THE DIVINE EMPOWERING

 

 

Philippians 2:12 - 13 (ESV)

 

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

 

            A verse that we have often read and heard is Philippians 2:12 where we are commanded to work out our salvation with fear and trembling.  Some have misunderstood this verse, thinking that we need to work to earn our salvation.  However, this command calls us, not to work for our salvation, but to live out the saved life.  We all know salvation is something not earned but given us by God out of His grace, a gift given to undeserving people like myself.  We know also that genuine saving faith must be seen in how we live out our Christian witness through word and works, for faith without works is dead (James 2:17).  Faith and works are not mutually exclusive, each falling on the opposite side of the spectrum, but rather, interconnected.  While it is faith in Christ alone that brings about salvation,  the life of godliness should be the outflow of that salvation. 

 

            The problem when we take this command out of its context is that we may end up thinking that living the Christ-like life is all up to us.  Salvation has been given us by grace, but living the life of sanctification is now totally dependent on my own strength and will.  This will result to us becoming driven to perform and leading to despair because, if we are honest, we know we are unable to fulfill the command.  On my own, it is impossible for me to walk with the Lord every day in fellowship,  to love others sincerely and sacrificially, and to shine His light in the dark places of this world.  Attempting to live the Christian life on my own strength has led to seasons of frustration and weariness.  It is because I would end up doing things according to my own understanding and my own way, my "default setting", so to speak.

 

            Thankfully, we are not left to our own device when it comes to living out our salvation.  Paul, in Philippians 2:13, tells us that it is God who works in us, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.  Sanctification, just like our salvation, is all a matter of the grace of God.  Just as God makes us positionally righteous because of the work of Christ, He also enables us to live righteously through the enabling of His Holy Spirit.  It is no wonder Paul would confidently write near the end of this epistle, "I can do all things through Him who strengthens me (Philippians 4:13)".  He knew that the key to effectively working out one's salvation lies not within himself but in God.  Yes, he still needed to do his part by obeying the Lord's commands, but he was confident that God will give him the grace needed to live the sanctified life.  Instead of settling for our "default setting", we are to use our new "custom setting", to live the Christ-like life by the enabling of the Holy Spirit, by allowing Him to have His way in us, to lead us.  We are to cooperate with God if we want to be able to live out our salvation. 

 

            To help illustrate this truth, think of how a baby grows.  For a baby to grow, the parents must feed him or her with nutritious food.  However, it is equally true that for the baby to grow, he or she must eat the food offered by the parents.  God has given us grace to help us mature in our walk with Him; we must do our part by accepting that grace and doing what he would want for us to do. 

 

            I like how Pam Mark Hall described the need for God's provision in her song, "Love Supply What Love Demands".  In the song, she confessed that she needed God's love in order for her to be able to love others.  She also established the fact that she needed God to provide what He requires and that God graciously gives this help to us.  There is also a song by Scott Wesley Brown entitled "Grace Alone" where everything we do for the Lord that brings blessing to others is possible only by the grace of God, thus we must go forth, meaning we must walk the path of holiness, in grace alone. 

 

God wants us to live out our salvation with fear and trembling; He makes sure to provide us with the enabling to do so.  This is how we should walk the path of sanctification.  Anything less than the enabling of the Lord will surely lead to us falling short in our effort to be holy and to be like our Lord Jesus.  We all need to make the conscious decision to let God empower us as we do our part diligently. 

FEAR NOT!

 

 

Isaiah 41:10 (ESV)

 

fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God;

I will strengthen you, I will help you,

I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

 

Six months have passed since the start of government-imposed lockdown as part of the measure to control the spread of COVID-19 and we aren’t seeing much improvement as the number of cases continue to rise.  These past six months have placed upon each of us enormous pressure and testing and it is so easy for us to surrender to our fears and anxieties.

 

For some, we fear contracting the virus, especially when we have other health issues.  For others, they are worried about the economic impact of the lockdown on the profitability of their businesses.  Some are currently unemployed as a result of the economy slowing down and this has led to anxieties about how they’re going to survive without money to buy essentials.  This pandemic has indeed heightened our fears and anxieties to new highs.

 

However, instead of succumbing to fear, the Lord lovingly commands us, “FEAR NOT”.  Instead, He wants us to remember His PROMISE, His PERSON, and His PROVISION. 

 

PROMISE. God has promised that He will be with us.  In Deuteronomy 31, as Moses passed the mantle of leadership to Joshua, he reminded him that God would never leave or forsake him as he leads the people of Israel into the Promised Land.  Moses made sure Joshua understood God’s promise because it was repeated twice (v. 6 & v. 8).  The promise of God’s presence holds true for us today, even as we face the challenging times brought about by the pandemic.  Knowing that God has promised and that He never lies, we need not be afraid or anxious over what is happening around us.

 

PERSON.  The one making the promise is God Himself.  What this means is His promise is guaranteed 100%.  He not only has good intentions for us, He has the power, the means, and the wisdom to fulfill what He has promised.

 

PROVISION.  The promise of God’s presence is seen in His empowerment, His help, and His upholding us in our time of trouble.  He provides all these generously when we ask from Him.

 

Fellow pilgrim, are you anxious and afraid because of the pandemic and the outcome it produced?  The Lord is telling us right now, FEAR NOT.  Will you heed His command?

When Praying Seems Difficult

When Praying Seems Difficult

- Alexander Uy

Romans 8:26 – 27 (ESV)

²⁶ Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. ²⁷ And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

    Have we ever found it hard to pray, like the words just evade you and you can't express yourself? I know this feeling. I've been through it quite a number of times especially during the seasons of life that I feel abnormally sad and listless and I wonder what is happening to me. While I read the Word regularly, it seems that they bounce right off me, having no effect whatsoever. While I try to pray, yet I am unable to pray with the right words. During these moments of being “stuck in the mud”, I sometimes wonder if God understands and knows what I am going through.

