LIVING LIKE GOD IS YOUR GOD

God wants us to live trusting Him. He wants us to be faithful to Him. He wants us to know what it’s like to have Him fulfill our lives and give us all that we need. He wants to bless us. When you become a believer in Jesus Christ He wants you to live in such a way that honors Him, and that way of living will certainly be different than a lot of the people around you. Not that God wants you to be odd, but instead of adapting to the ways of the world that are all about serving self, He wants us to live with His values that serve Him and honor Him. When we do, God uses us to point others to Him. He gets the attention. He gets the glory. And the people around you are either drawn to Him through you or they may keep their distance.

When the people of Israel entered the land promised to them by God, He wanted them to live trusting Him and serving Him. He wanted them to live pure lives, separate from the ways of the other nations. In so doing God would use them to testify of Himself, and the other nations would have a visual of God’s reality through Israel. They would have the opportunity, after hearing about Israel and the one true God, to turn to Him in belief. So God tells His people: “When you come to the land that the Lord your God is giving you, never learn the disgusting practices of those nations. …You must have integrity in dealing with the Lord your God.” Deuteronomy 18:9,13 (GW). The people of Israel were set apart to God for His purposes, and they were to live according to His purposes which would in turn invite His blessings on them. This would be a witness to the other nations.

Here are four things we can do to live like God is our God:


1. Grow.
“In a word, what I'm saying is, Grow up. You're kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.” Matt. 5:48 (Mes)

2. Purify.
Let's make a clean break with everything that defiles or distracts us, both within and without. Let's make our entire lives fit and holy temples for the worship of God. 2 Cor. 7:1 (Mes)

3. Go forward.
Yet, my brothers, I do not consider myself to have “arrived”, spiritually, nor do I consider myself already perfect. But I keep going on, grasping ever more firmly that purpose for which Christ grasped me. Phil. 3:12 (Ph)

4. Live the new you.
Could it be any clearer? Our old way of life was nailed to the cross with Christ, a decisive end to that sin-miserable life—no longer at sin's every beck and call! … Throw yourselves wholeheartedly and full-time—remember, you've been raised from the dead!—into God's way of doing things. Sin can't tell you how to live. After all, you're not living under that old tyranny any longer. You're living in the freedom of God. Rom. 6:6-7, 13-14 (Mes)

THE BLESSING OF THIRST

“I will pour water upon him who is thirsty”, Isaiah 44:3 (Amp)

God chooses to bless people. He provides for them. He satisfies them. But there is a prerequisite in order to receive His blessings and inner satisfaction. He says He will “pour water on him who is thirsty.” Those who are thirsty for Him and His truth are the ones who are satisfied. He doesn’t satisfy everyone; only those who recognize their own spiritual drought. And they thirst for God.

Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” Matthew 5:6. We must be thirsty for righteousness before we are satisfied. That means thirsty for what God says are the “right things and the right way of living.” In other words God provides a way for us to live that pleases Him and satisfies us. And we discover that we thirst for that kind of life, and it can only be found in Christ. Jesus said, “Whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4:14. Drink from the “Living Water” and you experience the fullness of life welling up in you.

If you want to know heart-felt complete satisfaction, thirst for the ways and truths of God. He will supply everything you need and fill you with His grace.

PERSONALLY DESIGNED BY GOD

Your hands made me and formed me; give me understanding to learn your commands. Psalm 119:73

God made you and formed you. You’re handmade by God. He continues to form you and shape you. He’s more concerned with what’s inside than what’s outside. He looks at the inner you. He is shaping and making your character. He is more concerned with your character than your convenience and comfort. Job said “Your hands shaped me and made me,”…“Did not he who made me in the womb make them? Did not the same one form us both within our mothers?” Job 10:8; 31:15.

As a believer in the Lord, you belong to Him. You are not your own. You are His. Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Psalm 100:3.

The Lord already has plans for you. The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me; Psalm 138:8. He has a purpose for you and He will work it out for your life. After all, He made you and He made you on purpose for a purpose.

The Lord has recorded the exact number of days you will live. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. Psalm 139:16 (NLT). God has given you an exact number of years and days, down to the hour and minute of life. He has recorded your starting time and your stopping time.

God sent you with instructions in order to accomplish your purpose in a specified amount of time. He personally handmade each of us for a unique purpose. Be who God created you to be because you’re the only one who can do what God created you to do.

