Wednesday August 31, 2016

 

Often times as Christians, our faith and our actions do not match up. What we do and what we say at times is contrary to what we believe. There are reasons why this happens, one reason is that we are imperfect and we commit mistakes; we do not always get things right. Another reason is the lack of knowledge; sometimes we simply do not know enough. Then there are those who are just hypocritical, they say one thing then proceed to do something else. There also exists a group of false Christians, they profess to have faith, but only say this for personal gain. Finally, there are those who in spite of their imperfections, they genuinely attempt to live out their faith in a way that brings honor and glory to God.

 

At times, even the heroes of the Bible had difficulty living out their faith. For example, Abraham on multiple occasions lied about his wife claiming that she was his sister instead of his wife. Noah, following the flood decided to celebrate and got drunk to the point that he exposed himself. David had an affair with the wife of one of his soldiers; this resulted in her getting pregnant and David subsequently killing her husband in order to conceal his sin. I reiterate, even the heroes of the Christian faith did not always get things right; that is, except for one, Jesus the Son of Man and the Son of God. Recall that Jesus, when He came to live among us, He came to earth just like one of us. Jesus suffered the same temptations as us and he had to operate with the same limitations as us. Jesus the Son of God and the Son of Man was no longer all-powerful, omnipresent, or omniscient; just like us He was limited. However, when we analyze the life of Jesus, we find no disconnect between his faith, actions, and words. What set Him apart? What made Jesus such a successful man of faith?

John 8:28-29 NLT

 So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man on the cross, then you will understand that I am he. I do nothing on my own but say only what the Father taught me. And the one who sent me is with me—he has not deserted me. For I always do what pleases him.”

 

What separates Jesus from the rest of the heroes of the Bible, is the fact that His actions always matched His faith because He was committed to doing and saying only that which God would have him to do and say. What made Jesus a successful man of faith was His commitment to always doing what pleased God. What I find so amazing about Jesus is that if ever there was a person who had the right to do and say whatever they wanted, it had to be Jesus. Moreover, if there ever walked a person on the earth that had the right to do whatever pleased them, it was Jesus. However, He was committed to pleasing God and not himself. We too can become great people of faith, but this will not happen until we, like Jesus, commit ourselves to pleasing God rather than ourselves.

 

To walk in Jesus’ shoes is to commit our lives to pleasing God rather than ourselves.