Beloved: grace and peace be yours without measure from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. I give thanks to God for safely bringing us into the last week of this month, the month of March 2023. And I pray that He will also succeed in making our lives all that He intends them to be, according to His good purpose, in Jesus’ name.
Amen.
Now one may wonder if God can truly fail in accomplishing what He desires in people’s lives. But the word of God shows us that God can actually fail in fulfilling His good purpose in a man’s life. Why? It is because the fulfilment of God’s good purpose in our lives does not depend on God alone; it also depends on us. Yes, the fulfilment of His purpose in our lives also depends on our response to the word of His grace.
The bible says God’s word of grace is able to build us up and deliver our inheritance in Christ Jesus to us (Acts 20:32). But His word will not automatically build us up, if we do not humble ourselves to accept it and to act accordingly. Also, His word will not make us possess and enjoy our inheritance in Christ, if we will not wholeheartedly embrace and practise it.
For example, as we are further shown in the bible, even though God brought the Israelites out of Egypt with the sole purpose of taking them into a land flowing with milk and honey, He could not bring many of them into it. Why? It was because of their attitude towards His word. Most of them did not take His word coming to them seriously. And their attitude towards His word was so bad that Moses once said to them, “You have been rebellious against the Lord ever since I have known you.” (Deut 9:24NIV)
Now think carefully about that. Moses pastored these people for about forty years or so and taught them everything they needed to know about the will God. Yet his testimony about them was they had always been rebellious and unwilling to follow the Lord wholeheartedly. So, for forty years, those people heard the word of God but refused to accept it or be changed by it. No wonder they never mature spiritually. No wonder most of them never made it to the land of their inheritance.
Unfortunately, many of God’s people today are not much different from these Israelites that Moses pastored. Though they have been in the church for years, they have refused to humble themselves before God’s word. So, if their leaders would testify about them, they also would most likely say, “You have been rebellious ever since I have known you,” or “You have been an adulterer ever since I have known you,” or “You have been stingy and selfish ever since I knew you.”
Perhaps this is the case with you. Perhaps it is this kind of bad testimony that your leader has to give about you. The word of God is coming to you again and saying, “You don’t have to continue like this, when you can repent and be set right.” And if you will listen to what He is saying to you and humble yourself and repent of your errors, He will forgive you and cleanse you of all your unrighteousness. Then His good purpose will begin to fully find expression in your life.
But if you refuse to listen to what God is saying to you and continue in your path of rebellion, pride, immorality, selfishness, stinginess or laziness, then, know that you can go on like that for the remaining days of your life and never become the person God wants you to be or enjoy the things He wants you to enjoy in this life. My prayer is that your heart will be rid of any form of stubbornness that is keeping you from yielding yourself to God and His good word that is coming to you. Amen.
Have a blessed week.
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