Standing Firm

If you are a follower of Jesus, then you will have peace  in the face of any circumstance because you have the peace that dwells within you.That is the peace of God. Jesus is the Prince of Peace. But just because you have Jesus and the peace that comes from Him, it has nothing to do with the peace across the world because there is a battle going on between good and evil. Jesus is truth and there will be people who are against Him. So there will always be division in this world because there is darkness here. There is a spiritual battle going on that we know nothing about. 

We cannot do anything. God does the work. We need to know the truth & trust that He will do His work. We need to stand on, live out & share the Truth. Which is the Word of God. The Bible.  

34 ‘Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth.

 I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 

35 For I have come to turn

‘“a man against his father,

a daughter against her mother,

a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law – 

a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.”

37 ‘Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not

 worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than 

me is not worthy of me. 38 Whoever does not take up their cross 

and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds their life will 

lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.

Matthew 10:34-39

What God is saying is that, "If you follow me, you're going to have people hate you, you're going to have people turn against you." His peace is within us, but this does not mean at all, that His peace will fill the world. Only those who seek Him will find Him. For those who don't believe in and follow Jesus, will obviously be opposed to living a life that requires us to die to ourselves and to the entrapment of this world. 

We cannot push Jesus aside for the sake of love. We fall into the trap of pleasing our own family and friends when Jesus commanded us to (1) Love God, and then (2) Love your neighbors as you love yourself. 

30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”[a] 31 The second is this: “Love your neighbour as yourself.” - Mark 12:30-31a

You see, God is love. We cannot love others without loving Him first and this will even include our closest loved ones. Our obedience is not to one another but to the Maker of all Creation. We cannot desire a relationship with anyone more than a relationship with Jesus. If we don't love Jesus more than anybody, if we don't love Him first, none of our relationships outside of Him will be in right standing. If we put Jesus outside of any relationship that we may have, we will not be serving in those relationships at all. 

When we follow Jesus, it will create division, but we can trust Him to deal with it. We cannot save everyone. Nor can we take everyone with us wherever God leads us. We cannot stick around and hope to be able to change anyone while God is leading us into a new direction. In the sake of following Jesus, we must remind ourselves daily, to "keep following Jesus." In a world of darkness and following Jesus, we must understand that there are people who will fall away. But we must keep treading forwards. 

When we put Jesus first, we must realize that not everyone will have peace nor will they be accepting of it. Because we make Jesus our priority. He is who we care about. But we will have to lose so much. Sometimes, we will have to lose everything to find His true peace and freedom in order to break away from the snares of the enemy.

Hold on to the Truth. Hold on to scripture and the relationship you have with Christ. For this is what matters most. 

In many places and countries outside of the U.S., there are so many people of different cultures who lose their families and are shunned even. There are men and women who are decapitated/beheaded for this very reason- loving and following Jesus. We can feel sorry for these people but the fact is that they chose Jesus over this world, they chose Jesus at any cost. And their reward is not on Earth but it will be in Heaven and that is more awesome than any diamonds or rubies that you can obtain. 

All the while, here in the U.S., we have lukewarm christian's in the church. We just want to hear the messages but we don't want to hear about the convicting truths of living a life without Jesus. We'd much rather listen to false prophets than diving into the Word to discern the truth. We just want to use the cross as an accessory and hang it around our necks for show but we don't actually want to forsake everything of this world for Jesus. If we choose to be this way, Jesus say's that we're not worthy of Him. If we choose to live this way, we are devaluing the cost of Christ's sacrifice at the Cross. To gain everything of this whole world without having Jesus, is to have nothing at all. 

We are now living in a world full of too much gray. When even the Lord himself asks that we either be hot or cold for Him. When we start to tolerate these things that are not godly, we begin to blur the lines of defining what it means to honor God. There is either truth or lies. Good or evil. Black or white. No gray in between. We must be willing to stand on the truth at any cost. There are many people that are losing everything right now for standing firm in their faith. We must be willing to die for Jesus. If Christ laid down His life for us, are we willing to lay down ours for Him? He died so we could live.  

We have to shine light on the darkness and the only way to shine light on the darkness is to speak truth in the face of the lies going on around us. But we wont know how to speak truth in the face of the lies if we don't know the Truth. We have to be firm on the truth. Pray and ask God to help you understand the scripture. We cannot fully understand the Bible or think that we could fully interpret or understand the Bible if we haven't completely surrendered ourselves to Him. 

You see, we have all have fallen short of the glory of God. We cannot wash away our own sins or earn our way to righteousness. But God paid the price for us. He took it all on the Cross. We are set free & made right with God by receiving Christ. By believing that our sins are forgiven. Jesus is the only one who conquered death. He died, yet rose again. Therefore, He is the Living God. John 14:6 says,"Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." He is the only way. 

"8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – 9 not by works, so that no one can boast."- Ephesians 2:8-9
By FAITH we have access, By GRACE we have been saved for works. Not the other way around. We have to live out the truth. We will see more and more false prophecy & we need to be prepared. Do not choose pleasing man over pleasing God. If you persevere until the end, crossing that finish line, in faith-knowing you stood firm in truth, you will be rewarded.  Do not silence the Gospel. Know who Jesus is so you can be His hands and feet to love those around you. 

Do you find yourself struggling to stand firm for God? Do you live a life of black or white life or have you been living in the gray areas? 

In the daily battles that you may face, I pray that you will stand firm in the Lord.