February 14, 2022 PRACTICE
Philippians 4:8-9 “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things and the God of peace shall be with you.”
God does not ‘zap’ us and He did not create us as robots. It is only by the work and the power of the Holy Spirit that we can live life according to the scriptures; yet, there is a part for us to play. As someone has said “We must work out what God is working in.” Perhaps the over-all factor in our living life according to God’s design is that of laying aside the ways of the world, and even human nature, and embracing the ways of the Lord. In other words, making the choice to walk according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh. At times we may think we can blend the two, or walk in the Spirit and live according to the flesh at the same time, but the fact is that the flesh (our old nature) and the Spirit cannot co-habit. As believers we still have an old nature that is at war with our Spirit; however, we can choose to walk by the Spirit and not carry out the desires of the flesh. Galatians 5:16-18. It is critical for us to know that we cannot excuse sin, or blame sin on our old sin nature. The power of sin has been broken and we can now live righteous lives and sin not. The point of this blog is to remind us that we must ‘practice these things.’ Practice means to put in to action, to work at it. The verses above are about aligning our thoughts with the ways of God-to have thoughts that are pleasing to the Lord. We may have certain bents or habits of thought that are not like the thoughts of God; our thoughts may be of fear, doubt, worry, pessimism, or even evil, or whatever. We must make the choice of what we think about-that is the practicing we must do. (We are to not only practice the above scriptures dealing with our thoughts, we are to ‘practice’ all of God’s word.) Again, the whole idea of practicing is exercising and getting stronger and getting better at; as we mature in the faith, every aspect of our lives should be reflecting the ways of the Lord; our life is to be a picture of the life that God has made available to us. The Spirit of God is at work in us; it is a matter of letting Him, and cooperating with Him as He transforms us into the image of His Son. We may find ourselves feeling it sufficient just to read God’s word; however, we are to read God’s word with the view of putting into practice what we read-otherwise, we are hearers only, and not doers of the word. Today, let us find ways of practicing what God has revealed in His word.
Psalm 128:1 “How blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in His ways.”
James 1:25 “But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it-not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it-they will be blessed in what they do.”
Blessings,
Buddy
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