Touch screen, smart phones, voice activated. This is our lives today, a fast pace society when pushing a few buttons can put you in a conversation with someone thousands of miles away within seconds. Push a couple buttons and you can cook anything within minutes that use to take an hour. Push a couple of buttons and you are in the largest library in the world.
We have conditioned our lives to a life of ease and speed while enjoying all the modern conveniences of the times, all because of technology. Because of technology, we want everything in minutes and sometimes even faster, yes, every one of us. We hit the drive-through's for coffee, sandwiches, order anything in the world online because we are too busy to go shopping.
Though this is amazing and sometimes even fun, once again, we are conditioning ourselves to have everything done in Superman style, faster than a speeding bullet.
There is one thing you will never speed up in minutes no matter how hard man tries, and that is character. It has become a real problem within the Church. It’s that adage, everyone wants the product, but no one wants the process.
Jesus said in Matt. 10, "He that endures to the end the same shall be saved."
Endure= to stay under, to remain, have fortitude, persevere, patiently, bear trials, stand.
God is not a Jehovah Jeannie where you rub the bible and watch Him appear just so He can perform for you and grant all your wishes in five minutes or less. Many of God’s promises are not fulfilled overnight. In fact, Hebrews 11 tells us that there were so many men and women of faith who never saw the promises, but still believed. They went through extreme situations, trials and persecution still, they believed and continued. Even while they made mistakes, God was building character because they continued and kept believing.
My concern is today believers want the promises without the pressing and the product without the process.
You can buy a house already framed, wired, painted, and placed on your parcel of land but that is just a structure. When you begin to cook meals, do laundry, wash the floors, play games with the kids, then have a cup of coffee in the morning, well, that’s a home. You have embraced all the good times and bad times, the comfort and irritations of life.
Don’t feel bad if some days you prayed that God would make life easier because even the Apostle Paul prayed something similar, only he asked for deliverance.
2 Cor 12:7 "And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong."
And there you have it. No quick fix. No rubbing the bible. No deliverance. In this case, God said, “I will give you grace, the ability to go through all the tough and long days and when you are through it you will see that you have become stronger.
I guess Paul then learned through that experience and many others that a few years later he said to the Philippian Church, (my paraphrased), “I don’t understand everything about life, but one thing I have learned and that is to let go of my past and all the difficulties life brings. I am now pressing forward and reaching toward the end of my race.”
One can only finish a race when one stays in the race. Whatever you are facing, even on your worse days, don’t give up. Keep pushing, keep pressing, keep persevering. It may be impossible in your strength but God’s grace is sufficient and will enable you to endure to the very end because ‘greater is He that is in you than He that is in the world’.
We have conditioned our lives to a life of ease and speed while enjoying all the modern conveniences of the times, all because of technology. Because of technology, we want everything in minutes and sometimes even faster, yes, every one of us. We hit the drive-through's for coffee, sandwiches, order anything in the world online because we are too busy to go shopping.
Though this is amazing and sometimes even fun, once again, we are conditioning ourselves to have everything done in Superman style, faster than a speeding bullet.
There is one thing you will never speed up in minutes no matter how hard man tries, and that is character. It has become a real problem within the Church. It’s that adage, everyone wants the product, but no one wants the process.
Jesus said in Matt. 10, "He that endures to the end the same shall be saved."
Endure= to stay under, to remain, have fortitude, persevere, patiently, bear trials, stand.
God is not a Jehovah Jeannie where you rub the bible and watch Him appear just so He can perform for you and grant all your wishes in five minutes or less. Many of God’s promises are not fulfilled overnight. In fact, Hebrews 11 tells us that there were so many men and women of faith who never saw the promises, but still believed. They went through extreme situations, trials and persecution still, they believed and continued. Even while they made mistakes, God was building character because they continued and kept believing.
My concern is today believers want the promises without the pressing and the product without the process.
You can buy a house already framed, wired, painted, and placed on your parcel of land but that is just a structure. When you begin to cook meals, do laundry, wash the floors, play games with the kids, then have a cup of coffee in the morning, well, that’s a home. You have embraced all the good times and bad times, the comfort and irritations of life.
Don’t feel bad if some days you prayed that God would make life easier because even the Apostle Paul prayed something similar, only he asked for deliverance.
2 Cor 12:7 "And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong."
And there you have it. No quick fix. No rubbing the bible. No deliverance. In this case, God said, “I will give you grace, the ability to go through all the tough and long days and when you are through it you will see that you have become stronger.
I guess Paul then learned through that experience and many others that a few years later he said to the Philippian Church, (my paraphrased), “I don’t understand everything about life, but one thing I have learned and that is to let go of my past and all the difficulties life brings. I am now pressing forward and reaching toward the end of my race.”
One can only finish a race when one stays in the race. Whatever you are facing, even on your worse days, don’t give up. Keep pushing, keep pressing, keep persevering. It may be impossible in your strength but God’s grace is sufficient and will enable you to endure to the very end because ‘greater is He that is in you than He that is in the world’.
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