour fault. When He sets us free, wewill be truly free (Jn.8:36).

We would have to give an account foreven every careless word that wespeak (Mt.12:36). It is not that we canget away with anything, or any excuse.It is not that God will just ignore our'small' sins. But small sins or big sins,Jesus can save us from them all. Thatis His work. Even if we have beenfailing right up to now, even now wecan ask Him to step into our life andset us free.


Faithvs.obedience?There is a large number of Christianswho major on 'faith' to the extent thatthey believe that 'obedience' islegalistic. They relate obedience to theold testament and to the law, and thinkthat faith is the only thing we need inthis new testament period. They talk offreedom and liberty in the spirit, andespecially of freedom from the law.

As in many cases where there is aconflict about doctrine, this also is acase of over-extending one part of thetruth at the cost of another, withouttrying to see the balance. In this case, itis not really a matter of faith versusobedience, as if we have to choose oneor the other. We need faith andobedience, in their own proper places.

The apostle James saw the need toresolve this issue. He went to great

length to explain that faith withoutworks was dead (Jas.2:14-26). Weunderstand that the 'works' he refers toare not the works people do by whichthey imagine God would accept them(Ro.3:20). But these are works whichare the result of our faith. Our faith inJesus makes us acceptable to God(Ro.4:5). Then we begin to obey Himbecause we love Him (Jn.14:15).

The Bible gives us many examples ofwhat people did through faith (He.11).They were not just being optimisticand thinking that God will make thingshappen. Faith is optimistic, but is notmerely optimism. Faith gives us aconviction of things that are not yetseen (He.11:1), and that convictionleads us to definite choices and action.

What James says is that without thisconviction and the resulting action, ourso called faith is a dead faith. It is notreal. But the more we trust in God and

His word, and the more we allowourselves to be led by His Holy Spirit,the more we will obey God. If wecontinue to live as we please and yetclaim that we have faith, we are onlydeceiving ourselves (Jas.2:17,18).


ScaredoftheHolySpirit?Many Christians are scared of anyexperience with the Holy Spiritbecause they don't want counterfeitexperiences. Many of them thus decideto keep a safe distance from the gifts ofthe Spirit rather than get into dangeroussituations. They are right in wanting tohave it safe, but very much wrong inmissing out on the genuine.

The Holy Spirit is the Comforter andHelper whom the Father has sent usafter Jesus went up to heaven after Hisresurrection (Jn.14:16). The HolySpirit helps us to repent (Jn.16:8) andto pray (Ro.8:26), reminds us about thethings Jesus has taught us (Jn.14:26),makes Jesus more and more attractiveto us (Jn.16:14), gives us power to bewitnesses for Jesus (Ac.1:8),transforms us into the character ofJesus (2Co.3:18), gives us gifts to

serve and bless the others with(1Co.12:7), guides us in the way weshould go (Ro.8:14), comforts us(Ac.9:31), etc. What a great loss for usif we miss Him! However can we livea proper Christian life without Him!

Yet it is true that there are manycounterfeit experiences that we need toavoid. We are not to believe everymanifestation that looks like comingfrom the Holy Spirit (1Jn.4:1). Noteverything that is supernatural is fromGod, because the devil also has somesuch powers. The devil even pretendsto be coming from God in order to foolus (2Co.11:14). We need to look at thethe end result to see if something isfrom God (Mt.7:20).

Not all counterfeits are from the devil.We ourselves can imitate the gifts ofthe Spirit to get into the club of Spirit-filled Christians or to impress peoplewith our spiritual power. Some

experiences that people have in largemeetings may be due to psychologicaland emotional influences.

But, as someone has said, the very factthat there are counterfeits shows thatthe genuine thing is really valuable.That is why we should not miss thegenuine baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Are you afraid you might end up gettinga counterfeit? Remember it is ourFather who gives us the Holy Spirit,and He has promised that if we ask forbread He won't give us a stone, and ifwe ask for fish He won't give us asnake (Mt.7:9-11). If we seek Himhonestly and sincerely for the HolySpirit and we are not looking for cheapthrills, we can trust Him to give us thegenuine experience.


Faithvs.optimismIt is through our faith in Jesus Christthat we are saved (Ep.2:8), and it isthrough faith that we can receive things- blessings, answers to prayers, help,healing, deliverance, etc. - from God(Mt.9:29). What if our 'faith' is not ofthe kind that God has in mind? What ifwhat we consider as faith is one wehave been taught wrongly by the othersor we have made up by our ownimagination?

It is possible to have a false faith, isn'tit? The apostle James talked about afaith without works which was deadand worthless (Jas.2:20). Isn't itpossible that some of us may have thatkind of faith and are not aware of it?

Looking around at Christian circles Iget the impression that there are thosewho, without being conscious of it,

live as though faith is the same asbeing optimistic. Now faith isoptimistic, but to have faith is not thesame as being optimistic. Imagine ifsomeone thought that God wouldcertainly take him to heaven becausehe was born in a Christian family or hewent to church or did some good thingsfor other people, etc., even though hehas never recognised himself as asinner, repented and trusted in Jesus asHis Saviour! Certainly he is optimistic,and thinks he has faith, but obviouslyhe does not have the faith that can savehim.

We can infer from this example that forour faith to be acceptable it mustconform to the facts revealed to us inthe Bible concerning faith. If we arejust optimistic about the future it willnot help us unless our optimism isbased on things God has told us. If Godhas not promised something to us, we

can't be sure of getting it just bywishing for it and hoping for it withoptimism. Genuine faith has anassurance and conviction about itbecause it is based on God's clearpromises and not on our wishfulthinking (He.11:1).

How do we get genuine faith? By'hearing' what God says concerninganything (Ro.10:17). We can dependon it because it is God who has said it.If He has promised something we canbe sure He will do it. 'Hearing' canrefer to God speaking to us when weread His word or listen to someonepreaching it. It can also be when Godspeaks directly in our heart through theHoly Spirit. The Holy Spirit may bringto our mind something that God hassaid in the Bible, or He mayspecifically tell us something in linewith the general principles given in theBible. But whichever way He speaks,

when we hear Him we can have faith.

It is not wrong to be optimistic. But wecan avoid a lot of disappointment if welearn to distinguish between thecertainty of faith and wishful thinking.


RememberingGod'smerciesWhen we first come to the Lord thething that grips us most is the mercyand love He has shown to sinners likeus. We are full of gratitude to Him forHis amazing grace towards wretcheslike us. But so often this gratitudecools down as we move forward fromthe day of our conversion, learn greatertruths and get involved in Christianactivities. We tend to take the mercy ofGod for granted. Little by little oureagerness to please Jesus disappearsand our approach towards sin anddisobedience becomes more'practical'! Backsliding has set in.

One of the things we can do to counterthis tendency is to take time now andthen to sit quietly before the Lord andthink of the numberless mercies He hasshown to us. The reason why Jesusestablished the practice of 'the Lord's

table' (or communion or breaking ofbread) is that every time we do it wecan remember and give thanks for Hisdeath on the cross on our behalf andwhat it has accomplished for us(1Co.11:24,25). The whole chain ofHis mercies starts from the cross.

But we have received much more fromHis hands than His forgiveness. Theeyes of our Father see every blemishand imperfection that is in us, but Hisheart covers them all up with love.How patient He is towards us eventhough we take such a long time tolearn His lessons!

Day by day we experience His merciesin many forms. There is not one childof His who cannot testify to miraculousescapes, protection in unexpectedways, and divine provisions when wewere at our wit's ends. Maybe wedidn't notice many of them as we spedalong life's highway, but when we sit

down and think about them we see thatthere they were anyway.

Perhaps for some of us the way hasbeen extremely hard and perplexing.But even then we cannot but admit thatwe too have experienced Hismiraculous interventions now and then.

The most marvellous thing about Hismercy is that it is something we don'tdeserve. If we should have been sent tohell for but one of our sins, we shouldhave been sent a thousand times. If the'prodigal son' had been received backby the father after his backsliding, ourFather has received us back countlessnumber of times!

Once we start thinking of His mercies,can we but love Him? The closer wewalk with Him, doesn't the wonder ofHis mercies strike us much morestrongly? Won't we want to serve Himand proclaim His mercies to the others


TheEphesussyndromeThis is a spiritual sickness that is morecommon that we usually realise. Itssymptoms are several - lots of zeal,many activities, perseverance, a highlydeveloped sense of discernment, anuncompromising attitude towardserror, not easily giving up, etc. Thesesymptoms make one think that we arenot talking about a sickness but a stateof vibrant health. But there is anothersymptom which, along with the othersmentioned so far, is the outstandingfeature of this sickness. That is acooling off of the love for Jesus. ReadRe.2:2-4.

This last symptom takes away all thepositive values the other symptomscould have produced. In other words, alack of love for Jesus makes all theother virtues without value.

Now let us think of how easily we cancatch this sickness. Our own training inthis world and the pressure from otherChristians compel us to "do more" forChrist. The questions that we often askourselves and what others ask us are,"How many souls have you brought tothe Lord?", "How many tracts have yougiven out?", "How many sermons haveyou preached?", "How many churcheshave you established?", "How many...?" Therefore what we usually strivefor is to have more of all these things.This is how we judge our successrating.

But the Lord has another basis forrating us. He asks us, "Do you love Memore than these?" (Jn.21:15). He doesnot want even our obedience apartfrom our love (Jn.14:15). Even if weburn out our bodies in so-calledservice for Him, He counts us asnothing if it did not come from love

(1Co.13:3).

There is no vaccine against thisEphesus syndrome that can protect uspermanently. Our immune system isvery weak against this particular germ.Our only protection is through alifelong vigil against this attack, and adaily dose of love for Christ.


OverflowfrominsideIf we look at the lives of great men ofGod we see that they have all beendriven to attempt and achieve greatthings for God because they weredriven by a great love for God andtheir desire to show their gratitude toHim. The Apostle Paul said, "The loveof God controls us" (2Co.5:14), and,"To me, to live is Christ" (Php.1:21).But what happens if we are driveninstead by a desire to make a name forourselves, make money, enjoy life,etc.? Even if we are busy in 'Christian'activities, and our ambitions are allcentred around 'Christian'accomplishments, if we are driven byselfish motives we would be wastingour lives in terms of eternity. Assomeone has said, only things done atGod's initiative, in His strength and forHis glory will have value in eternity

(Ro.11:36).

It is not that we should not work forearthly things. Certainly we have tomake our living on the earth, we haveto earn money, and we have to bediligent and faithful in whatever wedo. The difference between a godlylife and a worldly life is where theheart is. Every earthly thing we do canbe acceptable in God's sight if it isdone according to His will and for Hisglory (Col.3:23). But now I am writingabout doing things for God.

Jesus said that rivers of living waterwould flow from our innermost being,concerning how the Holy Spirit wouldwork through us (Jn.7:38,39). In otherwords, any work that is of God willflow from deep inside us. That iswhere God is at work, in us,transforming us into the character ofHis Son, Jesus Christ (Php.2:13). It isout of the abundance of that life that

our external actions have to proceed, ifwe are to be accomplishing the will ofGod.

How easy it is for us to be taken upwith all the things we are "doing forGod," from singing in the choir topreaching (or any other thing) and notgive attention to what God is trying todo in us! Using the above examples,we can be worrying about training ourvoice and protecting our throat frominfections, or finding impressiveillustrations and perfecting ourdelivery, while we do not pay muchattention to keeping a good conscienceor forgiving others. Then a time willcome when we become dry and hollowinside and we have to resort topretence and acting in order topreserve our name.

A life of pretence is heavy and hard tokeep up for a long time. On thecontrary, how pleasant and joyful it is

to listen to the Spirit of God and yieldto Him, and do everything else in stepwith Him!

Jesus said that a cup of water givenfrom the heart of a disciple would haveits reward (Mt.10:42). He praised thewidow who gave two coins to thetemple because she gave out of herphysical poverty but out of theabundance of her heart (Lk.21:3,4). Itis not the quantity of the outward thingsthat matters but the quality of theinside.

Let us seek to be true and real inside,and then the outside will also be realand lasting (Mt.23:26).


TheofferofforgivenessWhy is it that it is so difficult for manypeople to receive forgiveness of sinsfrom God, and for many who havereceived forgiveness to come into abold confidence that God has acceptedthem the way they are? I can think oftwo main reasons.

The first one is that it seems soincredible that God should forgivesinners like us. When we are so muchaware of ourselves, our sins andrejection from people we find itdifficult to imagine how anyone,especially God, could accept us.

The second main reason seems to bethat we may not be willing to give upsome sin or secret idol in our lives. Werecognise that if we have to go to Godfor forgiveness, we would also have togive up certain lifestyles.

The first group of people do not lackconviction of sins or repentance - theyhave more than enough of those - butthey have been overcome with a senseof hopelessness or worthlessness.These are usually people with asensitive mind or who have been taughtby legalistically minded people thatacceptance is based on performance.

The second group has a differentproblem altogether. They haveexperienced some convictionconcerning sin, because they recognisethat certain things need to be given upin their lives. But they do notunderstand the serious implications ofthose things that they are clinging to,how those things will strike them ontheir faces sooner or later.

