Tuesday, May 10, 2005

Solomon's words in Ecclesiastes 9:5 have always made me stop and think. He says, "Just as you do not know the path of the wind and how bones are formed in the womb of the pregnant woman, so you do not know the activity of God who makes all things." There are some facts about life that are just hard to even comprehend. The one area that we will never figure out is the activities of God in this world. We know that His character is good and just and holy. His motives are always pure in all that He does. But the ways of God are beyond my scope of understanding. Even though I do not understand his ways, I can trust that His good pleasure in life will be good for me in Christ Jesus.


Oswald Chambers says of the passage "add to your faith virtue" (2 Peter 1:5).
“Add” means there is something we have to do. We are in danger of forgetting that we cannot do what God does, and that God will not do what we can do. We cannot save ourselves nor sanctify ourselves, God does that; but God will not give us good habits, He will not give us character, He will not make us walk aright. We have to do all that ourselves, we have to work out the salvation God has worked in. “Add” means to get into the habit of doing things, and in the initial stages it is difficult. To take the initiative is to make a beginning, to instruct yourself in the way you have to go.

It is really critical that we take the initiative. No one else is going to do the work for us. We have been given life through Jesus Christ. We are to live that life out. That means getting up and getting after what needs to be done. The greatest danger we face is sloth (emptiness about life that leads to laziness). We are never to let life overwhelm us, but realizes that Christ lives in us and we are called to live out the life that He lives in us. It is time to get up and get after life by the power of God.

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