    The apostle Paul most likely felt the same way at times, yet he discovered an important truth that helped him through tough moments. In Romans 8:26 – 27, Paul wrote about the Holy Spirit helping us in our time of weakness. One way in which the Holy Spirit helps us is in the area of prayer. The Holy Spirit is interceding on our behalf and He understands even the groanings of our hearts. When we don't understand what we are going through, rest assured, the Holy Spirit knows and He is bringing us before God's throne of grace, knowing that we are in need of help. He also prays in accordance to the will of God, an assuring thought as this means His prayers on our behalf are sure to be answered as they will not go against God's will for us. And it is because the Holy Spirit is praying for us according to God's will that all things then work for good to those who love God (Romans 8:28).

    In the moments when you are weak and you don't know what you ought to be praying for, hold on to the truth that the Holy Spirit is praying on our behalf and He is helping us in our time of weakness. He is indeed our advocate, our helper!

Lord, Open My Eyes!

 

“Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them. . . O LORD, please open his eyes that he may see.”

2 Kings 6:16, 17 (ESV)

            The COVID-19 pandemic has struck fear in the hearts of a lot of people.  There are those who are fearful of the financial and economic repercussions that the lockdown has brought about.  For them, there seems to be no relief in sight for their financial woes.  Then there are those who are afraid of being infected by the disease for which there is no vaccine available as of the moment. 

            But even without this disease, we are prone to becoming fearful.  We fear for our present situation.  We fear about the future.  We fear for our safety.  We are anxious about the performance of our stock portfolio.  This is because our hopes have been misplaced in things that are uncertain. 

            Elisha's servant was afraid for his life when he saw the army of the King of Syria surrounding the city of Dothan.  From a numerical standpoint, he knew that Israel would be no match for the Syrians.  If Syria succeeded in conquering the city, it would signal the end of his life as well as that of his master and of all the residents of the city.  It seemed to be a dark and ominous certainty than just being a mere possibility.  Yet, we find his master, the prophet Elisha, calm and unperturbed by the presence of the Syrian army.  As it was early in the morning, Elisha may have been enjoying his breakfast while watching the massive swarm of soldiers readying themselves to attack the city and to capture him.

            Why was Elisha calm even though there was a great reason to fear?  It was because he recognized an important spiritual truth, that those who were on his side were much more than those who oppose him.  Elisha was referring to the presence of the LORD and His massive and far superior army of angelic beings.  This servant may have been unconvinced by Elisha's answer; thus, Elisha prayed that the LORD would open his eyes.  Then, the servant saw for himself that the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire surrounding Elisha (2 Kings 6:17).  God was protecting Elisha as well as the city of Dothan.  There was indeed nothing to be fearful about.

            God's presence with His people during this time of crisis should ease our fears.  God has not abandoned us; He continues to be with us to comfort, to strengthen, to embolden us.  He will protect us.  We need only to trust that God is able and is willing to protect us.  We need to stop trembling in fear and to start praising the LORD for His presence and protection; choose to believe that the LORD is on the side of those who acknowledge and fear Him.  If God is for us, who can stand against us (Romans 8:31)?

Let Your Light Shine!

Matthew 5:16 (ESV)

… Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

An article entitled “Atheists in Praise of Christianity?” was published on May 19, 2020 by a website called www.stream.org. In the article, author Jonathan Van Maren wrote on how a growing number of atheists are acknowledging that Christianity was responsible for transforming the world. He cited the book of historian Tom Holland (not to be mistaken with the Spiderman actor!), Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World, wherein Holland makes a historical defense of Christianity. Holland cited how Christianity changed the world for the better such as the teachings on sex and marriage, and on the elevation of the status of women as being equal with men. Holland would point out that without Christianity, the world would not have perceived the wrongfulness of social injustice.

Holland is not the sole atheist defending Christianity. Others mentioned in the article included Douglas Murray who believes that the decline of Christianity has led to the rejection of the sanctity of human life. Even the most outspoken atheist of our generation, Richard Dawkins, has admitted that Christianity has good effects on society. Psychologist Jordan Peterson wrote that without Christianity, cruelty is inevitable. While these scholars will not go so far as to say that Christianity is true, they are starting to believe that Christianity is necessary.

While the Christian faith can be defended rationally like what the late Rev. Ravi Zacharias was famously known for, what seems to speak loudest to people who are outside of the Faith are not the carefully crafted defense of the Christian faith, though they are needed. Instead, what spoke loudly and clearly to people, even to the scholastic atheists, is that the way the early Christians took their faith seriously and lived it out carefully has radically affected the world in a positive way.

Ravi Zacharias said, “We are living in a generation that listens with its eyes and thinks with its feelings. If they cannot see the gospel in you and me they will not feel the persuasion of what you and I are trying to present to them.” The truth is important, but if we don’t live out the truth, then who is going to believe our message?

It is no wonder that our Lord Jesus commanded us to let our light shine before others so that others may see our good works. It is when people see the consistency of our life with our words that they will be attracted to the Christian faith. It is when we faithfully obey God’s Word, as seen in our actions and in how we treat others, that people will then give us a fair hearing as to what we have to say regarding our Lord Jesus.

Do people know that you are a Christ-follower when they see how you live your life? How you treat others well? Are your words truthful yet loving? Do they know that you stand for the truth and for justice even in small ways? Our faithfulness to Christ as seen in our way of living speaks loudly; even atheists and agnostics are paying attention. Live for Jesus every day. Do good to others. Then declare why you live in such a manner – that it is all about Jesus.

(for those interested in the article, this is the link: https://stream.org/atheists-in-praise-of-christianity/)