There Is Power In Turning Away – It Takes Discipline

Very often, we talk about “what we need to do that we may get or receive” from God which is not bad because we need to receive from God; however, it is also truth that sometimes what we need to do is ‘turn away’ which we hate to hear and appears to be tough but therein lies power. I have found that the real power or strength of a believer lies in his knowledge of what he should not do and his ability to ‘turn away or not do them.’  The more one lives the more there is to know about God and this has nothing to do with how intelligent or dull one is. Indeed, intellect, if not properly channeled, may pose a problem to knowing Him. I just wonder - can anyone fully know God? He is mysterious. No wonder the scripture says He has to be sought to be found. God is simple yet very deep. He is truly without ending. Simple as He is, if you interpret Him like man, you will never touch the depth of Him. No wonder it takes been quiet in one’s spirit to know Him. People of hasty spirit will easily misjudge God; like Job’s friends who got into trouble with God. If you want to really know Him, you have to make diligent search in His word and then believe your findings. You have to believe for Him to reveal more of Himself and believe enough to turn away. Turning from what He says to turn away from takes believing the word that says there is need to turn away from whatever it is. If we make the decision, grace enables us.

 

Titus 2: 12 “And we are instructed to turn away from godless living and sinful pleasures. We should live in this evil world with wisdom, righteousness, and devotion to God.”

 2 Timothy 1: 7 “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love and self-discipline.”

 Isaiah 1: 17a “Learn to do well.”

 

The things we abstain from because of God make us most powerful. We must learn to deny ourselves. Doing what God desires of us is something we must learn because it does not come to us naturally to do well; it is “acquired taste” available to every born again believer. It is only to the extent that we learn to do what is good in God’s eyes that we can then express it. The discipline to say 'no' despite what we feel is a must for every believer when faced with the option of either “turning way or doing what one feels.” It is sad to observe that we often choose the lesser option which is to do what we feel like and sadly that is the bane of my Country today; a Country full of church going believers yet making almost no impact.  Self – discipline/restraint is powerful and until we learn these things we cannot access most of what God ordained for us because the real power of a believer to access, fully, the blessing that God commands upon Him, is in what He is willing to turn away from. It is easier “to do” than to “turn away from” yet God calls us to that life of turning away from. Turning away, not from the things we dislike but from those He dislikes including some we may desire ourselves. Unfortunately for example, a lot of us would rather fast for 40 days than say no to self. For this is self- denial, without which we cannot follow Jesus. Any gospel that teaches us that because God understands our frailties, He will understand and accept that we continue in sin is not the gospel of Christ. Any gospel that tells us that wickedness is okay because it is as a result of our character weakness, is also not the gospel of Christ. Christ demands that we be transformed. Our refusal to deny self has cost us the true gospel and is going to cost us the loss of an entire generation coming behind us whom we have lied to because we have taught them a gospel that accommodates any and every thing; a very intelligent gospel which is in truth empty and is unable to reveal Christ in any life. Christianity is indeed, in trouble. The gospel of Christ cannot be intellectualized. Please don’t even try. No brain has the capacity to comprehend the depth of God. One has to be foolish enough to accept this reality for Christ to be revealed in them which then allows them access and receive the Holy Spirit who works the expansion of our understanding by giving life to our spirit man.

 1 Corinthians 3: 18 “Stop deceiving yourselves. If you think you are wise by this world’s standards, you need to become a fool to be truly wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God.”

Proverbs 5: 21 – 23 “For the Lord sees clearly what a man does, examining every path he takes. An evil man is held captive by his own sins; they are the ropes that catch and hold him. He will die for lack of self-control.”

 Hebrews 12: 11 “No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening-it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way.”