The facts of the gospel are trulyincredible from a natural point ofview. It appears to be really illogicalto believe that God who is pure and

holy will forgive sinners and acceptthem just as they are. If we consideronly the righteous part of God it wouldhave been impossible for God toforgive us. But what makes it possiblefor God to receive us is His love, andits largeness. It is when we see thislove of God that we can understandhow the laws of justice are overruledin the process of God reaching out tous (Jas.2:13).

It is when we are gripped with a clearview of this love that we can knowacceptance - independent ofperformance (Ro.4:5) - and also find iteasy to give up sins and idols that holdus back from God (2Co.5:14,15).


ThewaywethinkBad things happen to both good andbad people. When they happen to uswe have a choice of how we willreact, with complaining, questioning,blaming and cursing that we aretempted to, or in a good way. We haveall reacted badly in the past, andbecause of repeated action some of thathas become a way of life for us. It isalmost as if given a certain set ofcircumstances it can be predicted howwe would behave. If we now want tobecome godly, we have to learn toreact in new, godly ways that we arenot used to.

Jesus said that when we know the truth,it shall set us free (Jn.8:32). In otherwords, if we learn the truthsconcerning who God is, how GodHimself behaves, who we are, whatmakes us behave the way we do, how

God wants us to behave in differentsituations, how we can become able tobehave as God wants us to, etc., thatwill help us to be free from wrongways of reacting to bad situations, andto become godly.

Of course Jesus did not mean justknowledge in our head. The more welearn these truths, the more we set ourheart on becoming godly, and we seekGod more to change our lives into Hisimage. Bible study is important, but sois prayer, and so is fellowship andevery other means of receiving grace.

Our old ways of reacting to badsituations and people used to lead usinto more unhappiness, confusion,tension, anxiety, discouragement,depression, anger, malice, etc. Thesefeelings would then lead to some badwords or actions from our side, and itwould become a vicious circle. Nowwe need to learn how to break this

circle and get on to the way ofgodliness.

Paul talked about the need to berenewed in our mind in conformitywith the new birth Jesus has given us(Ro.12:2;Ep.4:23;Co.3:10). Let us notthink that it will happen automatically,but seek God actively for it.


PuttingawaychildishwaysNo one wants a child to remain as achild. Everyone wants children togrow into maturity. One mark ofmaturity is to be able to make the rightchoices in the midst of temptationsfrom within, and suggestions,attractions and pressures from theworld around. Children arecharacterised by their "I want", andtheir sulking or tantrums when theycannot get what they want. Grown upswho behave like this have not yetgrown out of their childish ways.

God wants us, His children, to becomemature (Ep.4:13). His word teaches uswhat is best for us, and He wants us tobecome able to choose thatconsistently even when we feel likedoing something else. This involves along learning process from the time weare born again, and never finishes fully

as long we are on this earth. This is theschool of the cross, where weconsistently take up the cross, crucifyour desires on it, and walk forwarddoing what God says is the best for us(Lk.9:23). This is the 'not I but Christ'and 'not my will but Yours.'

Isn't this the essence of becomingmature? On the contrary, isn't it beingchildish when we insist on our ownway and sulk and throw tantrums whenwe can't get it?

God's best for us can clash not onlywith what we would like to do, butalso with what others want us to do.These 'others' can be our relatives,friends, or anyone else. When whatthey suggest or even insist on does notfit in with what God tells us to do, themature man will choose God(Lk.14:26).

It is obviously not true that whatever

we feel like or whatever others tell usis always wrong or to be denied.Certainly not. Many times God speaksto us in our heart and through theothers. But we shall be childish if weinsist on our own way or slavishly dowhat others want us to do. Maturity isto be able to sift through all theseinputs and choose what God wants usto do(1Co.14:20).


ActiveprayerWe people have a strong tendency towant to pass the buck, as they say. Onecommon way is to pass the blame, asin, "Why did you eat from this tree,Adam?" and "This woman Eve gave itto me, Lord." Another way, which isnot so easily noticed, is in our prayer.We like to pray to the Lord, pass on theresponsibility for our lives to Him, andthen behave as if we have no furtherresponsibility.

For example, we pray, "Make mepatient, Lord." And the next morningwhen we get impatient we question theLord by wondering why He didn'tmake us patient. After all, we think, weacknowledged our need to Him andtrusted in Him to change our lives.Why didn't He do His part?

The reason is that we were just passing

the buck to Him. He doesn't work thatway with us. He wants us to grow upand become mature people. Of courseHe has the power to instantaneouslymake us patient people. But the wayHe actually works with us is to help usto grow in patience (2Pe.3:18). This isthe reason why even asking godlypeople to pray over us does not changeus overnight.

God works in us both to will and to doHis good pleasure (Php.2:13). Hegives us the desire and the willingnessfirst. Then He also helps us by givingus ability to do His will.

Let us look at our prayer for patience.God first gives us an awareness of ourlack of patience. We start praying forpatience. The next time we begin to getimpatient, He is there to make us alertand to remind us not to becomeimpatient. He helps us as we 'struggle'to be patient. (This struggle is a part of

our growth process. Don't confuse itwith 'works.') Even if we fail to befully patient we find that it was betterthan what it used to be.

If we seek for wisdom the Lord willshow us why we become impatient,and how we can avoid that in thefuture. He trains us for this battleagainst impatience (Ps.144:1). Andfinally we become patient, through Hisgrace, and in answer to our prayer.This type of prayer is an active,moment by moment, seeking after God,listening to Him and doing what Hetells us.

We should not misunderstand"salvation by grace and not by works",and "casting all our cares upon Him",and end up becoming passive andirresponsible.


Whichsideareyouon?In democratic countries there is aruling party and an opposition party.Usually it happens that the oppositionparty keeps opposing whatever theruling party proposes, because that ishow they see their role! On the otherside, the people in the ruling partyalways support the party position. Thequestion that bothers these people iswhich side they are on, and not whatthe issue is.

What about us Christians? If theteacher wants to meet you becauseyour son has done something wrong, doyou argue that he is innocent and that itis the teacher's fault? Do you think thatis what it is to take your son's side?Sure, we must be on our son's side inthat we love him and stand by him evenwhen he has done wrong. But takingsides with him against the truth is not

pleasing to the Lord, is it?

That was about right and wrong. Let'sgo a bit further. If our enemy issuffering, do we get a thrill out of it ordo we feel sorry for him? If we wishthat he will get what he reallydeserves, whose side are we on, on theside of God who has shown usunmerited favour or with the devil whogets a thrill out of making usmiserable?

These are issues that separate godlypeople from the ordinary. We may beChristians in that we have receivedforgiveness of sins and experiencedthat much of salvation. But godliness ismore than that. It is to have the mind ofChrist in us.

Jesus once mentioned about loving ourenemies as going beyond whatordinary people do, that is, lovingthose who love us. He said that His

Father is good both to the righteous andto the unrighteous (Mt.5:44-47). Thatis godliness. When we become godly,and only then, we will be able to trulylove our neighbour as ourselves(Mt.22:39). Then we will wish for theothers what we wish for ourselves(Lk.6:31).

When we are on the side of truth,goodness, etc., we are on God's side.Or do we take our stand with "I, meand mine?"


Giveandtake"Give and it shall be given to you,good measure, shaken together, runningover" (Lk.6:38). Many times this verseis used in connection with givingmoney to the Lord and His work, andreceiving blessings from the Lord inreturn. But how about looking at thisalong with the other verse that tells usto do to others as we would wantothers to do to us? (Mt.7:12).

Don't we all want to be loved, told thatsomeone loves us, forgiven for our sinsand mistakes, shown kindness,patience and mercy rather thanharshness, appreciated, thanked,congratulated, etc.? What don't we begenerous towards the others in doingthese same things to them?

Instead we tend to be stingy with goodthings like these, and rather free with

the opposite - criticism, accusation,blaming, coldness and indifferencetowards people and ignoring them,holding on to their mistakes withoutforgiving them, impatiently demandingthat they should be perfect in theirbehaviour towards us, etc.

On the top of that we complain thateveryone is treating us badly. But aren'twe simply getting back what we aremerrily doling out?

Changes have to be initiated from ourside. Of course. We have wastedenough time with the futile effort oftrying to change the others. We have nopower to change the others. But thepower that God has given us canchange us. And when we start givingout good things, we shall also begin toreceive good things from the others.Isn't that quite natural, apart from Godsupernaturally working out things tofulfil His promises for us?

God says that our goodness can evenchange our enemies. If we respond ingentleness when someone is angrytowards us, it can calm him down andmake him also gentle (Pr.15:1). If weshow goodness to someone who isdoing wrong to us, it may cause him torepent (Pr.25:21,22). If our goodnesscan change our enemies, how muchmore it can change our friends andloved ones in dealing with us! The keyis in our own hands.


Howdowejudgeourselves?Back in the beginning, Cain and Abel,children of Adam and Eve, broughtforth offerings to God. Cain was anagricultural farmer and he brought thefirst fruit of his field. Abel was a cattlefarmer, and what he had to bring wasan animal sacrifice. The Bible saysthat God was not happy with Cain andhis offering, but He was pleased withAbel and his offering (Ge.4:3-5). Itseems to be a bit too far fetched tointerpret this, like many theologiansdo, that God was unhappy that Cain didnot bring a blood offering like hisbrother Abel did. If Cain had broughthis grain offering - what he had to offer- out of the love and gratitude that hehad for God, how could he have beenblamed?

But the Bible says that God was notpleased with Cain and his offering.

Perhaps the right way to understandthis is to think that God was not happywith Cain, and therefore He was nothappy with his offering.

We read that Cain was not at all happywith God's response. In fact he wasvery angry, first with God and alsowith Abel. He was so angry that hedidn't listen to God's warning and wenton to kill his brother.

Perhaps Cain could have explained hisanger like this. "It's not fair. What waswrong with my offering? Didn't I bringwhat I had? How could God be sopartial like this?"

But God looks at the heart (1Sa.16:7).He looks more intently at why we doand say things than at what we do.Perhaps Cain brought his offering froma sense of duty rather than from a heartof love and gratitude.

When people look at us, they can see

what we do and hear what we say, butthey cannot pin us down on our "why."So we can try to justify our actions andwords to people even in cases whereour motives and attitudes have beenwrong. But we can't fool God withthat. If we want to be right with Godwe must concentrate on the inside.Jesus said, "You blind Pharisee, firstclean the inside of the cup and of thedish, so that the outside of it maybecome clean also" (Mt.23:26).


HowweconcludeNot all temptations can be dealt withimmediately. If we are tempted to dosomething we know to be wrong, wecan decide against it immediately. Butthen there are other situations wherewe are not so clear, and it may takesome time to decide, with seeking theLord for guidance, spending time inprayer, searching the Bible, andseeking counsel from others. There arestill other situations where thetemptation itself can be a long drawnaffair, such as unbelief, doubt, anxiety,discouragement, etc., where it can belike a war with many small battles. Insuch cases, the most important goal isto win the war, even if we lose one ortwo battles.

You know how anxiety can be, forexample. You are anxious aboutsomething that is going to come up in

the future. You pray and also rememberthe promises of God in the Bible. Asyou try to take hold of the promises youseem to get on the top of the situation.But then soon enough you are back inyour anxiety as some new thoughtscome up in your mind about what couldhappen to you. The battles go on.Sometimes you are up, and sometimesyou are down. You finally get thevictory when you get hold of faith, andwhat you were anxious about does notshake you anymore. On the other hand,if you go into the dumps and give uphope you have lost the war too.

Abraham, the father of faith, had hisbattles too. We read about him that hedid not waver in unbelief, but grewstrong in faith, giving glory to God(Ro.4:20). But just how exactly did hegrow strong in faith? Not withoutbattling with doubts. In fact his faithgrew stronger as he battled and

overcame his doubts. Every time hehad a doubt he told God about it, andreceived encouragement from Him.The time he lost the battle was in thematter of Hagar when he went onwithout reference to God.

The point about Abraham's faith wasthat he did not give up in unbelief, butendured till the end. That was how hereceived the promise (He.6:12). For ustoo, the important thing is that we mustnot give in or give up even if there areups and downs in between. Then wecan end triumphantly in faith.


IsGodourgenie?When Jacob in the Old Testament hadan experience with God, he tried tomake a deal with Him. Jacob told Godthat if He took care of Him andprovided for all his needs, then Godwould be his God! (Ge.28:20,21). Isn'tthis the way many people treat God?

We would like to live our own lives,do whatever we like, and enjoyourselves in every way, and we wantGod to take care of us. He should comeand clean up the mess after us, go infront of us and shield us from thingsthat could hurt us, bail us out when weget into problems, and run here andthere getting whatever we ask for. Thenwe shall like Him, and maybe acceptHim.

But if He doesn't answer some of ourprayers or lets us get into some

difficulties then we don't like Him.Then He has to win our favour againthrough some special blessing!

