20141026
Jesus promised us His great power when we have knowledge of Him! Knowledge, not information, implies that our relationship with Jesus must go beyond what we know of Him. This relationship with Jesus – what we think and feel of Him – must result in how we act on what we know about Him. Is He our Lord and Saviour who has redeemed us with His blood? Or is He a God who is real but not ours to claim or have a relationship with? The Bible in James 2:19 tells us that knowing about Jesus is not sufficient – “You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.” Let us seek the reality to know Him in our relationship with Him as our personal Lord and Saviour.
God’s divine power given to us leaves us with absolutely no excuse for not living godly lives. He has given us great and precious promises. He has given us everything we need to participate in the supernatural divine nature of peace and joy regardless of circumstances. However, often we fall into the trap of worrying and taking things into our own hands. Often we are trapped in our material world corrupted with evil desires.
With these lofty promises of God we make every effort, by God’s strength, to live consecrated lives filled with the Holy Spirit. Our Christian lives are to be characterised by faith, filled with goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness and love. If we can possess all these, we have no fear that we are not living Jesus-centred, productive lives. On the contrary, those who do not possess all these show the blurring of our spiritual eyes. We fail to view things in the light of what Jesus has already accomplished for us in dying for us on the cross at Calvary.
We are reminded to “make every effort to confirm our calling and election”. This is encouraging and challenging to all of us who proclaim ourselves to be Christians. Encouraging because God promises a rich welcome into His eternal kingdom. Challenging because it reveals the reality of a false/untrue calling or election. Let us all be sure of our salvation and also our relationship with Jesus, so that when the time comes, Jesus will not say to us: “I never knew you.” (Matt 7:23).
