When we are in Christ, we become the Lord Jesus’ slave which is to say we become a ‘slave to righteousness’ (Romans 6:18). What a great condition! We are bound to only be righteous, doing anything other than righteousness becomes unlike us. It is quite beautiful when you think about it, we who were ounce slaves to sin have become slaves to what is righteous. What a great master to serve! Indeed, not a bad way to live your life if it’s just to be doing righteous things all the time. However, as we Christians know too well, the reality is not as blissful as it sounds. While it is true that we have a new master, we have the old master that still wants us to submit to its rule so we are in a war constantly in our body. But thanks be to God, our new master who has secured victory for us so that we would be able to withstand the schemes of the old master if we learn to submit to God’s ways. Submission to God is key in our Christian walk, when we do that, it means we no longer have a say in well, anything and we become subject to what the Lord says and that alone. In this new life, we have to learn to live our lives loosely, not hold on to anything because the Lord Jesus might call us to renounce that. This is not new for the Christian and knowing this does not make it any easier to do. No matter how big our love for the Lord is, submitting to His will is often painful. This is simply because we also live in the flesh which is completely opposed to the spirit. So while we crucify the flesh for the sake of pleasing God, the flesh screams. I suppose only in heaven would we truly experience what it feels like to serve the Lord freely and joyfully without pain. This brings me to the three qualities that are needed by the Christian who has made it his aim to live in submission to the Lord as seen in the life of Paul and others. These are prayer, abiding and perseverance.
First, let’s look at the discipline of prayer which is the backbone of many other spiritual disciplines and of our Christian walk. Last week, I had the privilege of joining the young adults from my church in a session of street evangelism. It was a wonderful time despite the nerve it takes to go and speak to strangers about Christ. As I engaged with different people, I couldn’t help but realize how futile my efforts were in and of themselves. Not just my efforts but the group’s efforts. If the power of salvation resided on us or depended upon us, no souls would be saved. Thanks be to God, it belongs to Him as the scriptures say “salvation belongs to our God…”(Revelation7:10). It is God who saves, we are only instruments He uses to accomplish His purpose. Sometimes He uses us, other times He tells us to sit down. An exercise as simple as talking to people about Jesus shows plainly that we are depended upon God to save. The gospel, indeed is foolishness to the world, however, it is the power of God to save those who will believe (1 Corinthians 1:18)! How is that possible? Only God knows. This truth should cause us to fall on our knees for the souls of men. Indeed, prayer should be our first interaction and engagement with the Lord before we attempt to speak about the One true God to anybody. Prayer shows our dependency on God. It reveals to God that we are willing to submit our ‘wisdom’ and ‘knowledge’ to His. It shows that we know nothing of the mystery of salvation and it helps us focus on the fact that it is God’s idea anyway therefore God is the one we should be looking to in this matter. For who has understood the mind of God? Indeed “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgements and his paths beyond tracing out!” (Romans 11:33). I pray the Lord helps us realize how dependent on Him we are in this matter and others.
Second, abiding is what we are called to do by Jesus. There is a song we often sing at church and it’s called “Abide”. The song calls us to abide in Christ and it does so by reminding us of the various areas where we are depended upon God. We live in a culture where we have everything, we work for the things we have, our hands have acquired us what we have today. Because we have also made much progress as a society in terms of medical advancement and technology, we are very boastful and pride creatures, we think we do not need anybody to live; we take many things for granted if not everything for granted but that song reminds us, especially we who are followers of Jesus that we must abide in Christ and that we are depended upon Christ for things we trivialize like breath, sleep, waking up, being alive, remaining alive, the sun, eternal life, and so on. There is nothing we do while on this earth that does not make us dependent on our Father. We need Him for everything. He is the master, the vine and we are the branches. We must remain in Him so that He will remain in us. Apart from Him we can do nothing (John 15)! It is the grace of God to make the works of our hands prosper. When the works of our hands prosper, we ought to remember that it is not our own doing or our own intelligence that got us where we are but that it is God Himself who has made it possible for us to be prosperous (Deuteronomy 8:10-18). The temptation is usually too big for us to not gloat over what our hands have made just as it is a big temptation to not receive the praise from men for the works of our hands but the word of God tells us clearly that what we have comes from the Lord not us. Our portion, the moment we surrender our lives to Him is to abide in Him, to wait on Him and to let Him lead. We die to our desires and wants and let His desires take precedence. Even in this, prayer is necessary because we depend on Him for everything. We show through our prayer that we wait upon Him because we can do nothing apart from Him. We pray because we realize we need help to not fall into temptation, help to love the Lord and obey His commandments, help to please Him.
Finally, we must persevere. Giving up is not the portion of the follower of Christ, persevering and enduring is. Solomon says in one of the Proverbs, “for though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again” (Proverbs 24:16). “Rising again” is what the righteous does and for him to rise again it means he tried again. With such a mindset, it is no wonder that persevering is what we are called to do. We must carry on, we must tarry, we must advance, whether it be at a slow pace or a fast one, the bottom line is that we must keep going. That is why the word of God encourages us constantly to persevere. The disciples knew first hand that it was not easy to persevere but they also knew that it was the only way to attain “the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him” (James 1:12). Paul was a great example of perseverance in the face of adversity. Despite the struggles, he pressed on and so he wrote “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.” (2 Corinthians 4:8-9) It is evident that for Paul, persevering was the only way forward and the beauty is that he only saw the bright side of his circumstances. Paul had a living hope and that was evident in his writing. We too, have a living hope which means no difficulty or hardship in this life will be able to cancel that hope we have. That living hope is Christ Himself who has secured the victory for us. Therefore, with that reality in mind, we tackle any disappointment with hope, peace, patience because we know victory is ours.
So then, if like me, you struggle with your spiritual disciplines for whatever reason, know that there is still hope for you. Jesus Christ is still waiting to meet you, he is still ready to help you if you call on him. He is calling you to try again, to keep asking, to keep knocking, to keep searching for now is the time to find him. When you feel like giving up, cry out to God, lay your reasons before Him and surrender to Him. You may even say this little prayer that has always, and I repeat, always been answered by God whenever I have prayed it: “Lord if you help me, I will keep going”. Such a prayer tells the Lord that you are willing to continue to do what it takes to live an obedient life but at the same time it tells God that you cannot do it on your own. For our affections of Christ to grow, I believe that is where we should start, in prayer and end in prayer. The Lord Himself will empower us to persevere in our obedience to His word. How are your affections for Christ? Would you pray to the Lord about them? Would you surround yourselves with brothers and sisters that can encourage you in those? Would you engage in activities that will help you grow in those? I pray you do. Amen.
A Word Aptly Spoken 