Are we treating God as if He is a geniewho has to appear whenever we rub aring or lamp? Do we expect Him to runaround at our command doingwhatever we want? Then we have gotit all wrong, all upside down.

God is the One who created us, and inthat way He owns us. When we wentaway from Him and became childrenof the devil (Jn.8:24), He is the Onewho gave Himself (through His SonJesus) to save us from the hold of sinand its punishment, and purchased usfrom back Satan's hands. He is nowour Owner by both rights. We are nowHis bondslaves apart from being Hischildren (1Pe.2:16).

Now we, as slaves we ought to bestanding at God's beck and call, asking

Him, "What do You want me to do,Lord?"


CuriositycankillCuriosity can be a good thing. We cansee that intelligent children show a lotof curiosity about the world aroundthem, and they are always exploringand making new discoveries. Curiositydrives us to seek for more knowledgeand understanding as we wonder aboutthe how and why of people and things.But an undisciplined and unrestrainedcuriosity is a major tool in the hands ofthe devil to lead us into manytemptations.

When children begin to explore things,they have no idea about what is goodand bad for them. They touch, pull,push, grab and put into their mouthswhatever they find. Parents usuallyhave a tough time protecting them fromthings that can harm them. They try tokeep certain things out of the children'sreach, and teach the children not to do

many, many things. "No", and "Don't"become some of the most used wordsfor the parents at this time.

When we are spiritually babies, itseems as though all that God tells us is"No" and "Don't". But when we growand become more mature we realisethat when God tells us "No", it is toprotect us from some harm.

But it is not always easy to rememberthat when we are tempted by somethingthrough our curiosity. We like toexplore new experiences, see newthings, feel new thrills and try out newfads. "Just try it once" is what the deviland some of our friends tell us. Wethink we can just enjoy something for afleeting moment and then decide not todo it again. But it doesn't work thatway.

Eating forbidden fruit always brings us'death' (Ge.2:16,17). Something dies in

our spirit when we disobey God. Welose touch with God, a sense of defeat,shame and guilt comes in, and webecome a little distant from otherpeople (Ge.3:7-10).

We can't flirt with sin and get awayfree. We lose out. We may be lured bythe momentary thrills that wait for us.But there is always a hangover! Lifebecomes more complicated every timewe yield to sin.

Let us not imagine that we are strongenough to quit after we have tried ourhand at some new pleasure. Countlessnumber of people in hell and on earthcan tell us how they got tricked into amiserable bondage of habits and lifechanging decisions because they didnot contain their curiosity. Let us beamong the others who realised theirdanger and clung on to God for safety.


Howdowemakedecisions?We know that when God left Adam andEve in the Garden of Eden there wasonly one thing that He specifically toldthem not to do. They were not to eatfrom the tree of knowledge of good andevil (Ge.2:16,17). God also told Adamabout what would happen if theydisobeyed. They would 'die.' Thisdeath was not only physical death thatthey would have to face, but alsospiritual, in that they would lose theirfellowship and communion with God.

But we know what happened. Satantempted Eve, downplaying what Godhad told them and luring her with theattractive appearance of the fruit, hercuriosity to taste it and the possibilityof becoming wise (Ge.3:1-6). PoorEve fell into the trap because she couldnot see what could be wrong withattractive and tasty fruit, especially if it

had the power to make her wise. Herbiggest mistake was in overruling whatGod had clearly and specifically said.

When God has said "No" to something,it is certainly because it is bad for us.On the other hand when God tells us todo something, it is because it is goodfor us. How do we fall? When we aremoved by our feelings or reasoningand ignore what God has said. Certainthings seem to be attractive to us, andwe put aside what God has said.

Even when we are going against whatGod has said, like Eve we justifyourselves by bringing out some 'good'reason for our disobedience. When wewant to marry an unbeliever we makeourselves believe that by doing so wewould be able to bring him or her intoGod's family. When we are runningafter money or doing somethingcrooked to make more money we tellourselves that we will have more

money to give for missionary work. Weare quite ingenious when it comes tojustifying ourselves.

But the fact still remains that everytime we disobey God we 'die'(Ro.8:13). If we have fallen there isgood and bad news. The good news isthat we can be forgiven if we confessour sins (1Jn.1:9). The bad news isthat some of the consequences of oursins may last through our whole life.

Why don't we learn to recognise that ifGod has said something there is nogoing around it? There is no way wecan ignore or disobey God and justifyourselves. It doesn't matter howattractive a proposal appears to be tous. If God has said "No", that settles it.


PracticalforgivenessSometimes our ideas about forgivenessare unrealistic. Perhaps the mostcommon mistake is to think that God'sforgiveness has no conditions. We mustremember that God forgives us onlywhen we repent and believe, and notjust believe (Mk.1:15). 'Believing' asit is taught in the New Testamentincludes repentance. Jesus said alsovery plainly that unless we forgiveothers our Father in heaven will notforgive us (Mt.6:15).

God's forgiveness is not irrevocable.Jesus gave a parable to teach that Godcan withdraw the forgiveness that Heonce gave us if we refuse to forgivesomeone else down the line (Mt.18:32-35).

God promises us that He will bemerciful to our sins and will not

remember them any more (He.8:12).Of course this does not mean that Heforgets them, because God cannotforget anything. What He means is thatHe will not hold them against usanymore.

When God forgives us it does notalways mean that we suffer noconsequences of our past sins. Godmay sometimes do such miracles, butusually the physical and social resultsof our sins continue (to humble anddiscipline us).

When it comes to us forgiving someoneelse, we must remember that we arenot God but only men. God has theauthority to forgive or to punish. Butwe must leave vengeance to God(Ro.12:19). We have no option but toforgive those who do wrong to us, ifwe want to be forgiven ourselves. Wecannot even wait for others to repentbefore we forgive. One of the most

powerful examples Jesus gave us as aMan was to forgive those who werekilling Him in a most cruel way(Lk.23:34).

It is unrealistic to try to forget whatothers have done to us. What we cando is to make sure that we don't holdpeople's sins against them any more.We don't wish them any evil and on thecontrary, we wish and pray for theirwelfare (Lk.6:27,28).

We cannot wait for the pain andsorrow to disappear before weforgive. Forgiving is an act of the willwhich we do first based on ourknowledge of God. God gives us graceto do that, and then takes us slowly outof the pain and sorrow.

We cannot forgive if we think of whatpeople deserve. But we can forgivewhen we think about how God forgivesus, not according to what we deserve

(Ep.4:32).

Forgiving others does not alwaysamount to becoming the best of friendswith them. If others continue to behostile towards us, we certainly haveto be careful in associating with them(Ro.12:18).


SometimesjusttoendureWe would all like to be free fromtrouble, and we would like Jesus tocome and take away our problems themoment we ask Him. There arepreachers who invite people to cometo Jesus giving an impression that oncethey come to Jesus He will do that forthem. But one of the most commonreasons for backsliding isdisappointment when our expectationsare not met or when God does notseem to answer our prayers.

When Job was going through trouble -all his children killed, all his wealthdestroyed, his body incapacitated withan irritating disease - his wife gavehim her advice, to curse God and die(Job.2:9). Job had more sense, andmore faith in God than to do that. Dowe realise that if we turn our back onGod and 'curse' Him we will be the

losers? We may even end up slidingdown to our spiritual death.

If we cry out to God in the name ofJesus we can be sure that He hears us(1Jn.5:14,15). The only thing that willcause God to turn away His ears is ifwe are holding on to some sin in ourlives without being willing to give itup (Ps.66:18). Once God hears ourprayer, we can be sure that He will dosomething about it. He may not act inthe way we expect, but He will dowhat is best.

If God has specifically promised ussomething, He will grant it to us. Weshould not stop asking. Perhaps Hewill do it immediately, or perhaps Hewill answer it at the appropriate timelater. In Abraham's case, it was 25years after he received the promise ofa son that Isaac actually appeared. Butbecause Abraham held on to thepromise with endurance he received

more than what was promised. He gota son, as well as acceptance by God asa righteous man (He.6:12;Ro.4:19-22).

But we should not stop praying even ifthere is no specific promise from Godfor our situation, because we know Heis a good Father. Sometimes God maytell us that He is not going to take awayour trouble, but that He will give usspecial grace to endure it (2Co.12:7-9). Perhaps there is some person in ourlife who constantly irritates us, or thereis some financial pressure that does notgo away, or there is some naggingsickness that is not responding toprayer or treatment. We are not able tochange the situation, and our prayers toGod to change it also seem to gounanswered. Perhaps God wants to tellus, "My child, I am not going to changeyour situation immediately. But I willhelp you so that you can change, anddemonstrate My love, mercy, kindness

and patience much better." Shall werise up to the challenge?


Whydowebackslide?I am using 'backsliding' to meanslipping down from the level of loveand devotion towards Jesus and theintimacy to which we have come withHim (Re.2:4). In other words,backsliding is a cooling off in ourrelationship with Jesus. If we don'twatch out at this point, we may finallyend up going back into sin, worldlyways and even losing our salvation.

I want to list below some commonreasons why we start backsliding. Thelist is not exhaustive.

* When we feel disappointed withGod. If a prayer is not answered, orwhen we wonder why God hasallowed something terrible to happento us or a loved one, it is natural to feeldisappointed. But that is no reason togive up on God. On the contrary it is

the time for us to draw nearer to Godand get to know Him and His waysbetter.

* When we feel envious of worldlypeople. When we watch worldlypeople 'enjoy' themselves, 'prosper,''rise' in position or fame, we wonderwhy we shouldn't too. Soon ourthoughts get occupied with how we toocan enjoy such things. We forget thattheir fun and prosperity are lined withsin and compromise, and that they areon a slippery way to destruction(Mt.7:13;Ps.73:18).

* When we are tired of our self-denial and sacrifice. The thought maycome into our mind that in all ourseeking to live for God we may havebeen a bit foolish to miss out on manythings we could have enjoyed. Thedevil tells us that ministry is fine butwe also need to have some fun. Godtells us not to grow weary in doing

good but to continue in faith(Ga.6:9;1Co.15:58).

* When we want to cover up somesin. If we do this, it will slowly hardenour heart and break our connectionswith the Lord (Pr.28:13).

* When we love someone orsomething more than God. Whensome human relationship, position orthing becomes so important for us thatwe are willing to disobey God, whatwe lose is our relationship with God.Let's not imagine that God will winkHis eyes over it.

* When we are double-minded. If wehave not made up our mind to seekGod and His righteousness first,backsliding is not far away.

* When we are prospering. We tendto forget God when things are goingwell and we don't find any particular

need for God (De.8:11-14).

The best way to avoid backsliding is tobe constantly seeking for more of God.


RunningtotheFatherDo we keep a child-Father relationshipwith God? It is not a matter of callingHim "Heavenly Father" but recognisingand living in a simple, practicalrelationship. "Father knows," "Fathercan" and "Father will" can be dailyparts of our thinking. We can run toHim at all times, like a small child tohis father, whether it is to thank Himfor what He does for us, to worshipHim when we realise how awesomeHe is in His holiness, love, power andwisdom, to tell Him what we are goingthrough or how we feel, to ask for helpfor ourselves or for others, etc.

What are some of the wrong thoughtsabout God that prevent us from runningto Him?

Lie No. 1. "God must be angry withme." When it says that God so loved

the world (i.e., all the sinful people ofthe world) that He gave His onlybegotten Son, does it look like He willbe angry with us because we havedone something wrong? (Jn.3:16). No,He is not angry. He wants to save us.He will not throw us out if we go toHim, whatever condition we may be in(Jn.6:37).

Lie No. 2. "God is not bothered aboutmy little problems." He is, very much.It was to impress this on us that Jesusmentioned about the Father countingevery hair on our head (Mt.10:30).

Lie No. 3. "Even God can't do anythingnow." Is there anything too hard for theLord? Don't limit what the Lord can doby not asking Him (Jas.4:2).

Lie No. 4. "I'm scared of what Godwill ask me to do." Don't think of Godas hard taskmaster, a nit-pickinglegalist, a spoilsport, or someone who

gets a thrill out of making thingsdifficult for us. On the contrary, we cannever have a friend who is moreunderstanding, tender or merciful,wiser, or one who is more eager to dous good.

Lie No. 5. "I'm very upset now. I'll goto God later." No, this is the very timewhen we need to go to Him. We cantell Him about our frustration,disappointment, discouragement, howwe hurt, etc. He knows, and He cares.

Lie No. 6. "What's the use? I'll neverbe able to please Him." It is becausewe are not able to go up to His levelthat He came down to our level. Hetakes us as we are and from where weare. He is not looking for perfectpeople but a trusting, humbleacceptance of His love.

Lie No. 7. "He seems so far away."God is near to all, all who call on Him

sincerely (Ps.145:18). If you have beenborn again, He is also in you(2Co.13:5). Don't depend on yourfeelings.


StandingwiththeothersAs we look around we find that peopleeverywhere are getting more and moreconfused. Life's problems are gettingmore and more complicated. More andmore people are giving up than everbefore. Many Christians are alsogetting weary and losing faith. There isso much need for those who can standholding out hope and confidence forthe future. Shall we be such, as thelight and salt of the earth?

