02/01/2011 - THE DISQUALIFIED

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“Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified” (II Corinthians 13:5).

The Gospel boom that’s taking place in our country sometimes doesn’t allow us to take proper care of the newly converted the way we should, after all they need to understand the will of God. Because they don’t have enough knowledge of God’s Word they succumb to temptation. It is not small the number of Christians who get weak in faith. The worst thing is that some of them even get to think that certain temptations are blessings granted by the Lord since He knows how much they suffer. Those who behave that way are disqualified in faith!

A person is considered disqualified when he or she falls into temptation. The devil examines each one of us to see our weaknesses. Then, he works out a plan and puts it into practice by using all of his hosts of demons: some are sent to us to draw our attention to bad things; others come to make us feel sad and abandoned and there are also teams of them working together in order to drive us into making decisions contrary to the divine plan.

On the other hand, God puts us to the test. He did that to Moses when the children of Israel gave in to sin by worshipping the gold calf made by Aaron (Exodus 32). The Lord decided to exterminate the Israelites and turn their descendents into His people; however, Moses was sufficiently knowledgeable of the Scriptures to plead the Most High not to do that. Moses knew that God would never change the covenant He’d made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob because the Lord never changes His Word and His commandments.

Those who resist sin will live the glory of being qualified. Maybe, in your case, the devil is trying to convince you that the wrong you’re doing is the will of God. But the Word declares that everything that isn’t in accordance with both the Law and the testimony is not from the Lord. God can’t go against His Words. If you think He’s doing something different for you just rebuke it because that’s a lie from the enemy.

We can only present ourselves before the Lord once we are qualified (II Timothy 2:15). You’ll be tainted if you let yourself be carried away by any temptation and you’ll be convicted on the Day of Judgment. So, make an effort to fulfill what’s written. Everything that’s recorded in the Scriptures is for all the children of God to follow and none of us is an exception!

It’s good to be qualified because the moment the enemy comes up you’ll be able to reprimand him and be victorious in the end. So fight to be rewarded on the Great Day. Nothing can make up for the loss of that reward which will accompany you for eternity.

In Christ, with love,

R. R. Soares