"Consider Him"

  When feeling indifferent toward God, or at the very least, not as passionate and determined toward Him as in times past, what are born again Christians to do in order to regain and transcend former experiences of devotion?  The writer of Hebrews pointedly addresses thisquestion.    "Consider Him... lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds" (Hebrews12:3).    

The one thing that began our faith remains the one thing that perpetuates and enhances it.  "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him, rooted and built up in Him" (Colossians2:6-7).  Not only are we"rooted" in Him, we are also "built up" in Him.  The Christian life increasingly experienced and lived thus involves our "looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith" (Hebrews12:2). 

This presses us to consider the four fundamental questions of our existence, both in time and eternity.  
Who is the Lord Jesus?  What has He done for us?  What is He doing for us? What does He promise to do for us forevermore?  In some manner, remembrance of the answers to these holy inquiries, or fresh insights thereunto, will always serve as the invigorating power of a life lived in and by the love of God.   
Our spiritual enemies ever seek to move us away from the wellspring of the Christian life, which is Christ Himself. "I am the... life" (John14:6). 

 The distractions and deceptions begin from the moment of our new birth, and will continue until the moment of our departure from this present life.  We must understand and expect the nature of Satan's attempts to divert us from emphasis on the person and work of the Lord Jesus, whom theApostle Paul declaredmust "have the preeminence" in all things (Colossians 1:18).  Indeed, we can busy ourselves on many things supposedly "Christian," running to and fro in that which we perceive to be the work of the Lord.  If, however, the Lord Jesus does not remain the center and circumference of every endeavor, we shall soon find ourselves weary in well doing at best, or deceived and deceiving at worst.  "Christ, the power of God" affirmed Paul of the only enabling and enduring source ofgenuine passion for the living and true God (ICorinthians 1:24).    Again, who is the Lord Jesus, what has He done for us, what is He doing, and what will He bedoing forevermore?  If we find ourselves less ardent today than in daysgone by, answers to these questions will restore unto us the joy of our salvation.  Nothing elsewill accomplish this absolute necessity as we live in a relationship withthat began with Christ, continues with Him, and will end wit...well, there shall be no end to the everlasting wonder of sogreat a salvation,provided and energized by so great a Savior!

"In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sentHis only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him."(I John 4:9)