26 Nov Walk Worthy of The Lord

Dr. Billy Graham once said how a student from a Hindu background came up to him and said, “I would become a Christian if I could see one!”

“When the student said that he was looking straight at me. . . ” Said Billy Graham “. . . and that was one of the greatest sermons ever preached to me!”

When we claim to be a follower of Christ, we must assume that our lives will be closely watched by the lost. People will always observe our lives to find flaws and failures.
So how then can we be strong in the Lord? How can we keep from collapsing and being a poor testimony before the world?

The Apostle Paul praised God and prayed for the Colossian Christians in this manner. He praised God for their faith in Jesus Christ and their love for all the believers and for the hope they have which is based on their faith and love.

These three are great and wonderful basic qualities of a Christian – they are like the pillars of a Christian life. Their vital support holds the Christian life firm and upright just like the way pillars give a firm and upright support to the super structure of a building. If the pillars are not strong the building will collapse and so it is with the Christian life, making it shaky and wobbly causing us to falter in our walk which does not coincide with the talk.

So the Colossian believer’s faith in our one true living God and their love for his people stirred Paul to praise God because the vital qualities were found in them. They both form one great commandment of God. “This is His commandment: that we should believe in the name of His son Jesus Christ and love one another as He loved us.” 1 Jn 3:23.

Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is also superior to faith in oneself or in any other person because faith in Jesus connects us to the Living God making it possible for us to become His sons and daughters. This is a new relationship which gives us a new status – father child relationship and member of the big family of God. This assures us the constant presence of God along with His fatherly care, guidance for right directions in life, strength to move forward and face life day by day and moment by moment. This also gives the assurance that we will be spending our eternity with Him. This causes a believer to live by faith in Christ, because he lives according to his beliefs. He governs his life by Christ. He strives to abstain from everything that his faith in Christ forbids. So when faith in Christ is the pillar of our Christian life, can our walk be different from our talk? Can our walk and talk be two different entities?

Love for others found in the Colossian believers is not the natural love that is found in men of all kind in general towards each other. The great pillar of love is far superior that the natural love because

It is based on the love of Jesus. This love of Jesus is the submission to the love of the Father God. This love is expressed through His death on the cross. This is the love shown to sinners and the undeserving, to people who opposed Him, to the people who stood against Him, to the people who crucified Him. Can there be greater love than this?

So when we give our lives to follow Jesus we ought to love as Christ loved us. This is love to ultimate degree – willing to sacrifice as Christ sacrificed.

This love found in the believers is stirred, aroused and moved by the Holy Spirit, so it is a supernatural love. There is a special bond because of the common faith and love found among all believers. That means there should be no room among the believers for divisions, envy, strife, cliques, criticisms, hard feelings, grumbling and arguments. When we live forever, have faith in Jesus and love for all believers we will have the privilege to and make the world know that we belong to Jesus Christ. Jn 13:34,35.

Faith and love have a great foundation – Believers hope v.5. This hope in Jesus helps believers to surrender their life to Jesus. As a result a believer can go to any length to love one another. Hope of a great promise, of a great reward, of being free from pain and suffering. This hope helps us to love even the ones who attack us, who try to destroy us, who trying to take our lives off track and for the ones who persecute us. This is the hope that is laid up for us in heaven. What is your greatest hope?

Paul on hearing the faith, love and hope of the Colossian believers, thanked God for them and prayed for them without ceasing. Because even though Paul was in prison, he could still pray for them and share the Lord’s word through letters. In his letters, he had 3 great requests:

1. That they be filled with the knowledge of His will.
a. In all wisdom.
b. In all spiritual understanding.

It is not just to know His will but be filled with the knowledge of His will. It is not to know God’s will for a particular thing or just for few things like to finding a life partner or to know your career’s direction, but God’s will for all aspects of life. That is everything we do every moment of everyday.

God’s will involves all behavior, all conduct, what we do, say, and even think and imagine. Every thought has to be controlled by God. 2 Cor 10:5 “Casting down imagination and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ“. In His word God tells us how to live His will. So we need to study God’s word to gain the knowledge of His will and to know how to live. We have to study to learn until the knowledge of His will floods our conduct and behavior. Ps 143:10

The wonderful thing is when we are filled with the knowledge of His will we will have the wisdom to know the basic principles of life and understanding to apply those principles in our day to day life – to the circumstances and decisions of life. For this we need wisdom and understanding. This wisdom and understanding comes by studying the word of God. 2 Tim 3:16. James 1:5. Lacking this knowledge, wisdom and understanding our lives will be shallow, that’s why many of us are concerned only about the present routines – work, eat, and sleep, playing and relaxing. And it is easy to be deceived by false teaching and live superficial lives.

Are you consistently experiencing the fullness of God’s will?
Are you really living for Him in every area of your life?
What are some of the natural results of missing the fullness of God’s will?

2. They may walk worthy of the Lord.
a. Being fruitful in good works.
b. Increasing in the knowledge

Walking worthy of the Lord should be hammered into our minds and hearts. We should remind ourselves constantly to walk worthy of our Lord. It is not enough to just know God’s will and have wisdom and understanding, but practice what we know and have. Knowing and doing – both are important. Only to know is head knowledge. We have to live the will of God as well. Knowing is of no value until we are committed to live by it. Only then walking after Christ happens. That is to set our lives, our behavior and conduct to live like Christ so that we can be worthy of our Lord. That means weighing our behavior and conduct as much as of Christ.

Christ is the pattern. Copying such a walk makes it possible to be fruitful in every good work that would please God. We can please a person by doing exactly what he or she wants us to do. How much more it is with God! We can only please God by doing every good work and do it faithfully bearing as much fruit as possible. Mt 5:16. For this we must grow in the knowledge of God and gain a relationship by walking with God. To know a person we need to associate with them, fellowship with and share with them. So it is with God. The more we walk with God the more we increase in the knowledge of God. That means through the day we should be talking to God through all that we do. While we do stuff we should be talking to God about the people around us, issues taking place and things that are happening. Like while at work – praying for colleagues, so for college mates, while playing – for the play mates friends and neighbors that are around us, while watching the TV – praying for the issues that we are watching, while shopping – praying for the vendors and people around, so on so forth. Because God’s presence is with us, our hearts should be busy talking to Him while our body is busy doing things we have to. Can this be possible with us? Yes, as we practice it will become a part of our life. This is called praying always without ceasing (A selfless prayer). May God help us to walk boldly with Him.

3. Be strengthened with His might according to His glorious power.
a. For patience
b. For long suffering with joy

The third great request is for the power of God which is absolutely essential for the believer. We need God’s power to do His will and to walk worthy of Christ. Man’s power, will and discipline can’t overcome some of life’s issues and present ourselves as perfect. But the power of God provided to us is the resurrection power which helps us to be perfect and acceptable before God, conquer death and raise us to live eternally. It helps us to endure all trials with the spirit of joy. This power comes through prayer. That’s why Paul prays for the Colossian church without ceasing.

God’s power gives us patience to stand up, face the trials of life, and actively go about conquering and overcoming them through steadfastness while enduring joyfully. God’s power gives us the power to endure longsuffering without giving in. Never turn back. God’s power gives us the spirit of joy through all trials and tribulations of life. I Pet 1:8; Gal 5:22.

How can you experience this power of God and live by it to help you to walk and live worthy of our God?

What areas do you need to work to improve your walk with God to be worthy of Him?

Mrs. Aruna Fullonton