God describes such people in Is.32:2."And each will be like a refuge fromthe wind, and a shelter from the storm,like streams of water in a dry country,like the shade of a huge rock in aparched land." Who can be like that inthese days? We would all like to knowsuch people to whom we can go withour problems. But can't we becomesuch ourselves so that we can bless

and serve the others by helping them tocarry their burdens?

When the pressure increases, thosewho know God can stand withoutbuckling (Da.11:32). That is when ourknowledge of God is tested. If it isonly theoretical, accepted second handfrom others, we shall not be able tostand. But God has now made itpossible for us, from the least to thegreatest, to know God personally(He.8:11). We know Him in a realsense, and not just as a matter ofdoctrine or belief. We experience Hisfellowship and get to know His ways.And then we can stand with confidencein His love, strength and wisdom atthose times when we cannot feel Hispresence or see answers to our prayersand things look impossible.

All of us will go through such tryingtimes, when we cannot understandwhat is happening or know what is

going to happen. At such times it is ourknowledge of God's help in the pastand trust in His promises which willhold us up.

Then we can also stand along withothers who are going through toughtimes, and encourage them to go on andnot to give up (Ro.15:1). God needsmany such witnesses these days. Whata great joy it is to help someone to tideover his time of trial! God promisesthose who make efforts to help othersthat their own needs will be taken careof abundantly (Pr.11:25).


ProactivethinkingHave you noticed that one of thequestions Jesus frequently asked Hisdisciples was, "What do you think?"He wanted to know if they had thoughtabout the issues that came up as theydealt with different situations in life.This also tells us that He wants us tothink for ourselves about the issues thatwe face.

Many Christians seem to have handedover their thinking to their priests,pastors or prophets. They seem to thinkthat they are not capable or equippedenough to think for themselves becausethey do not have a theologicalbackground. Some seem to be too lazyto think. Some are obviously trying totransfer the responsibility for theiractions to their leaders! Some leadersapparently enjoy such dependence thattheir people have on them, and some

even use it to manipulate theirfollowers.

But Jesus wants us to think, and haveour own opinion about different peopleand things. Did you know that evenwhen a recognised prophet speaks, weare supposed to examine what he saysand make sure that what he says fits inwith what God's word says?(1Th.5:20,21;1Co.14:29; 1Jn.4:1). Inother words, don't swallow everythingblindfolded! Don't be overawed by the'greatness' of the prophet or fear hiswrath. There is no man who isinfallible or who knows everything.

We need to be humble before the Lord,when we do our thinking. Weacknowledge that He is always righteven when we cannot understand Hisways. When God says somethingclearly in His word, we must accept it.We also recognise that there are peoplewho are more mature and experienced

who can guide us to the truth, and welisten to them without giving up ourright to differ with them. When wedon't understand something we mustsearch out the answers honestly andhumbly (Pr.25:2), recognising that aslong as we are here on earth we needto be willing to learn and change.

In this way we can become matureourselves, and become able to standwithout wavering in times of adversityor misunderstanding. Then we can alsohelp the others to grow up and becomestrong.


TalkingwithGodMoses and God used to speak to eachother face to face like friends!(Ex.33:11). Moses could never seeGod, even though he could see somesmall manifestations and hear anaudible voice at times. But Moseschatted with God, asked Himquestions, argued with Him, tried tochange His mind, pleaded for thepeople, told Him about his problems,frustrations and limitations, asked Himto intervene in the different situations,etc. Just like friends.

We say we are not Moses. We say wehave never seen God in a dream orvision leave alone face to face, orheard any audible voice from heaven.And then we conclude that we might aswell reconcile ourselves to such aroutine humdrum life and just makesure that we don't backslide! What a

shame!

Some Christians have been taught fromchildhood to think of God in suchawesome terms that He is so far abovethem, out of reach. A large number ofChristians think of God only when theyget into trouble. Many others havepractically stopped going to Godbecause of some disappointment in thepast.

But like James said about prayer, wedon't get to know God as a friendbecause we don't go to Him as afriend! (Jas.4:2). Why don't we starttalking to Him as a friend? Tell Him allthat is on our heart, our plans,problems, etc., and listen to Him as Hetalks back to us in our heart.

How can we hear God? Remember thatunder the new covenant which Jesushas made with us, God lives in ourhearts. We can 'hear' God in our spirit

(heart). This may be in the form ofideas that come to our mind or areminder of some verse in the Biblethat is appropriate for the situation.Sometimes the 'voice' can be clear. Butmost of the times it may look just likeour own thoughts.

Perhaps we find it difficult todistinguish His voice in the midst of allthe thoughts that crowd around in ourmind. But if we believe that Hedelights in chatting with us and if wedon't give up, we can get to know His'voice.' Let us also keep in mind thatwhen God speaks He will notcontradict what He has already givenus in written form in His word.

It is not that we treat God as if He is'one of us' (Ps.50:17-21). Withreverence towards Him as our Lord,we can still become close to Him as afriend.

We will face times or periods when,for reasons we cannot understand, wecan't seem to hear anything from God.Those are times we have to tide overby holding on in faith. We know thateven if we can't hear, He hears us.

We will never come to a place in thislife, as long as we have this sinfulflesh, where we cannot make mistakesconcerning His voice. But while thatteaches us to be cautious and not to bepresumptuous about our ability to hearGod, let us not lose out on thefellowship God offers us as Hischildren, from the greatest to the least(1Jn.1:3;He.8:11).


Howshallitgobetterwithme?

One question that troubles Christians isabout what we need to do in order tomake it go better with us, bothconcerning our spiritual progress andour life on earth. Some of the aspectsthat we address in this connection are:

1. Love for God. We are to love Godwith all our heart, and more than welove people or things(Mt.22:37;Lk.14:26). Otherwise, wereally don't love Him the way Hedeserves.

2. Fear of God. A reverence andrespect for God, knowing who He is inrelation to us, will give us a properperspective in dealing with Him andHis commandments (Pr.2:3-5;9:10).

3. Faith. We must trust in the Lord,

knowing that He cares for us, He isalways for us, He will keep Hispromises, He will never leave us, etc.Even when fears and doubts trouble us,we must settle down quickly to thisfaith.

4. Repentance. A sense of repentancemust be constantly in us thatacknowledges every sin we becomeaware of, and which moves us toconfess and set it right.

5. Humility. A recognition of who weare in relation to God, accompanied bylove and gratitude towards God, willhelp us to keep away from highthoughts about ourselves and goingbeyond the boundaries God has set forus.

6. Honesty. This is more than beinghonest in our transactions with theothers and in our speech. It is anopenness towards God, without hiding

or pretending.

7. Fellowship. Fellowship with othermembers of God's family encourages,challenges, corrects, guides andprotects us, and helps us to grow.

8. Bible study. Just reading the Bibleis not enough. When we study itpersonally or in groups it helps us tounderstand God's ways and to changeour lives into His image.

9. Prayer. This is our link with God. Itis not telling Him what all we want,but to 'talk' things over with Him,telling Him about ourselves andlistening to Him.

10. Self denial. The more we get toknow Him, the more we find we haveto deny ourselves what our flesh wouldlike us to do. We choose this waybecause this is the one that will lead uscloser to Him (Lk.9:23).

One common mistake we make is tothink that any one of the above (orsomething else) is the secret of anabundant life, and neglecting theothers. We do that when we becomeaware of some particular lack in ourlife, or when some preacher or writerpresents his message forcefully. Butour life is a whole, and it must bewholly directed towards God if we areto draw closer to Him.


ThefirstsacrificeThe most popular Christian activitynowadays seems to be "praise andworship," and even unconvertedpeople enjoy it for its "soul stirring"experience. One of the commonexhortations preachers give in thisconnection is to make the sacrifice ofpraise to God with our lips(He.13:15). It is certainly right andgood that we learn to give importanceto worshipping God in contrast tobeing occupied with ourselves.However there is a sacrifice thatshould come before this, which isreally the first sacrifice that we shouldgo to God with.

I am referring to the sacrifice of abroken and contrite heart (Ps.51:17).This is the one we have to offer to Godwhen we meet Him for the first time.At that point in time, we relate to Him

as sinners standing before a holy God,with nothing in our hands to earn Hisfavour. "Sin," "sinner," etc. havebecome unpleasant words for manypeople and politically incorrect tomention. But the fact is that JesusChrist came into the world to savesinners, and that there is no way wecan find acceptance with Him if we goto Him as righteous or good people(1Ti.1:15;Mt.9:13).

If we don't go to Jesus first of all withthe sacrifice of a broken and contriteheart, repentant and sorry over oursins, we cannot receive from Him thecleansing that His blood can give. Hewants to wash away all our sins, andmake our hearts white like snow(Is.1:18). But He cannot do it if we goto Him as "I am OK" people.

Can we end with having to deal withsin once we have received a cleansingfrom Jesus? Unfortunately not, because

we all have a tendency to fall into sinagain. We fall, either by doing thingswe shouldn't do or by not doing thingswe should do, all our life. If we aresensitive in our heart, we will alwayshave need to carry this sacrifice of abroken and contrite spirit to God as weapproach Him.

A godly sorrow over our sins and oursinfulness will help us to be carefulabout sinning and give us a strongdesire to be more pleasing to the Lord(2Co.7:10,11). This will also help usto have a more humble attitude towardsothers when we see their faults. And,this will also make our praise andworship more meaningful.


God'sloveandthefearofGod

This is a paradoxical situation for theChristian. We recognise and believe inthe great love God has for us, whichHe has demonstrated by sending HisSon Jesus to die in our place for oursins (Ro.5:8). We recognise that Hislove for us is not because we areacceptable to Him, but because He islove. He loves us because that is Hisnature. He loves us whom He hascreated even though He sees everythingin us that is unacceptable to Hisholiness and sense of righteousness.But the more we learn to enjoy thislove, the more we are tempted tomisuse it and take it as a license forsin. The more we know His love, themore we tend to ignore the fear ofGod.

On the other hand, those who fear and

respect God and seek to obey Him ineverything tend to be uncertain aboutHis love for them! The more they try tobe faithful to Him and to do His will,the more they become aware of howmuch they are in fact coming short ofHis standards. They wonder how Godcould be pleased with them when theythemselves are not pleased with theirlives.

But as someone said about many suchparadoxes in Christian life, thesolution is not to take one side as beingmore important than the other, but tohold both sides as being equallyimportant and keep working on ourlives to become compatible with bothat the same time.

It is easy to take one side or the other,depending on factors such as how ournatural temperament is inclined orwhat emphasis our local churchprovides. But this will invariably make

our Christian life unbalanced. We can'tafford to neglect one part of the truth infavour of another. We need to fear Godand respect His commandments whileat the same time being assured of Hislove for us irrespective of our spiritualattainments or failures.

Jesus said that if we loved Him wewould keep His commandments(Jn.14:15). In other words, if we arenot driven by love, we can't keep thecommandments in the proper manner.On the other hand, if we are beingnegligent about keeping Hiscommandments because we think Heloves us, our love is not genuine.

There is a sense in which weexperience God's love much moreclosely when we are faithful in ourlove for Him and in keeping Hiscommandments than when are casualabout faithfulness. This is the naturalresult of coming closer to Him. But if

He loved us when we were Hisenemies He does not stop loving uswhen we sometimes fail as Hischildren.

We love God because He loved us(1Jn.4:19). We don't want to grieveHim by taking sin lightly. Our love forGod and our fear (respect) for Goddrive us to be careful in keeping Hiscommandments.


WeallmakemanymistakesThis is what the Apostle James, who isknown for his plain speaking, said(Jas.3:1,2). He included himself, eventhough he was an apostle, and did notclaim any infallibility. We can say thatour fallibility pertains to every area ofpractical life. We were all born asfallen people (Ps.51:5), and even whenwe were born again we remainedfallible. The only one who is infallibleis God Himself, and not even theangels.

James was referring especially toteaching when he mentioned this. Weall make mistakes even when it comesto doctrines. If any one of us imaginesthat we have got all the doctrines right,down to the punctuation marks, we arefooling ourselves.

It does not appear that everyone

acknowledges this. Practically everychurch group implicitly claimsperfection in their doctrines, evenwhen they prefer to keep silent abouttheir practices. When they find thatthere are differences in their doctrinescompared to others, they prefer to starttheir own Bible schools to propagatetheir views rather than acknowledgethat they could be wrong too in somepoints.

I don't think there are any twoChristians in the whole world whoagree completely on all doctrinalmatters, unless one of them has chosento let the other do all the thinking.

Even when we agree on the essentialand major aspects of doctrine, wediffer on relative emphasis of differentaspects and especially on theapplications. This is unavoidablewhile we are still on earth because weare all so different from one another as

human beings in many respects. Ourtemperament, intelligence, upbringing,social and cultural background, churchexperience, ministry, etc., all playsome part in shaping our views andunderstanding.

The net result is that we see thingsdifferently, and none of us sees the fullpicture. As Paul said, we see only inpart, and that too dimly (1Co.13:12). Ifwe recognise and acknowledge this forourselves, we can stop being pig-headed about our own views, and bewilling to give respect to otherpeople's views and learn from them.

