1 Peter 5:6. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time.
And then it was Wednesday…another wonderful eye-opening day! (smile) Oh praise the Lord for His everlasting kindness, the incomparable gift of seeing another day in His incomparable universe! As the song says, ‘this is the day of grace,’ the day when His blessings overtake us and cause joy, peace and LOVE to rise up majestically and victoriously in our souls! Wow! No other supposed Deity even has the desire, much less the awesome power to do that for His followers.
Yes, friends, there is a true God, He is alive and looking down on mankind, His most wonderful creation with unconditional LOVE, and in Him we live, and we’ll survive, if we keep living in Him. His name is the Great I AM! But the crux of the matter, the answer to it all, is that we keep living in Him. If we do, we will be blessed and survive till eternity. However, if we don’t, we’ll be cursed and headed for destruction and eternal separation from Him forever.
Now, please believe me, eternal separation from the One and Only Living God is the worst thing that can happen to a body, soul, spirit or whatever you choose to call it. And how do we keep living in Him our whole lives? Peter gives us some examples in His epistle. ‘Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time. Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.’ (1 Pet. 5:6-7)
Oh my people, those are the first two steps to living successfully with our God! Knowing that He cares for us, and humbly going to Him, so He can later on exalt us, because there’s nothing He dislikes like pride and arrogance! Then Peter continues: ‘Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.’ (1 Pet. 5:8)
Now the real test begins. We must realize that we have an enemy, who only wants to deceive and trip us up as we try to live for our God. But the truth is that he has no real power over us, unless we give it to him. That’s why we need to be sober and vigilant, for though he might not have any real power, he is indeed a smooth talker and great deceiver. You just have to consider how he talked Eve into eating of the forbidden fruit way back in the Garden of Eden. And his methods have not changed, possibly have become worse since our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ defeated Him at Calvary and rose from the dead, a mighty conqueror of hell, death and the grave!
So Peter wisely directs us, re the enemy: ‘Whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in (experienced by) your brethren that are in the world.’ (1 Pet. 5:9) And that’s no lie friends! All of us who believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are tried and tested by the enemy in the hope that we will turn away from our God, and/or do things against His directives that will get us into His bad books. Therefore, it’s of the utmost importance that we stay alert and diligent in our life walk against the many temptations that the enemy will undoubtedly throw our way.
And when we do that, Peter promises: ‘But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish (confirm), strengthen, settle you. To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.’ (1 Pet. 5:10-11). Oh my fellow saints in Christ, isn’t that an awesome promise! Once we stand strong against the enemy, survive his tests, our great God will eventually strengthen and settle us. And what’s amazing about the whole situation is that those same temptations that we endure and refute are the exact things that help build our fate in our God!
So it’s exactly as we spoke about yesterday. The first thing is to draw near to God, for He will never turn us away, regardless of what state we’re in. Hear these scriptures that attest to that fact nuh. In this first one, Moses tells Israel: ‘For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them (a God so near to them), as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for?’ (Deut. 4:7) And the answer is an emphatic ‘NONE!’ And Jeremiah declared it thus in his Lamentations: ‘Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not. O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life.’ (Lam. 3:57-58)
Jesus, as always though, puts it best in the parable of the prodigal son. ‘And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.’ (Luke 15:20) Yes mih bredrin, our heavenly Father is always on the lookout for us, anxiously waiting for us to turn the corner, to come to our senses and know that with Him is our ONLY hope for a blessed, peaceful and LOVING life!
And you’ll notice that He doesn’t stand on any pomp or ceremony, He rushes forward to meet us, so great is His joy that we are coming back home to His safe and comfortable roost. He doesn’t even give us a chance to get in a word sideways, but orders a great celebration in our honour. He’s just so glad to see us come back home, not caring what we’ve done while we were gone. That could always be forgiven, though we might have to pay some retribution. (smile) Yeh friends, there are always consequences to our sins, thankfully though, through God’s mercy, not as much as we often deserve.
And I don’t know if you have realized that what I’m doing is taking us through the scriptures that we spoke of yesterday. I just couldn’t help spoon feeding us, (smile) because I know that most of us would be too busy to read those scriptures. And they do tie in nicely to Peter’s advice. Now hear this last scripture, that about hands and hearts being cleansed. Bruh David says it thus: ‘Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto to vanity (to an idol), nor sworn deceitfully.’ (Ps. 24:3-4)
So friends, you see what it takes to make it up to God’s holy hill – clean hands and a pure heart. That means we have work to do. And for those of us who are serious about doing it, let’s go home now declaring (yeahhh!) our Wednesday Wail, telling the world about our wonderful position in Christ Jesus.
Altogether now, in strong voice with sincere hearts. ‘Wednesday, Wednesday, Wednesday: I’m so glad to be alive on this Wednesday! Wednesday, Wednesday, Wednesday: Thank God the breath of life is still flowing through me on this Wednesday! I am halfway home. My hands are fixed securely on the plough, and I’m not turning back. I’m not looking back at the past, not focusing on what has gone before. But my eyes are fixed straight ahead; straight ahead to a glorious future with Jesus. Glory Hallelujah!’
And I should not have to remind us, but I will anyway, (smile) that if we endure to the end, the future will be even more glorious than we can ever imagine! Much LOVE!
…for there is much joy in heaven…over even one repentant sinner…
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