THE PROPER ORDER OF THINGS

THE PROPER ORDER OF THINGS

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Romans [MKJV] 5:1-4 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through Him we also have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice on the hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only this, but we glory in afflictions also, knowing that afflictions work out patience, 4 and patience works out experience, and experience works out hope.

  As followers of Christ our operative faith should not be based in natural philosophy; viewpoints that are normal for this world. We are in this world, but we are citizens of the kingdom of God and should think and act accordingly. (Jn.3:5-7; 18:36; Eph.5:8; Phil.3:20)

  In studying God’s message for us, discernment on some subjects takes more time and effort than others. That we are to be in constant alteration of our thinking to align with the mind of God so that we will use wise judgment and please Him . . . is not in this category. (Rom.12:1-3; 1Cor.2:1-16; 2Tim.3:15-17)

  Awoke this morning thinking about Romans 5:1-11 in yesterday’s THANKFUL FOR TRIBULATION, and I saw *new-to-me the mind of God contrasted against the natural mind of mankind. Typically, people exercise deliverance-oriented hope from their impatience with life’s repeated trials and tribulations; whereas we as citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven are to hope as product of patience; patience gained by developing and maintaining godly attitude toward life in this world’s shadows.

  Of personal necessity, I reviewed yesterday’s thoughts.

·         “Your eyes are the lamp for your body. When your eyes are good, you have all the light you need. But when your eyes are bad, everything is dark. So be sure that your light isn't darkness.” (CEV Lk.11:34-35)

·         Keep your eye, heart and mind, and thereby efforts on the mission. Think raising a child; is the mission getting them to always behave in every instance, or to prepare them for adulthood? Precisely how do we interpret and apply “Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”? (Pr.22:6)

·         Frame every trial and tribulation large or small with love. Think of the fact that there is inherently no goodness in us and we do often act discordant to Omni-patient God. (Rom.5:8; 1Thes.5:14; 1Jn.4:7-8; 2Pet.3:9,15)

·         Always keep our influence in mind. I wonder how many times Grandmother, Mom and Dad did this? J Let’s not forget there are many young to old (and I believe ‘eternal’) eyes watching and ears listening. (Heb.12:1; 13:1-2)

    So what difference does it make to adopt hope produced by patience instead of impatiently hoping? If you haven’t yet tried it, please do so and be blessed by the results.  EBB4