 Self-discipline is not the easiest. I want to drink coffee or eat cake anytime I feel like, which is often by the way, but I have to learn to say 'no' to myself. Most evil people are evil because of lack of self-control. Very often, the difference between a kind person and those we would like to call evil is the fact that when the kind person thought the evil, he brought his mind under control enough to expunge the thought and deny himself; but the one we refer to as wicked could not discipline himself enough to stop himself. Please let me add this, waiting for an extended period is not patient waiting. Patience has to do with attitude while waiting. Attitude is a key ingredient for it be patience.

Is Patience Still Relevant In Today’s World

In today’s world where everything is a ‘need needed now’, is patience still relevant? I know the bible talks about it but can we be “the head” that we are called to be if we are patient in a world where everyone is in a hurry? There are some seemingly little things God mentions in His word that seem irrelevant or not too important in this present world but form the bedrock of a successful Christian life. Unfortunately, these things are also not often mentioned in church anymore. They are too simple and everyone wants to share new and exciting things forgetting that God is the same yesterday, today and forever. No matter how exciting we want to make Him so that He will be appealing to our audience, He is unchangeable: when we try too hard, we preach another gospel instead of the gospel of Christ which is indeed simple. God is not complicated but we make Him very complicated because our old man is of the devil who is the master of complications and as such, we are used to complications. The man who walks with God is as simple as His God is. Don’t try to complicate Him. We are to be like Him and not the other way round.

 

2 Corinthians 11: 3 “But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.”

 

This past Tuesday patience was a major part of my Pastor’s sermon and I was deeply blessed. It was good to be reminded that patience, one of those things that form the bedrock of a successful Christian life, is not obsolete in this “microwave world” we live in; because like contentment, it is hardly mentioned even in church. Believers don’t want to hear about contentment and patience so we don’t talk about them anymore. We all want everything now, and mostly because someone else has them, notwithstanding the length of time they took to get them. We also forget that we are all different and made to fulfill different purposes. Furthermore, we forget that even if our purposes are the same, our journeys and timing may be different depending on what we can endure so that the least we can do is appreciate that God is all wise and never confused. He knows what He is doing and has great reasons for the way He elects to do what He does. The sooner we know this the more joy we would have and the more fulfilled our lives will be and the more pleasing we would be to God who desires that we present ourselves to Him acceptable sacrifices albeit living. It would be sad to think that one is a believer only to get to the end and find that they were not acceptable because they lacked patience and/or contentment which I dare to suggest, work together. Contentment aids patience and it comes from inside of a person making the person acceptable to him or self, whilst the person is trusting God for what He has promised. Unless and until a person chooses to be content, there is no forcing the person to be.

 

1 Timothy 6: 6amp “(And it is, indeed a source of immense profit, for) godliness accompanied with contentment (that contentment which is a sense of inward sufficiency) is great and abundant gain.”

 

Exodus 13: 12 “When Pharaoh finally let the people go, God did not let them along the main road that runs through Philistine territory, even though that was the shortest route to the Promised Land. God said, ’if the people are faced with a battle, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.”

 

Unfortunately for the Israelites, God did not tell them why He made the decision to take them on the longer route. We know today because we read the bible and see the reason but I can imagine how bad they must have felt especially if they knew there was a shorter route. We have to learn patience. A lot of us would have truncated our journey to our promised land because we just must go on that shorter route. The Oxford dictionary describes patience as the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, problems, or suffering without becoming annoyed or anxious. Attitude is a vital part of waiting. Interestingly, God in His mercy sometimes accommodates us even despite our bad attitude for such is the love of God, but the attitude in itself has the capacity to ruin everything. It is very sad to note that because of our impatience, we develop our own journeys which God will not travel with us. Though as believers, we ought to be able to say with confidence that He knows the way we take, God does not know the way a number of us take yet we are fine with it as long as we arrive at our desired destination. Unfortunately, for it to be success by God’s standard, the way or means is just as important. A number of those ‘little foxes’ that ruin our walk with God like envy, jealousy and such like, are fueled by impatience. If we can only be patient, our time will come. Sometimes, those other people started before us so that God may be unjust in that situation if He put us ahead of them when they have not fallen short.

