Saturday, January 2, 2016

ABIDING IN CHRIST

What a difference abiding in Christ makes. Apart from Christ we can do nothing. Often we are distracted from abiding without even knowing it. We depend on our strengths and the busyness of the world that drowns out the voice of God in our lives. The past year I have been trying to walk up my prayer mountain and abide and meet with Christ. This time has been incredible. But again, everyday is filled with distractions to pull us away from what is most important "Abiding in Christ." You may think it is a coincidence that when you attempt to abide in Christ distractions come. Maybe some birds outside chirping, a dog barking, kids wanting to play with you, something interesting on TV, the phone rings, a interesting article in the newspaper grabs your attention, whatever it maybe. This is not a coincidence. This is Satan's one last attempt to distract you from doing what is most important. Satan knows that if you abide with the King he becomes powerless. When you abide with the King He speak words of power and life that defeats the powers of darkness. It is amazing how so many Christians have been distracted from abiding in Christ. Especially when Jesus says if you love me you will keep my commands. One of those commands is to abide in Christ, so that Christ will abide in you, for apart from Christ you can do nothing. When was the last time you abided with Christ? Crazy isn't? God showed me this past month an incredible illustration that He has been sharing with me my entire life. I love to take morning walks up on high mountain tops. I feel I am closer to heaven that way and it seems to move me away from all the distractions. Anyway God revealed to me the only way my ministry could be successful is if I went up to the mountain, kind of like Moses. When Moses came down from Mount Sinai (or from out of the tent of meeting) Moses face shown with the glory of God. But Paul tells us that was only a fading glory, we who are in Christ have a permanent glory that reflects through us forever. So how much more should the glory of Christ be shinning through Christians. Anyway, after being a pastor for over 20 years God has showed me that the only glory I can show to those who look to me for leadership, is His glory. How can I show that glory if I don't abide with the King. Anytime I want to reveal Jesus to the world I need to go up to my mountain and abide in Christ. When I abide in Him, He will abide in me. I can do nothing of myself unless I go up to the mountain and seek His glory so I can than come down from the mountain and reflect the glory of Christ to all those I serve. If I don't do this everyday all I reflect is a fading glory that only has a form of godliness, that deny's God's full power in and through my life. After twenty years of ministry my legs are becoming worn out. You see as a Pastor I need God's glory to reflect through me every second of everyday, so I need to take my walk to those mountain tops everyday. But you see, shouldn't that be the same for all Christians and not just pastors. I guarantee you this if you seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness you will not be disappointed. Abide in Christ and He will abide in you. What else do you need in life?

Prayer:

Father God makes us aware of how inadequate we are apart from Christ. Brings us to the point of brokenness and despair so we begin to depend on you, to seek you with all our hearts. Awaken our hearts to know the most important thing we can do on this side of eternity is to abide with Christ. Jesus has given us your glory to share with the world and the only way we can do that is if we abide. We become like the one we spend most of our time with, lets us be overwhelmed with your presence that there is no other place we would rather be. Let us become more and more like Christ everyday. Let our hearts understand that there is nothing more important than spending time with our Savior. Amen.

1 comment:

  1. Wait until you hear our last song on Sunday... It's perfect

    ReplyDelete