The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. May the grace of our Lord Jesus be with you. Romans 16:20
Do you think about eternity? How often do you think about it?
God calls us to believe and accept His free gift of forgiveness through the life and death of Christ. This is the Good News of Faith. We have the Good News of Hope. The good news of Christ causes us to maintain a hopeful perspective even in the midst of the difficulties and suffering of this life. God has given us the Holy Spirit to help us as we go through the process of sanctification. He, also, gives us the power over sin. We can embrace the good news with greater insight as we see God’s plan hasn’t changed. God wants us to start a relationship with him by faith, not by works or ancestry. As we build our relationship with God, we offer ourselves as a living sacrifice and allow Him to transform us. This allows us to bring His grace into our relationships.
Having a relationship with God is not about having a checklist of to -do’s. We don’t want to build a relationship with God as a habit of things to do and get done and go on our merry way. Every day we need to spend time with God, as we would with any other relationship. It needs to be real and authentic.
Read Romans 15: 1-13.
How should mature believers do when it comes to younger believers?
How does God help us that is right for all followers of Christ?
Paul gives a command that he repeated in Romans 14, what is this command?
Paul is teaching here that we as believers need to live in harmony with one another. We can all look at the good news and find common ground to help us live in harmony. We can disagree with one another and still love and respect each other. Ultimately, we need to give back the reigns to God and allow Him to do His thing and convict and speak to all of us of what He wants us to know and how to behave. We need to stop making minor differences a big deal.
We need to keep eternity in perspective. When we do this the gospel will take center stage and we will remember what matters most to God. God wants us to be unified and live in harmony. How is your harmony with your church family and other believers around you? Are they matching up to what God is asking of you? Are you criticizing or encouraging others? God is asking us to give grace to those who are weaker in Him. He is asking us to encourage them in their walk with Him. We must consider them. It doesn’t’ mean that we have to agree with them, however, we don’t’ have to argue with them on the gray areas. We can pray for them and leave the rest to God to help them sort out the gray areas of life. We can give them scripture to help them through the gray areas. Here are some questions with scripture to help you. No these questions and scripture references are not my ideas, I was given a card with these and they are good so I am passing them onto you.
- Do I need this? Heb 12:1
- Does it have a positive effect: 1 Corinthians 6:12
- Is this what Jesus would do? 1 John 2:6
- Is it going to enhance my testimony to a non-believer? Col. 4:5
- Will it build me up? 1 Cor. 10:23
- If I do this will it exalt the Lord? 1 Cor. 10:31
- If I do this will it st the right example for my Christian friends? Romans 14:13
- Will I be acting in freedom if I do this? 1 Cor. 6:12
We live to please God, no one else. He wants us to think and be considerate of others. We are not to be roadblocks to others that will affect their walk with God. We need to be the harmony so we can bring good news to the hurting world. If we are not in harmony with one another, all we are doing is harming others’ walk with Christ. Where does this leave things for eternity?
Dear Heavenly Father,
I pray that we will offer your grace to others in our lives. I pray that we will refocus our purpose of why we are here. I pray that we will focus on the good news and let is shine around and within us towards others. I pray that we will live in harmony and not get hung up on the little things that are not of high importance. I pray that we will focus on loving others and live in a way that will help others find you.
In Jesus Name
Amen