 

Job 23: 10 “But he knows the way where I am going. And when he tests me, I will come out as pure as gold.”

Are you loyal to Jesus Christ?

Loyalty is an unwavering commitment to a relationship and/or person(s). To a large extent, it determines the depth and strength of any relationship but it appears to be one of those things slipping away and becoming irrelevant in today’s world. No matter how sweet a relationship may seem, the test of loyalty is always required to determine its strength and true sweetness. Reality is that as life goes on, every relationship will be tested and our relationship with Christ is no different. Loyalty cost something; a price that some don’t have in them to pay and are unwilling to acquire but this is slowly destroying the church of Christ. These are people who don’t mean harm but they are only loyal to themselves so that they can flake out on anyone, without considering the consequences, immediately they feel the relationship is no longer meeting their need. That word means nothing to them. Sadly, they are beginning to make loyalty look like stupidity, making fun of loyal people, taking full advantage of them and even going to the extent of trying to “enslave” them so that loyal people feel compelled to move away from being loyal in trying to enforce their individuality and/or “right to liberty” in Christ.  This is the problem of some believers even today. A big problem because not only are we not true friends to one another, we are unable to return the true friendship that Christ offers us and desires in return.

 

Proverbs 17: 17 “a friend is always loyal, and a brother is born to help in time of need.”

 

Psalms 78: 35 - 37 “Then they remembered that God was their rock, that God most High was their redeemer. But all they gave him was lip service; they lied to him with their tongues. Their hearts were not loyal to him. They did not keep his covenant.”

 

Jesus lays down the rules for a relationship with Him which disloyal persons will be unable to adhere to much as they may desire to be His disciples. Loyalty is deep and may require of one what one never thought of or even bargained for and such is the reality of our walk with God but we are moving away from it and tending more toward selfishness. Selfishness and disloyalty are promoted in today’s world and these are real issues for Christianity and even society at large. These facilitate corruption and every evil work. We have been lured into a snare where in making fun of and taking advantage of loyal people, we actually abuse them without meaning to thereby attempting to destroy that godly nature just in our bid to promote selfishness and/or disloyalty but this is slowly destroying persons, families and society. Though we claim to be Disciples of Christ, we are extremely selfish creatures and even teaching it to our children so that we are sowing our evil into generations of believers following after us. Interestingly, to every disloyal person, everyone is also suspect because they interpret everything through their very myopic minds and slowly our fellowship is dying because love isn’t real without loyalty. Fellowship speaks of relationships and that is God’s plan for us but how can we then fellowship meaningfully when we are all guarded and very suspicious of one another. Trust is completely lacking and maybe not without reason but is this really love?

 

John 13: 35 “Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

 

I hope I am not getting old too fast but I seem to recall a time when if a believer did something wrong, and one is unable to let them know or maybe it would be inappropriate for the one who saw them to make the corrections, they could speak to someone who was better positioned to make the correction; but today, it may be tough because it would be referred to as gossip and no one wants that label so we all say nothing and more people are self - destructing but is that love? We see children doing wrong and we can’t tell persons better positioned to speak to the child’s parents because we would be referred to as gossips. This pattern started with people being unable to speak truth because they would be labelled judgmental and no one likes that. So people just got away with doing anything since we all don’t want to be judgmental but our faith is slowly getting destroyed and we are losing the liberty we once had in Christ. The openness and sincerity with wish we related because we were loyal to Christ and therefore to one another since our relationships were rooted in Christ. Loyalty was celebrated and everyone desired to be absolutely loyal to Christ. In being loyal to Him, you saw through His eyes and as a result you loved and were loyal to everyone He is loyal to. False brethren have crept in and are truly stealing the liberty we once had in Christ. Christ demands loyalty otherwise He would not require us to carry our cross. If you are loyal to Him, you will pay the price required and continue to pay it to the end. It is time to think very deeply so that we do not end up losing our salvation as well as mislead generations coming after us.