It is not that we accept everyone'sviews. Many times we may have todisagree with them. But if we arewilling to keep an open mind andexamine their views, it may help us toround off the rough edges in our ownviews. And certainly it will help us tohave a more sober estimate of

ourselves.


TakingourpositionOne of the things that may confuse uswhen we read the Bible is aboutreconciling the strong statements aboutvictorious life with what we see in ouractual experience. The Bible says thatwhen Jesus died on the cross we diedwith Him and that we are now seatedwith Him in heaven(Ro.6:6,8;Eph.2:6). As a result of this,we are dead to sin, freed from sin andalive to God (Ro.6:7,11).

Now there are two simplistic ways todeal with this. The common way is tolook at our experience and concludethat these things are not true or at leastnot true for us. The second way is tostruggle to make our experience fitwith these words in the Bible. The firstway results in settling down to adefeated life with no hope of victory.The second way also ultimately results

in defeat, because we are not able toget to a life of victory however muchwe may struggle. At the end of thestruggle this way leads to frustrationand disillusionment also.

When we look at our experience wethink we are right here on earth and notin heaven, and we have not died orbecome dead to sin. We do see thatwhen we were born again the Lord hasgiven us a desire to stop sinning. Butdoes our experience seem to indicatethat that is just as far as we are likelyto get?

If we want to find the right approachwe have to start from a position thatwhat the Bible says must be true, evenif we are unable to explain it in termsof our experience (Ro.3:4). What wecan understand then is that what theBible describes is the position Godhas granted to us through grace becausewe believe in what Jesus has done for

us.

It is like God placing a large amount ofmoney in our account and asking us totake and use it. The money is now oursby right. But we can only enjoy it asmuch as we take out and spend. At thesame time we must realise that it isthere for us to take, and that we don'thave to struggle and earn it.

There is a crucial difference betweenbelieving that the things God has saidare true and then going on to enjoythem, and thinking that we have towork hard and somehow come to attainto all such levels. When God asks us towork out our salvation (which hasalready been granted to us), we don'thave to work for our salvation(Php.2:12,13).

Meditate on what God has said He hasdone for us till we receive faith. Whenwe believe what God has written, faith

comes in, and then we won't even haveany problem believing that we can stopbecoming anxious, losing our temperand being overcome by lustfulthoughts.


LearningrelationalskillsThere are many things that come up inpersonal relationships that can cause alot of distress and sometimes longlasting breaks. People tend to eitherwithdraw and distance themselvesfrom the strife, or take it up on aconfrontational basis. Neitherapproach works. We can look at anexample in the life of David where itwas a case of passive inaction.

One of David's sons, Amnon, raped hisstep sister Tamar. David heard about it,fumed about it, but did nothing. Tamar'sbrother Absalom kept quiet for twoyears and then killed Amnon. Absalomthen ran away from David. For threeyears David did not do anything aboutit. The story developed further, till oneday Absalom rebelled against Davidand declared himself king (2Sa.13-15).

There are many issues in this story, butwhat I want to look at is only abouthow many things could have beenavoided if Absalom and David hadtaken steps to resolve the issues ratherthan allow them to fester, deepen andget more complicated.

There will be conflicts. They won't goaway if we ignore them or pretend theyare not there. Neither can we imaginethat if we wait long enough they willresolve themselves. Time is a greathealer, but only when a healing processhas been started and not whendestructive forces are at work.

Some of us are temperamentallyinclined to avoid conflicts. We maythink we are peace-loving people. Butthe fact of the matter may be that wedon't know how to handle conflicts.Even if we have tried to put out the firein the past and our attempts have onlyresulted in bigger eruptions, all it

shows is that we need to learn how tohandle such situations.

On the other hand, some of us areinclined to fight it out, no matter if theother party responds favourably or not.We think we don't want to stand anynonsense and we are prepared to go toany length to set things right. But thefact may be that we imagine that weare right and the others wrong, whichis hardly the case most of the time! Wedon't know how to handle things in ahumble and an understanding way.

So what is needed? 1. Seeking God forwisdom and grace. 2. A strong desireto resolve the issue. 3. Willingness tolisten to the other side. 4. Patience tolisten without interrupting. 5. Inneracknowledgment that we could bewrong. 6. Humility to ask and receiveforgiveness. 7. Determination to tryand discuss things without gettingupset, blaming each other and calling

names. 8. If possible, set up groundrules with the other party for holdingdiscussions.

Of course, when we try this, we mayfail. But we can learn to do thingsbetter each time.


InlinewiththepromisesGod has given us many promises in theBible. If we are wondering why weare not receiving what are promised,one reason may be that we are nottaking hold of those promises.

What happens when we come across apromise in the Bible? Let us look atone example. "For sin shall not bemaster over you, for you are not underlaw, but under grace" (Ro.6:14). Thismeans we are to be on top of sin. Wedon't have to be defeated by sin. Whatis our response?

"That's all very well. It'll be good if ithappens. But I am only human and I amnot strong enough to defeat sin." Is thatour response? There are a couple ofthings wrong with this approachbecause we have misunderstood whatis involved. We think that it is up to us

to defeat sin, and that we have tostruggle and fight to get the victory.The other thing is that we don't believeGod really means what He says. Thenit is no wonder we never get toexperience what is promised.

If we read the promise again we cansee that it is "grace" that will make thedifference in our lives. If we are tostruggle to keep the "law" then it ishopeless. Then it would have been acommandment that tells us to be freefrom sin. But here it is a promise givento us that since we are under grace, sinneed not rule over us.

'Grace' is not just to do with Godforgiving our sins and accepting us. Itis also a 'help' (He.4:16). In thiscontext it is a help God gives us so thatsin need not rule over us.

Whether it is this promise or somethingelse that God has given us, let us start

from a point of faith and not unbelief.Let us believe that whatever Godpromises He is able to fulfil (Is.55:11).

Of course, we must not fall into thecommon practice of reading only thepromises in the Bible without lookingat what we are expected to do on ourpart. Also, we must not imagine that allthe promises in the Bible are meant forus. Some of them have conditionsattached to them, and some others areonly for certain groups of people.

If we really believe, we will lookforward with expectation to thefulfilment of the promises (Jn.11:40). Ifthere is no such expectation on our sideit may be that our 'faith' is just atheoretical acceptance of the doctrinewhich does not touch our practicallives. Our way of life must be in linewith what we believe God is going todo for us. For example, with respect tothe promise we have been considering

above, when there is a fall we must notaccept that as an inevitable thing. Wemust see it as something unacceptableand press on with God so that it doesn'thappen again.


ThreefoldforgivenessMany times we don't enjoy what Godhas prepared for us because weunderstand only a part of the truth. Thisis true with respect to forgiveness too.A large number of Christians seem tothink only of receiving forgivenessfrom God. They don't seem to thinkseriously about forgiving others andasking others for forgiveness. Butthese go together. We can't have onewithout the others.

We need forgiveness from Godconstantly, because we always end updoing things imperfectly even when wewholeheartedly desire to do the rightthing. And many times we can't evenclaim that we have desired to do theright with all our heart. As long as wecarry about this fallen flesh with us -and that will be as long as we are onthis earth - this will be our experience.

Sometimes we do the wrong thing, andsometimes we fail to do the right thing.We need to tell the Lord that we aresorry.

God promises us that if we confess oursins, He is faithful and just to forgiveour sins and to cleanse us from allunrighteousness (1Jn.1:9). Of course,when we 'confess' our sins it isexpected that we are sorry about them,and that we don't want to do themagain. That is repentance. When we doour part, God is faithful to do His part.If we have done our part, we can takeit that He has done His part, even if wedon't feel any different.

Jesus said that the Father will forgiveus just as we forgive others (Mt.6:12).He emphasised the point that otherwisewe would not get forgivenessourselves (v.15). Did you know that if,after we have received forgivenessfrom God, we refuse to forgive

someone else, God may even take backthe forgiveness He gave us earlier. Ifyou don't believe me, read it inMt.18:23-34, and note especially v.35.

Another thing Jesus said aboutforgiveness is about getting right withpeople we have done wrong to. Whenwe stand before Him making Him anoffering, say when we are praying,praising or worshipping Him, if weremember that someone is hurt with usbecause we have done some wrong tohim, we need to first go and set thatright before we can continue with theoffering (Mt.5:22-24). We need to askfor their forgiveness first. OtherwiseGod cannot accept our offering.

If we want forgiveness, we need to bewilling to give forgiveness. On theother hand, the more we recognise howmuch we have been forgiven, the morefreely we would like to forgive others.


ThecomfortofGod'scompany

If you ask preachers what theiraudiences like to hear most about, theanswer would probably be that theylike to hear about the promises of God.People are looking for comfort. Theworld is a dreary place to be in, andwe can't have too much of comfort.God knows that all too well, and Healso tells His prophets to proclaimcomfort to His people (Is.40:1).

But words of comfort can be broughtforth by false prophets too, whoproclaim peace where there can be nopeace and who try to cover up cracksin the wall with whitewash (Ez.13:10).Can there be true comfort from theLord where there is no true repentance,and where sin is covered up and notforsaken? Just as a wound cannot behealed if it has not been first washed,

we cannot experience the healingcomfort of the Lord without firstgetting right with Him.

It is right and legitimate for us to go tothe Lord and ask for deliverance fromdifficult circumstances and to look forcomfortable lives. But the Lord doesnot always grant such requests. Heknows that difficult situations can makeus tough, and that when we have beentested we can strengthen others(Jas.1:2-4;Lk.22:31,32). The comfortthat we can look for all the time is thecomfort of His presence with us, andnot always the comfortable ease of alife without problems.

Jesus promises us that He will neverleave us nor forsake us (He.13:5). Hewill stick with us through thick andthin. Even if we are going throughflood or fire, He will be right therewith us making sure that neither floodnor fire can overpower us (Is.43:2).

Even when we can closely feel thethreat of flood and fire, the knowledgeof His presence with us will be ourstrength. We know that if He is with uswe will be safe everywhere andalways.

Can anything take God's love awayfrom us (Ro.8:35)? If He loved uswhen we were His enemies, we can besure that now that we are His childrenwe are loved much more (Ro.5:10).This is something we must hold on to,even if circumstances, people and ourown feelings seem to scream at ustelling us the very opposite.

If we want to experience God'scomfort all the time, what we need tomake sure is that we stay with Himalways. Let not unbelief take us awayfrom His presence. Let not sin comebetween us, but if it does let us confessit and receive immediate cleansing(1Jn.2:1). Let us also make it a habit to

receive the comfort of the HolyScriptures daily which the HeavenlyComforter wants to give to us.


OurprivateworldThe Bible says that while man looks atthe outward appearance God looks atthe heart (1Sa.16:7). We can beimpressed by other people's looks andby what they say and do. Or we canform a low opinion about people basedon how unimpressive they appear tobe. But God may have an entirelydifferent opinion about these people.He looks inside, at the thoughts that goon, the attitudes and motives, and thevalues people hold.

As Christians we are keen that weshould present before people a goodChristian testimony. So we are carefulabout how we behave and what wespeak, especially in front of the peoplewhose opinion matters to us. But it ispossible that what they see and hearmay not be the real us.

If we have unkind thoughts aboutpeople in our mind most of the time weare unkind people in fact, even if weknow how to say kind words and dokind deeds. If our thoughts are critical,self-centred, proud, self-righteous,unforgiving, complaining, envious,jealous, bitter, resentful, dirty, etc., thatis what we really are.

We may be 'comfortable' with a privateworld of our thoughts where we canindulge ourselves in any way we like,because we fool ourselves intoimagining that what we are is whatpeople think about us. We may betolerant of wrong thoughts, attitudes,motives and values because people donot generally know what is going on inour minds.

But don't we realise that our hiddenlife speaks out very loudly in God'sears? He is not fooled by what we sayand do outside if there is something

very different inside. He knows ourthoughts even when they are still ontheir way! (Ps.139:2).

The point I am making is not so muchabout whether we are hypocrites,acting before people, as about whetherwe are fooling ourselves about whatwe are. Do we evaluate ourselvesbased on the impression people haveabout us or on what we are inside?

God tells us what we should focus on.He says that all our life springs forthfrom our heart (Pr.4:23). Jesus pointedout that it would be foolish to focus onthe external things because all ourdeeds proceed from the heart(Mt.15:17-20). Trying to control ourwords without focusing on having goodthoughts inside is a futile exercise(Mt.12:34).

If we want to be the type of people thatGod wants us to be, we have to,

slowly but steadily, learn to think inline with His thoughts. This is whyPaul exhorts us to bring every thoughtto be in obedience to Christ(2Co.10:5). And then we will berenewed in our mind more and more,and we will come more and more intoconformity with the will of God(Ro.12:2).


Nurturingdepression?Depression is something all of us faceat times. But some of us are moreprone to it than others. Disappointment,frustration, setbacks, inability tohandle crises, etc., can causedepression. Usually it passes off soon.But unless we know how to face andovercome it, it can overpower us. Ifthat happens, we can set a viciouscircle into motion, in which ourdepression causes us to make wrongmoves which backfire and cause us tobe more depressed.

