Comfort.....as God intends-1

James 1:12 NIV

Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.

It is amazing just how bad the message of the gospel has been watered down in this generation. We now live in an age where people go for convenient and comfortable teachings, words that appeal to the emotions and whip up sentiments. We now prefer to go to churches where prosperity and welfare are the focal points. While these are not bad, I believe that these issues do not fully encapsulate the teachings of Christ.

While he was on earth, Christ was careful to warn us not to take the decision of following him lightly. He said somewhere: if a man cannot hate his father and his mother, he cannot be my disciple. He said somewhere else:  I have not come to bring peace to the earth, but a sword. Father will rise up against son and have him put to death. All these because of the cross and the message it represents. Just before he left, Christ said: ......in me, you will have peace. In the world, you will suffer persecution, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. He never promised us convenient Christianity, what he promised us is a walk of his ever-constant Presence, Provision, Protection and Power. Thatvis the summary of his coming and the legacies he left us.

Where then, do we place the message: come to Christ and all your problems will be solved. OR my God is not poor, so I must be rich, and all the incomplete and one-dimensional messages that surround us these days? How do we balance God's legacies and promises with his expectations of us?

I believe that what God demands of me is absolute trust in His wisdom and power, no matter what road he leads me through. If I have come to understand what God wants from me, and I'm walking in his will, then I can comfortably leave the working out of his end-purpose to him. If I trust that his plans for me are the best, then waiting on him would not be a problem, but if all I have heard is that God is a God who wants to bless his people abundantly, but nobody tells me what I need to do or who I need to be to enjo these blessings, little wonder, then, that there are shallow believers today who are only following Christ because of their wants and fall away easily at the slightest bump or delay in the road.

This Christian walk calls for a lot of trust in the One who calls. If it is his call, it is his responsibility to sustain the call by providing all that the call needs to be fulfilled. How he does it, and what he brings along the way, is his prerogative. His time of favour is here......    to be continued........