What Do You Grasp?

June 25

"Just as a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him." Psalm 103:13

LET GOD BE GOD

To believe in God is to "let God be God." This is the chief business of faith. As we believe we are allowing God to be in our lives what He already is in Himself. In trusting God, we are living out our assumptions, putting into practice all that we say He is in theory so that who God is and what He has done can make the difference in every part of our lives. Os Guinness


As it is a blessing to be with those we love, with whom we empathize and with whom we share like precious faith, so it is a challenge to be among those who disdain us for what we believe, for Whose we are.

Our hope is that we can be to all men the light of Christ (Matthew 5:15) shining into their darkness; and we know the glory of His love through us shines most profoundly in the deepest darkness of their souls. We live with the sum total of the investment of kindness and love and faith we interject into the situations we face with those who denigrate our faith and disdain our hope. Perhaps that is our mission field. Perhaps that is our calling.

Perhaps your life is as it is right now because you are an example to someone. It is true that the ones who hurt you most are the ones to whom you have the potential to be the greatest example of the veracity of the gospel message. Those who have known only pseudo religion, who are totally immersed in lies and hatred, who have no grounding in or knowledge of Biblical truth; who have no understanding of real love, are the ones who most need to see the beauty of Christ that resides in you.

As Paul witnessed the love of Christ to his Roman jailer, it may be that the Holy One is allowing you to fulfill that role in the life of those who understand you least, who hate you most, who persecute you relentlessly. If that is so, the time will come when your faithfulness to the Lord will fulfill its purpose and you will reap the reward of your commitment to be faithful to Jesus. The likeliest of outcomes when you endure severe persecution are either you will gain a new brother in Christ or you will perish in the effort—and thereby gain God’s eternal promise.

Because life in time is not what you grasp, you must say as did Paul, “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain,” Philippians 1:21.