Some people seem to kind of enjoy alight dose of depression because itmakes them feel sorry for themselvesand they like that attention. But whatwe must remember is that depressionwill only produce negative results.Satan finds depression a fertile groundto plant his pernicious seeds, and his

goal is to lead us to more and moreconfusion and bondage and ultimatelyto suicide.

Of course, sometimes depression canbe due to physical reasons in whichcase it has to be treated by doctors. Ifanyone has been depressed for morethan two weeks, with symptoms ofearly morning awakening, loss ofappetite, loss of weight, constipation,decreased sexual interest, general lossof interest in everything, inability toenjoy the things he used to enjoyearlier, etc., he needs to see a doctorurgently.

As Christians we have a right torejoice always. This is the opposite ofbeing depressed. But the secret ofrejoicing always, irrespective ofpeople and circumstances, is to rejoicein the Lord (Php.4:4). He is alwayswith us, He will never leave us, He isdependable and trustworthy, He has

everything in His control, He willcause all things to work together forour good, and He is always planningfor our welfare and not for ourcalamity. In every circumstance andsituation, if we look towards Him wecan recognise ways to overcomedepressing moods and thoughts.

Sometimes it may be that we feel toodepressed even to think about the Lord.We don't feel quite up to it. At that timethe devil comes along and tells us thatit would not be of any use anyway. Butof course, true to his nature, the devilis telling us another of his lies. Theonly thing that can really set us free isto turn to the Lord. When we choose toturn to the Lord, the veil that kept usblind to the truth, right perspectives,right values, and the right way forwardwill be taken away (2Co.3:16). If wetruly turn to Him, He will see to it thatwe will not be disappointed (Ps.22:5).

If we are feeling a bit depressed let usalso take natural measures such asrelaxing with a walk, listening tosoothing music, seeking out thecompany of our friends, having a workout at the gym, etc. These will help usto take our mind off from broodingabout our depression. Singing praisesto God (even if it takes some effort tostart) can do wonders for us, helpingus to turn our attention to the Lord.

So let us not believe that depression issomething we have to live with. Ourright is to rejoice always. We can learnto do that.


Moreblessedtogive?I am not questioning whether it is moreblessed to give than to receive. Jesussaid that (Ac.20:35). I am wonderingwhether we understand how it is moreblessed. All of us have learned fromchildhood the joy of receiving, giftsand blessings. It is somewhat foreignfor our nature to give. It is only whenwe receive the Spirit of Christ that wereally learn how to give. Christ gaveHimself for us, and the Father gave usHis only Son. When the Holy Spiritchanges our life, we also begin to learnhow to give freely - without measure,without expecting anything in return,and without keeping a record of howmuch or how sacrificially we havegiven (Mt.10:8;Lk.6:35).

How blessed it is to give like that!How much greater joy it is to givesecretly, without receiving any honour

or recognition in return! We givebecause we have received freely andgraciously from the Lord. We givebecause our heart rejoices to give insuch a way that God's name ishonoured, His kingdom is built, Hispeople are blessed and others come toknow our Lord and Saviour forthemselves.

How sad when some preachersencourage people to give to the Lordas a business proposal! Of course theyquote from the Scriptures. "Give, itwill be given to you; good measure,pressed down, shaken together, runningover, they will pour into your lap"(Lk.6:38). "Bring the whole tithe intothe storehouse, so that there may befood in My house, and test Me now inthis if I will not open for you thewindows of heaven, and pour out foryou a blessing until it overflows"(Mal.3:10). The words are right, but

the spirit is that of a merchant. Surelythe Lord will not be a debtor toanyone. He will greatly reward thosewho give, especially those who givewith great sacrifice (Mk.12:43,44).But does He want us to give in acalculating manner, keeping in mind thehigh interest rate of the bank ofheaven?

Didn't Jesus tell us very plainly, togive without expecting anything inreturn? Why don't we give because welove Him? The woman who broke thealabaster box of perfume at the Lord'sfeet and the widow who gave twocopper coins will have their reward inheaven because they gave out of loveand gratitude, more than many whohave given large offerings to the Lordas sound investments for their future.

It is not how much we give that isimportant to the Lord. Let each onegive as he can (1Co.16:2;2C0.9:7). Of

course, the more we love, the more wewill give. But it is how we give thatthe Lord looks at more than how muchwe give.


LookingforfeedbackWe are all imperfect. Most peopleacknowledge this general statementwithout problem. However that is verydifferent from acknowledging realimperfections in ourselves. Ourresponse to criticism, correction andfriendly jibes shows others howmature we are.

Generally speaking, we go into whatpsychologists call 'defencemechanisms' when our fault is pointedout. We may straightaway deny it. Wemay attack the person who is pointingout our fault. We may point out that the'accuser' also has the same fault. Wemay divert attention to some fault ofthe 'accuser.' We may give anexplanation for our fault. We may try tojustify our fault given the 'special'circumstance. We may change thetopic. While these are common tactics,

they will not help us to grow up andbecome mature.

One mark of maturity is that while weare pressing on to perfection, we arecomfortable with accepting the fact thatwe are imperfect and that we will keepon discovering our imperfections. Inother words, we are not shocked whenwe see our imperfections. We knowthat God has accepted us in ChristJesus just as we are and loves us eventhough we are not worthy. So we arenot in a constant struggle to makeourselves acceptable to God. Andwhen we know that God has acceptedus, we are not straining to make peopleaccept us.

A mature man is aware of his strengthsand weaknesses (Ro.12:3). Heacknowledges God in all his ways andHe believes that it is God who hasgiven him those strengths(Pr.3:6;Jas.1:17). He also believes that

God will help him to deal with hisweaknesses. His 'self-confidence' isnot easily shaken when he comes faceto face with his weaknesses orfailures. But he presses on toperfection, seeking God for help(He.6:1).

But one who has not come to thismaturity is very much disturbed whensomeone points out a fault, and startsup one of his defence mechanisms. Hecan't bear to see his faults becauseacknowledging them would result in areduction in his self worth.

The mature man, on the other hand, isalways looking for feedback on whatGod and people think about him. He isnot a slave to the opinion of man as animmature man is, but he looks forwardto this feedback because he is pressingon to perfection. He knows that unlesshe knows where he is wrong, he cannotbecome better.


Gettingshakenup?When the Lord is our rock, salvationand stronghold, we shall not be greatlyshaken (Ps.62:2). It is unrealistic tointerpret this to mean that we shall notbe shaken at all! Some people seem tothink that we would be exalting God byattributing high standards for Hispeople saying that we shall not at allbe shaken. But by holding upunrealistic goals, they tend to leadthemselves and others to unnecessarydisappointments and possible loss offaith. On the contrary, if we pursueafter realistic goals we have a goodchance of reaching them.

The more mature we become, the lesswe will get shaken by the things thathappen. The things that used to shakeus up in the past don't cause that samereaction from us now. Our response isnow more calm and objective and less

impulsive than it used to be. It alsotakes us less time to settle down afterwe have been shaken up.

The Bible teaches us that trials of ourfaith help us to become stronger andtougher (Jas.1:2,3). When we barelyknow God in the beginning and wesuddenly come across a difficultsituation, we are shaken up badly. Butwhen we go through the trial leaning onthe grace of God we learn a few thingsthat make us stronger and more mature.

1. We see that God has helped us tocome through. We may have expectedan easier passage or a differentoutcome. We may have wondered whyGod allowed us to face such situations.But in the end we see that He did helpus to come through, and He also taughtus a few things in the process.

2. We have learned a little more aboutGod's ways, that they are not like ours.

We see what is important to Him andwhat He is aiming for. That helps us toget in tune with Him better.

3. We have learned a little more aboutourselves. We see that we are not asstrong as we thought we were, and thatwe need God's strength and Hiswisdom. This helps us to lean on Himmore.

4. We have learned a little more aboutpeople, some good things and somebad. This helps us to know what toexpect in future.


DeterminationtochangeWhat do we do when we see that welack something, or we have beenwrong in something, in the sight ofGod? Let us say that we don't want tojustify ourselves or blame others, butwe know that the fault is really ours.What do we do then? Of course we askfor forgiveness, from God and fromother people whom we have hurt. Don'twe then wish that we could change andbe different in the future?

This is a point at which we can makeone of several mistakes. If we just'wish' that we could be different, itwould not change us. On the other endof the line, if we determine that we aregoing to change, grit our teeth and tryto change our behaviour, we mayprobably succeed in changing ourexternal behaviour, while inside ourspirit we may continue to be the same

person as before. This will becomeclear when we are caught off guard,and our inner nature comes out in ourwords or our behaviour.

Some people think that the solution isto pray and leave the matter into God'shands. There is indeed a great truth inthis. By this we acknowledge our utterdependence on God. We cast ourburdens on Him, and get rid of ourworries and anxieties which, in anycase, could not help us. We express ourconfidence in God and His promisesand expect that He would take actionon our behalf. This is all how it shouldbe.

But by doing all this it should not be asif we relieve ourselves of anyresponsibility in the matter. We arealways responsible for our actionsincluding the words we speak(Ro.14:12;Mt.12:36). We will alsohave to reap the consequences of what

we say and do, whether good or bad(Ga.6:7,8). We are responsible if wecontinue to yield our body to thedesires of the flesh (Ro.6:13).

It is our choices and our actions thatshape us. A man of God has said thatwhat we are today is the result of allthe choices and decisions that we havemade in the past. If we want to be anydifferent in the future, we have tonecessarily make different choices anddecisions.

Are we determined to make thesechanges, in the way we think - aboutGod, people, the world, ourselves, ourgoals and desires - and in the way wespeak and behave? If so, we need toequip ourselves to make these changesand we need to be diligent in watchingour own progress. Don't leave it tochance, expecting that changes willtake place automatically. God isworking in us, helping us to make the

right choices and to carry them out, andwe have to cooperate with Him byactually doing what He tells us throughthe Bible - directly or through otherpeople - and through the promptings ofthe Spirit in our spirit.


WhenabadmoodcreepsinA bad mood can come up suddenly,apparently without reason, and beforewe realise it, it can have us in its vice-like grip, pushing us down to lowerdepths. But does it have to be like this?

The Bible says very plainly that we arenot obliged to yield to the whims ofour flesh just because they come up(Ro.8:12). If we can see them astemptations that are enticing us, wewill understand that we have theopportunity to make a choice. We havethe authority to say "NO" to ourfeelings and thought patterns beforethey take us to wrong destinations.

We know that we have no directcontrol over our feelings. We can'tbecome happy just be deciding to behappy, and we can't get rid of ourgloom just by deciding that we don't

want to be gloomy. But still there is away to deal with our bad feelings.

The first step is to recognise that weare getting into a bad mood. This notonly means that we call it by its name,but we also recognise that it is a badmood and that we need to get out of itas fast as possible.

The next thing is to see why we havegot into this feeling. The reason may bethat something happened to us,someone made some remark, we arephysically unwell, we are fearful aboutsome task ahead of us, we are guiltyabout something we did, etc.

Our feelings are related to what webelieve about our situation. We may ormay not be consciously aware of whatwe believe, but still they are there inour mind. For example, if we havebungled up some matter and webelieve that it is going to get us into

trouble, it is natural that we get into abad mood. But on the other hand if webelieve that with God's help we aregoing to get over it, we will soon havegood feelings. So it is helpful if we canpinpoint what is causing this badmood.

The solution is to look to God and seewhat He has to say about the situation.For the example above, God may saythat even though we have messed upsomething, we can still sort out thingsand go ahead with life (Is.1:18,19).When we change our belief systemfrom "There is no hope for me" to "Oh,God is still with me. He will help methrough", our feelings also will beginto change!

This is so simple, and yet we aretempted to think that once a bad moodcreeps in we can't do anything butendure it. Let us not respond anymorein that habitual way, but go along

victory's way with the Lord's help.


PerseveringfaithWhat would be the greatest needamong God's people in these last days?Of course we have many needs for ourearthly life and our spiritual growth.But perhaps the one thing that we needfor our survival is a faith in God thatstands. Didn't Jesus wonder whetherHe would be able to find faith on theearth when He comes again? (Lk.18:8).

Why is faith so difficult these days? Iam thinking about sincere people whowant to believe but who find itdifficult. There are many who talkglibly about faith, and who pretend asif everything is just fine. They aresuperficial and unwilling to face up toreality. But for people whoacknowledge that they don'tunderstand, and are seeking foranswers, God's promise is that theyshall find the answers (Mt.7:7).

There are several reasons why we findit difficult to have faith. For example:

1. We don't understand what ishappening to us. Our situations seem tobe peculiar and they don't seem to fitin with what we have understood fromthe Bible.

2. We don't understand why God isallowing certain things to happen to us.We know He has the power to changethings, and we can't understand why Heis not answering our prayers.

3. We think we have done everythingwe can, and yet God doesn't seem to bedoing His part.

4. We wonder why things are goingwell for others, including unbelievers,while we seem to having a tough time.

5. We wonder how long things aregoing to continue like this.

6. We wonder how things are going to

end up.