YOUR MEASURE OF FAITH

The Apostle Paul said, “For by the grace given to me, I tell everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he should think. Instead, think sensibly, as God has distributed a measure of faith to each one”. Romans 12:3 (HCSB)

Every Christian does not have the same measure of faith. Every Christian does not have the same spiritual gifts. Every Christian doesn’t have the same abilities. Every Christian doesn’t have the same opportunities. Your measure of faith is from God. It’s what He gave you. He gave each of us a certain amount of capacity to believe. And that’s what we’re responsible for.

Don’t compare yourself with others and their faith. They have a different measure of faith, and they are responsible to God for their measure of faith. It may be more. It may be less. It may be with many opportunities. It may be with few opportunities. It’s useless and counterproductive to compare. You can only be who God gave you the faith to be. Your influence for Christ will look different than someone else's and their influence will look different than yours.

What’s important is that we develop to the fullest the gifts, abilities, opportunities, and measures of faith God has given each of us, while at the same time accepting the limits of our measures of faith. This helps us to accept who God made us to be.

The Bible teaches that as you exercise the amount of faith you have, the opportunities to use it will increase. Then your opportunities to trust God will increase. This is what Jesus teaches in the Parable of the Talents, and He concludes by saying, “For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have more than enough. But from the one who does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.” Matthew 25:29 (HCSB)

God measures out the opportunities for you, and He’s give you a measure of faith for those opportunities. Use them to the fullest and take joy in becoming who God created you to be.

GOD’S PEOPLE, GOD’S GLORY

The prophet Isaiah said, In that day the remnant left in Israel, the survivors in the house of Jacob, will no longer depend on allies who seek to destroy them. But they will faithfully trust the LORD, the Holy One of Israel. A remnant will return; yes, the remnant of Jacob will return to the Mighty God. But though the people of Israel are as numerous as the sand of the seashore, only a remnant of them will return. Isaiah 10:20-22a (NLT).

The Lord delivered a remnant from Assyria and from the judgment Israel deserved because of their unfaithfulness to the Lord. The Lord called them to completely trust Him and return to Him as their God. They would be spared complete destruction.

Today the church is being called out of the world. In a sense it is a remnant delivered from the destruction of God’s final judgment. One of the purposes of the members of this remnant as the church is to be used of the Lord to call other “believers-to-be” out from the world. The Apostle Paul elaborates on this in his letter to the Christians in Ephesus… God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. … He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. … Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for he chose us in advance, and he makes everything work out according to his plan. God’s purpose was that we Jews who were the first to trust in Christ would bring praise and glory to God. And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago. Ephesians 1:5-13 (NLT).

Everyone in this world will not be forgiven and saved and go to Heaven. And as much as you would like to, you can’t save the world, and neither can I. But that’s not our job. Our job is to use every opportunity to work at leading people to become followers of Christ. We don’t know who will become a believer in Christ and who will not. Some will accept and some will reject. Some will say “no” now and later decide to welcome Jesus into their lives. Fruit doesn’t ripen all at the same time. Your responsibility and mine is to keep going, keep fishing, keeping looking for the fruit that’s ripe, and lead those we find ready to Christ. And God is glorified by His church.

FOLLOWING GOD’S PLAN

The Apostle Paul said:
“I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain, and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith, so that through my being with you again your boasting in Christ Jesus will abound on account of me”. Philippians 1:23-26

Paul was talking about feeling pressured from two directions: to go home to Heaven and be with Christ, or remain for the progress of the Gospel for the people’s sake. He saw that remaining was better for them.

Paul had a sacrificial attitude. He gave up his preference in order to serve the people at Philippi for the progress of the Gospel. You get to choose one of two plans for living out your life; your plan or God’s plan for you. The opportunity is to choose God’s plan and experience a rewarding fulfilled life. Proverbs 19:21 says, Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.

According to the verse in Philippians 1:23-26, following God’s plan involves:

1. Sacrifice and putting aside your preferences.

2. Serving others more than yourself.

3. Being convinced of God’s plan for your life.

4. Jesus Christ is exalted.

Really living is living out God’s plan for your life by serving others. Make the year ahead of you a year of service and live God’s way.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, Philippians 2:6-9

What a gracious, loving Savior we have. May Jesus be exalted in your Christmas celebration. We hope and pray you have a joyful and blessed Christmas.

          David and Charlyn