(The following is the weekly devotion of 10-9-08 from my friend Pastor Steve Pochop, Pastor, Abundant Grace Church, Sheffield, AL.)
How many times have we as Christians fallen down. I am not talking about literally falling down, but stumbled in our walks as Christians? PROVERBS 24:16, "For a righteous man may fall seven times and rise again, but the wicked shall fall by calamity." Why is it that we as Christians rise back up? It is because the Lord is our helper. The wicked have no one to help them up.
That is the difference between the righteous and the unrighteous. We know where our help comes from. Our help comes from the Lord. Far to many folks are trying to accomplish life by their own standards and their own strength. They are trying to reform their lives, instead of transforming them. In prison, the warden or counselors would tell us that they were going to rehabilitate us. The word rehabilitate means to "restore to former capacity", or "its previous condition." A Christian cannot be rehabilitate! They can however, be transformed. This is what Jesus offers. Sure we may fall in the process of being transformed, but Jesus will help us up. The wicked on the other hand, will only get up in the same manner in which they have fallen. In their previous condition or former capacity! That is why I ended up in jail and prison so many, many times. I was following the rehabiltation process. It never works!
This is what is wrong with many who try to quit smoking, drinking or doing drugs. I can name many others, but these are the most obvious ones. They try to reform themselves by quitting in their own power. Your power and my power isn't good enough to combat the forces of evil that deceive us. The power of God is what is needed to transform us so that we can stand in opposition to the lies of the enemy who incessantly attacks us. When we are apart from God's righteousness, we can only rely on the rehabilitating process or the reforming process. This never works! It may for a short period, but it is only by the grace of God that we can overcome these battles and be delivered! PSALMS 37:24, "though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; For the Lord upholds him with His hand."
What a thought! When the righteous fall, God is holding our hands to lead us back into the transformation process. When the wicked fall, they fall back into the hands of a task master who doesn't want them to change, but only makes them worse. Only Jesus can bring about constant and consistent change in a person life. We may get knocked down, but we aren't knocked out! Jesus is holding us and encouraging us to get back up. Satan, on the other hand, wants to keep us down. If he can keep us down, we never reach the potential Christ has for us.
I encourage you today, to trust in Jesus. He will transform you into His image. It is a process, but it is well worth the journey. Christ wants us to be conformed into His image. This is only accomplished as we allow Him to take the reigns of our lives. Jesus is for us, not against us! Give your heart to Jesus today. You will never be sorry that you started the transformation process. You won't need any rehabilitating or reforming. Christ will mold you into His image. What a thought! God Bless. Pastor Steven Pochop
No comments:
Post a Comment