There could be other reasons also. Butif we look carefully we can see that thebasic problem is with our wanting to"understand". We feel helpless whenwe cannot "understand".

Isn't this where faith has to step in,with the conviction of things not seen?(He.11:1). We have to accept the factthat as long as we are on earth we willnever get to a position whereeverything will be clear to ourunderstanding. We have to learn totrust in our Lord even when we cannotunderstand. When we trust in Him andhand over our cares to Him, it is onlythen that we will be able to persevere(1Pe.5:7).

When we trust Him in this way, Hewill also give us the understanding thatwe need. We will see that many of thereasons given above show a wrong

way of thinking, not knowing how weought to think. When we understand byfaith, it will be a differentunderstanding altogether (He.11:3).


NurturingtemptationsDo you think that when David fell intoadultery it happened all of a sudden, onthe spur of the moment? What if he hadalready determined, like Job, not togaze upon a woman (Job.31:1)? Doyou think David would have eventhought of killing anyone under normalcircumstances? But he did, when hewas caught in a situation where hisadultery was likely to be found out.What we don't often realise is that bybeing careless at one stage we areactually setting up ourselves for astronger temptation.

Jesus said that if we were unfaithful in

little things, we would also beunfaithful in big things (Lk.16:10). Butwhen it comes to little things, we mayfool ourselves by thinking that littlethings don't matter and that when itcomes to bigger things we wouldcertainly be faithful.

Just think of how many temptationsdevelop. 1. We see or hear somethingthat provokes us. 2. We think about itand let our imagination run. 3. Ourconscience and will power becomeweakened by these thoughts that wehave permitted to dwell in our mind. 4.We console ourselves thinking that weare not 'doing' anything wrong, and wecontinue to be open to the things thatprovoke us, enjoying our imaginations.5. The pricks of our consciencebecome less and less. 6. Then one daywe are provoked a little too much, andwe end up 'doing' something wrong. 7.We justify ourselves saying that it was

only a small slip and that it won'thappen again. 8. Now the level of ourtolerance of sin has gone up and whena sudden provocation comes up wegive in. 9. This act of ours createscircumstances, like it did for David,which open up new temptations whichwe had never imagined in the firstplace we would ever get into.

How and at what level can we havevictory? If we are hoping and aimingfor a victory at the level of not 'doing'something wrong, while we indulgeour thoughts, we can be caught offguard. It may be only a matter of timebefore a powerful temptation comesand knocks us down. It is in ourthoughts that we have to learn to befaithful. It is there that we have ourvalue system based on God's standardsbased on which we have decided thatcertain types of behaviour, includingwrong thought patterns, are taboo for

us.

Our battle is to avoid entertainingthoughts that are contrary to God'svalues and instead to think of thingsthat are pleasing to Him (Php.4:8).Once we have our values right and wedon't allow wrong thoughts to occupyour mind, we are better prepared toface temptations to do wrong than ifwe had been careless in our mind.


LookingaheadJesus commented once that the peopleof the world were more shrewd inmanaging earthly things than the peopleof God with spiritual things (Lk.16:8).It is true that we Christians who haveeverything going for us - God is withus, He is working for our good, He hasgiven us instructions about what isgood for us and what is not, we haveother Christians who are around tohelp us - still mess up things by makingthe wrong choices. We do that becauseof several reasons, one being that wemake short sighted choices, notthinking about how they will affect usin the long run.

Pilgrim, in the story "Pilgrim'sProgress", went to the House of theInterpreter where he was shownseveral object lessons. One was abouttwo boys called Passion and Patience.

Passion wanted to enjoy everything'now' and couldn't wait for thingswhich were promised to him for later.He 'enjoyed himself' so furiously thatall his things were spoiled in a shortwhile and he was left in misery.Patience was willing to deny himselfimmediate pleasures, and finally hehad the satisfaction of getting muchbetter things.

Jesus said that those who were willingto lose their own lives for His sakeand for the sake of the gospel wouldgain life (Mk.8:35). Isn't "our life"nothing but our own desires, ambitions,etc.? Isn't it clear that if we denyourselves in order to do what the Lordwants, we shall gain in the end?

If we know this, why is it that we stillchoose to do our own thing? Theanswer is mostly that we can only 'see'the present and visualise the immediatebenefits, and we don't realise that

choosing these short term pleasuresmay cause us long term harm or that ifwe give up these pleasures our gaincould be far greater in the future.

Isn't this one of the problems for youngpeople who, naturally, don't have theexperience to be able to see ahead?They can't understand why olderpeople should tell them not to docertain things which they, the youngpeople, can easily see are 'good'. Theythink that these older guys just don'tknow what they are talking about.

But when we know how to walk byfaith and not by sight, we arecomfortable looking at the things thatare not seen and ignoring what areseen! (2Co.4:18). We receive by faithand choose to follow what God tells usthrough His word and what maturepeople pass on to us from what theyhave learned in their own lives. Thenwe are able to make choices based on

a long-term strategy rather thangrabbing transient pleasures.


ThingsthatarenotpromisedShall we pray for things that have notbeen specifically promised by theLord? By all means. God is a goodGod, who likes to freely give us allthings to enjoy (1Ti.6:17). We don'thave to hesitate to make our requestsknown to God (Php.4:6). There is nocatch in this, but there is need for someclarifications.

Of course there is no harm in askingGod for anything. But it is good to addat the end, "But not my will, but Yours,O Father." Why?

1. We don't always know what weshould ask for. We may ask forsomething that may be harmful for us.Let God decide what is best for us. Hewon't in any case give us somethingthat is really harmful, but He mightgive in to our request if we pester Him

too much (Ps.106.15).

2. We shouldn't think that we can getwhatever we ask, even though manypreachers give that kind of impressionquoting Jn.14:13, 15:16, Ps.37:4, etc.The first verse talks about askingthings in Jesus' name. This doesn'tmean just adding "In Jesus' name" atthe end of our prayer. It means askingthings in line with His nature orcharacter. The second verse talks aboutasking anything in connection withwanting to bear much fruit so that theFather is glorified, not just anything welike. The third verse talks aboutdelighting ourselves in the Lord andthen the Lord giving us the desires ofour heart. We can easily see that whatwe delight in is the Lord, we won't beasking for things that are displeasing tothe Lord. There is also another versethat says that we can have anything wewant if we ask according to God's will

(1Jn.5:14,15).

3. If we ask for things God hasn'tpromised but which we fancy, and wedon't give God a chance to refuse, weare likely to get disappointed, and thenwe might be tempted to blame God fornot answering our prayers.

But having said that, we can still prayfor many things in hope. Since weknow that He loves us and is able to dowhatever He wants, we can go aheadand ask. We shouldn't be missing outon things just because we wouldn't ask(Jas.4:2). This doesn't mean that whenwe want something we can just "claimit by faith" or get someone to "agreewith us." We have faith when we havethe assurance that we will get what wehave asked for (He.11:1). We can havethat assurance only if God haspromised it to us, either in writing inHis word or through the Holy Spiritspeaking to our heart. Otherwise we

can only pray in hope.

I am not wrangling about words. If weclaim we have faith for this or that andwe don't receive it, we getdisappointed and others getdisillusioned with our claims aboutGod. Let us be sensible about it.


MisunderstandingGod'sword

It is one of the common questionsunbelievers ask us Christians, aboutwhy there are so many groups amongChristians each with its owninterpretation of the Bible. What theywould like to say is that this goes toprove that the Bible is unreliable. Thatis a gross mistake. The fact is that wehuman beings are fallible creatures andthat no one of us has understoodeverything rightly about what the Biblesays.

What are some of the reasons why wemisunderstand the Bible? My intentionin looking at the subject is so that wecan be more careful in future when wetry to understand the truths of the Bible.

1. God promises understanding tothose who fear (deeply respect) Him

(Ps.25:14;111:10). Such peopleearnestly desire to honour God, to doHis will and to be pleasing in Hiseyes. Can we expect to receiveunderstanding if we approach God in acasual manner?

2. Jesus said that it is those who aresincerely interested in finding outGod's will in order to do it who willbe able to see His will (Jn.7:17). If weare just curious to know many thingsbut have no real interest in doingGod's will, don't we think God can seethrough that?

3. What is our motive in gettingunderstanding? Is it to make ourselvesbigger or greater? How was Paul ableto get such a high level of revelation ofGod which he could not pass on to us(2Co.12:4)? Is it not because he wasnot living for himself but for God(2Co.5:14,15)?

4. Those who want understanding willbe always spiritually alert and seekingfor it (Pr.2:2,3). In other words, it issomething they value very much intheir heart and they are always on thelookout for it, just as a businessman islooking for business opportunities.

5. God's wisdom is so wide and withso many sides to it, and all of us haveso many limitations, biases andprejudices that we are unaware of, thatit is impossible for us to get a totallybalanced understanding of any part ofthe truth. Therefore if we want to beable to get nearer to the perfect truthabout any subject, we must be open tocorrection and willing to change(Pr.15:32). We must keep in mind thatother people, especially those who seethings differently, have something tocontribute that can round off ourunderstanding (Eph.3:18,19).


ItispossibletochangeGod is a specialist at changing people.He makes all things new (Re.21:5). Hetakes people who are bound in sin andmisery, washes them with the blood ofHis Son Jesus, and makes them newpeople who become more and morelike Jesus (2Co.5:17;Ro.8:28,29).When this earth is destroyed and weall stand before Him in eternity, Hewill display as His great trophies thosewhom He has changed from hopelessmisery and shame to godliness. Thegood news is that any of us can takepart in that work of God. We canchange, however deep down we are inthe pit of hopelessness now.

Don't stay in the world of unbelief andfear that gives only a feeling ofhopelessness. Don't believe the wordsthat some others may throw at us, thatwe are useless, nothing good will

come out of us, nobody wants us, weare caught in a trap of generationalcurses, etc. With God nothing isimpossible (Lk.1:37). He who createdus and the whole universe, is also inthe business of re-creating people whogo to Him.

Jesus will never turn away anyonewho goes to Him, whatever thatperson's condition or circumstancesmay be (Jn.6:37). He hears all ourprayers and understands the agony ofour hearts. He starts working in us andaround us to make things work for ourgood (Ro.8:28,29). If we respond toHim we can receive all that He hasprepared and kept ready for us.

We don't have to be caught in a rut andcontinue to behave in the same way aswe have done in the past, like oldgramophone records which get caughtin a groove. We don't have to behave ina certain way just because we feel like

it. The Bible says that we are not underany obligation to serve sin (Ro.8:12).Jesus has come to set us free.

One of the lies that Satan has spreadamong people is that certain behaviouris unavoidable in the face of certaincircumstances. People therefore saythat if somebody does certain things tous we have to respond in a certainway, if we feel a strong urge forsomething (eating, drinking, smoking,sex, etc.) we can't do anything but givein, we are like this because our parentswere like this, we can't escape becausea curse has come upon us because ofwhat our ancestors have done, etc.Those are lies. When Jesus sets usfree, we will be truly free (Jn.8:36).

Jesus said that when we know the truth,the truth will set us free (Jn.8:31,32).'Knowing the truth' is not the same usreading or hearing it. When we hear orread the truth - concerning God, His

ways, His plan of salvation throughJesus Christ, what Jesus will do for us,etc. - and we respond from our heartby believing it and receiving it, webegin to act on it. If no action comesout of it, we haven't let the truth touchour heart but only our head, and thatwon't do us any good.

But when the truth grips us, we beginto seek Jesus for its fulfilment in ourlife. He changes our value systems, andgives us new directions and strength todo things differently. So then we don'tdo things just because we feel like it.We come under the leading of the HolySpirit, and our body comes under ourcontrol. Our long time habits change.Jesus and our fellowship with Himbecome more important to us than allelse, and our life itself changes to fallin line with Him.


WhatforgivingothersisnotSometimes an unrealistic perception ofwhat it means to forgive others maymake it look as if it is beyond ourability, and actually stop us from goingahead and forgiving them. Let us startby believing that if God asks us toforgive, He certainly thinks it ispossible for us to do it.

What God asks us to do is to forgiveothers just as Christ has forgiven us(Ep.4:32;Co.3:13). He has forgiven usout of His mercy, as a free gift(Ep.2:4,8). 1. We didn't deserve it. 2. Itwas unreasonable, after all the thingswe had done against Him. 3. He had tosuffer in order to forgive us. He lovedus, and therefore He forgave us.

As a Man, Jesus forgave even whenpeople did not repent (Lk.23:34). Thisis how we have to forgive. God does

not forgive unless people repent. Wejust have to leave judgment for God todecide (Ro.12:19).

But sometimes we tend to beunrealistic with regard to forgiveness.

Many people think that we have toforgive and forget. Anyone who triesthis will come to see that the more wetry to forget, the more it gets imprintedin our mind. When God forgives us, Hedoes not forget our sins. What Hepromises to do is not to rememberthem (He.8:12). It means that He willnot bring them up and hold themagainst us anymore.

