I hope you enjoy them and take away a new revelation of Jesus.
Let’s start
with the great news!
Galatians
5:1-6 It was for freedom that Christ set
us free; therefore, keep standing and do not be subject again to a NASB yoke of slavery.
Paul is
talking here about the difference in living under the law and grace. We think
that we have this covered but do we really? Anytime you start in with the “I
have to” thought process, you have the potential to fall from grace. Verse 4
refers to falling from grace and it is not our outward actions, it is in our
thought life. Falling from grace happens in our minds when we are leaving the
grace that Jesus gave us and going back to our self-effort. Freedom is when we
completely rely and trust in Him, and then the bondage of making things happen
ourselves goes away. Verse 6 states that in Jesus, it doesn’t matter what camp
you’re in, self-effort or grace, your trust in His love for you will make the
difference in breaking that yoke of slavery.
We have
heard this scripture and it can be comforting when you have a wayward child but
there is a lot more to it than this. It’s about how they view God and if they
keep their focus on Him. It is still a choice on their part.
Proverbs
22:6 Train up a child
in the way he should go, even when he is old, he will not depart from it.
Think about
who wrote this scripture, it was Solomon, and we are going to look at what
happened to him.
Solomon’s
father David had a heart for God even though he had a messy life, and it
appears that his son knew that. It looked like Solomon was on the right track because
he asked God for wisdom and it was granted to him along with many other things.
David covered Solomon in prayer in protecting his heart.
1
Chronicles 28:9 … Solomon,
know the God of your father, and serve Him with a whole heart and willing mind;
for
the Lord searches the hearts, and understands every intent of the thoughts.
1
Chronicles 29:18 O Lord … and
give to my son Solomon a perfect heart to keep Your commandments, Your testimonies
and Your statues, and to do them all, and to build the temple...”
When we read through Proverbs, we can see the
godly wisdom that Solomon had, and I believe many of them were written while he
was building the temple and kept his eyes focused on God.
We can see
that eventually; Solomon’s thought life got the best of him. After he was
finished with the temple for God and his own house, it appears that his mind
started to wander. God was not his focus anymore but now it was catering to his
fleshly desires.
1Kings
11:1, 3 Now King
Solomon loved many foreign women… and his wives turned his heart away.
1 Kings
11:5-10 Now the Lord was
angry with Solomon because his heart turned away from the Lord, the God of
Israel, who had appeared to him twice, …
I don’t know
about you, but I have thought that if I could only see God, it would make
things easier for me. We in verse 9, it says that God appeared to Solomon
twice. Appeared means the come into sight, become visible. We don’t know how
but we can read that Solomon had some sort of tangible experience with God and
it did not keep him from straying away. It’s not about our senses, it’s about
our thoughts.
Solomon went
from his focus on God and using God’s wisdom to reasoning in his own mind,
trying to figure things out on his own. Sometimes we can easily slip into our
own head and try to figure things out. I know that I have had that problem but
that is a very dangerous place to live because it leads you away from the
finished work of Jesus, which is the love of God.
Ecclesiastes
7:25-29 I directed my mind to
know, to investigate and to seek wisdom and an explanation, and to know
the evil and folly and the foolishness of madness.
Our
advantage over Solomon is that we have the Holy Spirit. Let’s look at the same
wisdom before and after the cross.
Proverbs
4:20-27 Watch over your
heart with all digilance, for from it flow the springs of life.
Philippians
4:4-9 And the peace of God,
which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds
in Christ Jesus.
Look at the
difference in these two scriptures. One says it is all up to you and the other is
grounded in what Jesus has done for you. When we are looking at God’s promises
and scriptures from before the cross, they should be read with Jesus in mind.
How His finished work affected that scripture. I am not saying that we don’t
have a part in this, our part is getting to a place where we are trusting in
the love! The only way to do that is to get to know Jesus and the only way to
do that is to read the Word and talk to Him.
Peter tells
us the same thing that Paul did in Philippians but in a slightly different way.
Peter would understand more than most, how important it is to trust in Jesus’
love. We put too much pressure on ourselves to do everything right when it’s
not about our performance but about His.
1 Peter
5:6-10 After you have
suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His
eternal glory
in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.
When we read
the words here that say, “suffered for a little while”, they can be very
misleading. This is not talking about physically suffering for Jesus, although
many do. “Suffered” is referring to experiencing a sensation or impression in
our minds and “little while” is puny, which is a very small amount of time.
Greek:
Suffered –
pascho – to experience a sensation or impression (usually painful).
Little while
– oligos – puny (in extent, degree, number, duration, or value); especially
neutral (adv.) somewhat
We are the
ones that choose how long we are going to “suffer” under the thoughts that are
not directed toward the finished works of Jesus. In the same breath, Peter
tells us that Jesus will perfect, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. This
does not say that you do it, it says that He will do it.
Our part is keeping
our focus on Him and receiving the free gift provided for us through Him!
