Sometimes I wish I had a real suit of armor. I was on Facebook not that long ago and I read a post about someone having a hard time in traffic. That’s where life can get you. Reading I reflected on my experiences. See I wish I had a suit of armor because I am a Christian, a disciple of Jesus Christ. He calls me to love, and when I get cut off in traffic or I have someone driving “unreasonably slow” on an unpassable stretch of road on my way to work when I am running late temptation seeps in. I want to get angry, swear and use some hand signals not so Christian-like. I want a suit of armor to protect me from that temptation, and then I smile for I see my folly. See God does offer a “Suit of Armor”, but I have to accept it and remember to put it on everyday. My suit of armor is God’s grace and I receive that by living like a Christian should. I am not going to lie. I am far from a perfect man. I am better than I used to be but far from perfect. I still have those “DOH!” moments from time to time, because I realize how easy it is and how foolish I am to not love the way God desire. God wants love in this world, that’s it. l am a spiritual being and when I can get into the “zone” with God then all is good. Problem is I am also part physical. My body pulls at me with its physical desires. I have often thought that God gives us bodies so that we can learn to love and overcome temptation so that we can love more easily if we get to Heaven. I don’t know thats a guess on my part. I have read about the battle where God had to throw down many of his Angels that he made out of Heaven cause they turned away from him. He loved them, made them from nothing out of love. I would imagine the experience to be rather heartbreaking. Everything in my life though depends on me. I have to accept Jesus and his ways. I have to take Jesus as my personal Savior and follow his example. By going to Church, becoming baptized in the Holy Spirit, Confirming my faith, partaking in Communion, and living a life God calls me to I get those doses of Grace to keep my suit of armor strong. On my own I might have a good day once in a while but with God’s grace and following his desires I can have a great day no matter how much traffic slows me down wrapped safely in his loving suit of armor.
1 John 3:13-18
13Do not wonder, brethren, that the world hates you. 14We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death. 15Any one who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. 16By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. 17But if any one has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? 18Little children, let us not love in word or speech but in deed and in truth.
Psalms 116:10-13, 16-17
10I kept my faith, even when I said, "I am greatly afflicted"; 11I said in my consternation, "Men are all a vain hope." 12What shall I render to the LORD for all his bounty to me? 13I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD, 16O LORD, I am thy servant; I am thy servant, the son of thy handmaid. Thou hast loosed my bonds. 17I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the LORD.
John 15:12-17
12"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. 14You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. 16You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide; so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17This I command you, to love one another.
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