24/11/2023 - TWO REASONS TO BE HAPPY

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For Your lovingkindness is before my eyes and I have walked in Your truth. Psalm 26.3

People who listen to the preaching of the Gospel soon understand that in His teachings lies the secret that will make them winners. So, in time or out of time, we must speak of the love that created all things and made us reborn in Christ. Today, we have no excuse for being unhappy; after all, the salvation provided by Jesus has bought us for the Father and, with it, we have become heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ. Do we need anything else?

When you accept Jesus as your Savior, you can and should turn to him in any situation. Thus, the Lord declared: And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son (John 14:13). This asking in the original Greek, the language in which John’s gospel was written, means more than asking, it means ordaining, demanding and taking possession of what is yours. Believe and receive!

When the saved understand that they must live by the Word, meditating on it in order to know what belongs to them, they will immediately be able to issue the decree of possession and believe in the completion of the work. That’s acting by faith! Sadly, however, most Christians have not yet learned this dynamic and live below the line of success. Jesus didn’t even pray on behalf of the sick, but when he saw that they had faith, he ordered them to be healed, and that happened.

While proclaiming the Good News in the city of Lystra, the apostle Paul looked at a man who was lame from birth and saw the faith he had to be restored. Instead of asking everyone to help him in prayer, he ordained healing, and the lame man was healed: This man heard Paul speaking. Paul, observing him intently and seeing that he had faith to be healed, said with a loud voice, “Stand up straight on your feet!” And he leaped and walked.  (Acts 14:9,10). Those who believe can do the same! 

We are still in our infancy in faith, but if we begin to examine God’s Word with an open heart, we will move towards a full knowledge of the Truth. The saved need to do this, otherwise they will fail to do the right thing and will die immature in the spiritual sphere. Wake up to the Truth, abandon fear and be used by the Most High, as He has taught. Error will always be in man!

The Lord said that we can act like him: Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also, and greater works than these he will do, because I go to my Father (John 14.12). Jesus didn’t speak of hypotheses, but of something real, giving every guarantee. He said: “He will!”. If you believe in Him, show your love for Him by doing the same things Christ did. Get rid of temptations now!

Put the Lord’s mercy before your eyes, and don’t look back like Lot’s wife. Look to the Author and Finisher of your faith, Jesus (Genesis 19:26; Hebrews 12:1,2). Then you will walk in the Truth of the Most High, as the psalmist said happened to him. Kindness is God’s kind hope of what you will do in Jesus. So walk in the Truth!

In Christ, with love,

R. R. Soares