When we forgive someone, what wedo is to let go of the hold we have onhim because of the sin he has doneagainst us. It is basically a choice wemake in our will. It doesn't mean wethink that what he has done is all right.He still has to repent or face the

judgment of God. While Jesus forgavethose who crucified Him, they still hadto face judgment for their sins.

We may take time to get over feelinghurt over what someone has done to us,even after we have forgiven him. Wecan't wait to feel good before wedecide to forgive. But when we chooseto forgive, our feelings towards himwill start changing, and we may startpraying for him.

After we have forgiven someone wedon't necessarily become friends withhim as if nothing has happened. It alsodepends on him. We wish he wouldrepent and get right with God. But if hedoesn't change, we have to be wise inour dealings with him if we don't wantto get hurt again.

On the other hand, our demonstrationof forgiveness may be the thing thatconvicts him and causes him to repent,

just as in the case of Jesus and us. Butin some cases it may be necessary tolet him know that he needs to set thingsright, just as the Corinthian church didto the man living in sin. We needwisdom.

God wants us to lighten our load as wewalk along life's way. One good wayto do that is to give away grudges,malice, vengeance, bitterness, etc., andto soothe our minds with mercy andkindness.


HelpsforhumilityMany times it is pride that makes us dothings wrong, in relation to God and topeople. We act as though we aresomeone special with God and takeliberties with His commandments. Wedeal with other people as though weare superior, without caring about howit would affect them and how theywould feel. It is humility that canchange this type of attitude andbehaviour.

God provides things which are neededfor earthly life even to wicked people(Mt.5:45). But life changing blessingscan come from God only when we arehumble, because God opposes theproud and gives grace only to thehumble (Jas.4:6).

Being humble is not the same as doinghumble things. For example, we can

say, "I am sorry," because that is thesocially acceptable thing to do. But itmay be just an act we put on. Or wemay do something 'humble' such assweeping the floor when other peopleare watching. But humility is anattitude of our heart. It is seenbasically in what we think aboutourselves in secret, and then it alsodecides how we behave on the outside.

I would suggest that there are threethings we could address towardsgrowing in humility. Becoming humbletakes time, and we need to grow in itall our life.

Think about where we have comefrom. If we have been born again, wehave been brought from sin to life,from being a child of Satan to being achild of God, from despair to hope,from purposeless drifting to a goaldriven life, from confusion and chaosto peace and rest, etc. Who has done

this? Not we, but the grace of God.

Think of what we are. Do we think thatwhat we have today such as money,position, reputation, skills, etc., is fromour own making? No. AcknowledgeGod (1Co.4:7). On the other hand, ifwe are conscious of our lacks in theseareas, can't we think of what gives ustrue worth - our acceptance by God?

Think of our dependence on God. Ourlife on earth is so uncertain in manyrespects. The only thing we can becertain of is our death, if Jesus doesnot come before that. We are dependenton God for every part of our life.

Think over these things frequently.Take time to do that. Do you see thathumility is essentially to acknowledgeGod in every part of our life?


Areyoulonelyandwithoutfriends?

It is a common complaint many peoplehave, that they don't have any friends. Itis true that some people find it easierto make friends than others because ofcertain natural advantages. Some areby nature outgoing (extroverts) and itseems that they never lack friends,while others who are generallyreserved by nature find it difficult tomake new friends. But there is alsoanother side to it, that these so calledintroverts, when they do make friends,may turn out to be more reliable andself sacrificing as friends!

When people complain that they don'thave friends and nobody wants to makefriends with them, it is quite possiblethat they may have to take some blamefor it themselves. And it is alsopossible that once they set out to

correct some of their approaches tofriendship they too can find goodfriends.

One version of the Bible says thatthose have friends must showthemselves to be friendly (Pr.18:24KJV). This means that we must visiblydemonstrate our desire and willingnessto be friends. Our behaviour andapproach must convince others that weare inclined to be friendly towardsthem. An expression of warmthincluding a welcoming smile, a stronghandshake, and words of acceptancewill go a long way in making friends.

What are some of the reasons why itcan be difficult to make friends?

1. We are so much occupied withourselves that we don't have muchinterest in others except in what theycan do for us. Others can easily noticethis.

2. We have such a poor self image thatit is difficult for us to open up to theothers. We feel guilty of our past orconscious of our lacks and we expectthat nobody can ever love us.

3. We have such a high opinion ofourselves that we don't see any needfor others. This gives us such an airabout us.

4. Some of the poor responses we havereceived in the past make us hesitate.

5. We have had some bad experienceswith some people and we don't trustanyone.

6. We want something from friends, butwe are not willing to sacrifice anythingfor them.

7. We are unwilling to bear withweaknesses or forgive sins in others.

We need friends. God has made us thatway. If God has accepted us in Christ,

we don't have to feel inadequate orunworthy. On the other hand, if wewant to have friends we must bewilling to accept them as they come,and be willing to love them and carefor them. Jesus said that a good friendwill lay his life down for his friends(Jn.15:13). If we are like that, we canalso expect to get friends like that(Pr.22:11).

Many lonely people are willing to giveup their principles in order to get or toretain their friends. But this will onlybring them great sorrow and damage inthe end (Jas.4:4).

Building up friendships may take time,and it calls for a give and take. But it isworth it.


ThanksgivingfromtheheartEven secular psychologists havediscovered that an attitude ofthankfulness can do wonders for ourmental health and total well being. Butsome of them propose that we shouldfake thankfulness in order to get thebenefits, even if we aren't exactlyfeeling thankful. We are to be thankful,because that is good and right in theeyes of the Lord. We are also glad thatit will be a blessing to us.

It is the humble people who find it easyto be thankful (Ps.69:30-32). It is quitenatural for them to be thankful to Godand to the people around them. Theyrecognise how dependent they are onGod and people, and they have noproblem with being thankful.

So if we find ourselves grumpy,complaining and critical a lot of the

time, we need to look at how we canbecome more humble.

Do we think God ought to do a betterjob at taking care of us? If so, who dowe think we are to make suchdemands? Do we think people shouldbe more helpful, more understanding,more kind, etc., towards us? That'sfine, even we ought to be more like thattowards the others! But do we think weare someone special that others have towait on us and serve us?

It is probably true that if we haveproblems with pride we are not verymuch aware of that. But complainingand fault finding is one of thesymptoms of pride that we can'texplain away.

Wealth, education, job, family heritage,talents and skills, spiritual gifts, etc.,have a way of making us proud whenwe compare ourselves with the others

and feel superior. It gives us a certainair about us. Even if we are not socrude about it that we make openstatements with disdainful looks at theothers, insulting remarks, etc., just thefact that we are not thankful butcomplaining proves our pride. Weneed to peer inside us and see whatexactly is making us proud.

Our natural tendency is towards prideand not humility. All of us mustrecognise that we need to deal with ourhidden pride constantly. We can getmuch help in this connection if wekeep thankfulness as a measure of ourhumility. Then we can serve Godincreasingly better as we continue tohumble ourselves (He.12:28).


WithapinchofsaltGod says that the last days will bedifficult times, especially forChristians (2Ti.3:1 LB). Deceivingspirits will be more active than everbefore because Satan knows that histime is short (Re.12:12). Falseprophets and teachers will increase innumber with strange doctrines andpractices (Mt.24:11;1Ti.4:1). Jesussaid that it would be so bad that eventhe elected saints could be misled(Mt.24:24). "Be on the alert" is theword for the times.

If Peter who loved Jesus and who waswilling to lay his life down for Himcould be deceived by Satan to theextent that Satan could use him to tryand mislead Jesus (Mt.16:22,23), wecannot rule out the possibility of anypreacher of today making mistakes indoctrine or practice. We mustn't just

fall for people or blindly accept everynew idea that comes up.

Be careful of 'prophets' giving uspersonal directions, especially of thetype that tends to bloat up our ego. Inthese days when the least in theKingdom can know the Father directly(He.8:11), we should want to hear theFather tell us directly what He wouldwant us to do. Perhaps He would tellsomeone else to confirm what He hasalready told us. He seems to have toldPaul and Barnabas about theirmissionary call before He showed it tothe church (Ac.13:2). Don't be scaredof prophets. Be bold enough toexamine everything with the revealedword of God (1Th.5:20,21).

Don't let anyone make God'sforgiveness complicated. If we haverepented from our sins and placed ourtrust in Jesus for forgiveness, we mustsimply take it that God has forgiven us.

Some people insist on trying toremember and confess every single sindown to the childhood days. Others tellus to confess all sins publicly and'bring them into the light.' Do youimagine God likes to torture orhumiliate us rather than cover our sins?(Ps.85:2).

If you ask God for healing in Jesus'name and you are not healed don't letanyone tell you it's because you don'thave faith. If you didn't have faithwould you have asked Him? And hasn'tJesus said that faith as small as amustard seed is enough? (Mt.17:20).Ask the Father why He hasn't answeredyour prayer, and you may learn manythings. But don't let anyone bully you.

God has provided mature people tohelp the younger ones. That doesn'tmean that younger ones becomedependent on them. Don't fear peoplewho make out that you need them

badly. Listen to those about whom yousense that they sincerely want to helpyou, and don't give in an inch to thosewho want to control you.

There are many "new" ideas andtechniques coming up these days whichsound interesting and intriguing. Don'tfall flat for them without checking tosee if they fit in with the principles ofthe gospel. Clearer understanding ofknown truths are welcome, butdiscoveries of "new" truths and"revelations" may be received with apinch of salt till they are proved to fallin line with other truths.

If we walk carefully, we can avoid alot of danger.


Grace,unbelievablebuttrueThe Bible describes grace like this."For one will hardly die for arighteous man; though perhaps for thegood man someone would dare even todie. But God demonstrates His ownlove toward us, in that while we wereyet sinners, Christ died for us"(Ro.5:7,8). How can He love us whoare so unlovable?

Jesus said that He would never rejectanyone who came to Him (Jn.6:37).However filthy, depraved, wicked,shameful and hopeless we are, He iswilling to receive us if we go to Him.

However wretched our past is, Godpromises that He will wash us (withthe blood of Jesus) and make us whitelike snow! (Is.1:18). When we startwith God, we can start with anabsolutely clean record.

God makes us who used to be childrenof the devil (1Jn.3:10) and enemies ofGod as His children and brothers andsisters of His Son Jesus(1Jn.3:1;Ro.8:29).

Once He has cleansed us, He is nevergoing to bring up our past and hold itagainst us (He.8:12).

If we fall into sin after that, whichhappens, of course, He will wash usagain and take away every stain of sin(1Jn.1:9).

God loves us with an everlasting love(Je.31:3). He doesn't stop loving us ifwe don't measure up to His standards(which happens, of course).

He has taken a vow never to leave usor forsake us (He.13:5). Even if wefail Him (2Ti.2:13)..

Unbelievable! Unreasonable! Illogical!Unfair! Unjust! Yet true!

The reason for a lot of insecurity, fear,doubt and the resulting lack of joy andthankfulness in Christian life is that wehave not seen grace like this. Withoutdoubt, it is very difficult for us tobelieve, especially if we have beenreligious minded thinking thatsomehow we have to earn God'sfavour by our behaviour. Howeverdifficult it may be for us to believe, itis still true. This is how grace is.

So some of us who consider ourselvesas Christians may never have reallyexperienced such a grace in our livesand entered into a relationship withGod. And some of us who have tastedsomething of this grace and havereceived the forgiveness of sins naynever have come to believe in andexperience the full extent of God'sgrace towards us. May the Lord helpus to grow in grace and in theknowledge of our Lord and Saviour

Jesus Christ (2Pe.3:18).

About the author

Jacob Ninan (b. 1948), has master’sdegrees in engineering, and counsellingand psychotherapy. He retired in 2008from the Indian Space ResearchOrganisation as the ProgrammeDirector for international cooperation.He met with Jesus while studying inBangalore in 1972, and from thenonwards has been an ardent student ofthe Bible, reading hundreds ofChristian books, listening to hundredsof messages, and being very active inthe church in speaking, counselling,writing, editing, etc. He runs the‘Comfort & Counsel’ web site(www.c-n-c.org) where he haspublished a large number of articles onpractical Christian life and counsel.With advanced training in Christian

http://www.c-n-c.org

counselling, he has been counsellingindividuals and couples, and alsofacilitating in counselling trainingprogrammes for many years. JacobNinan joined the editorial board of theChristian magazine Light of Life in2008, and is currently contributing aseditor, writer and web master. JacobNinan has been married to Susan for40 years. They stay in Bangalore, andthey have five grown up children andsix grandchildren.

You may contact the author [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

About the book

Pointers along the way are briefmessages on the practical Christianlife, originally sent out weekly throughemail to those who asked for them.Now, after completing 600 messagesthrough the grace of God, they havebeen compiled into six volumescarrying one hundred pointers each andpublished as e-books. They are alsoavailable on the web site www.c-n-c.org. New pointers are available onthe Facebook pagewww.facebook.com/waypointers andon the WhatsApp group ‘Pointers alongthe way’. You can subscribe to theemail at the web site.

http://www.c-n-c.org

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