Orange Moon Cafe "Responders"

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe

"Responders"

     

    Left to ourselves, we would all run as far and as fast from God as possible, a trait inherited from our original forebears, Adam and Eve, who hid from the Lord in the trees after they sinned (Genesis 3:8-10).  Thus, God does not leave us to ourselves, working in us before our salvation to lead us to Himself, and after we believe, to maintain and sustain our determination to walk with Him.

    "No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw Him… And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me" (John 6:44; 12:32).

    "It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13).

    Humanity's role in relationship to God is always responsive rather than initiating.  As King David wrote, "When Thou saidst, Seek ye My face, my heart said unto Thee, Thy face Lord will I seek" (Psalm 27:8).  This does not minimize the importance of our response, nor the privileged responsibility thereof.  Our eternal destiny hinges on whether we respond to the overtures of the Gospel in salvation.  "If ye believe not that I am He, ye shall die in your sins" (John 8:24).  Our walk with the Lord subsequent to salvation also rests upon our response to the Spirit and truth of the Lord Jesus.  "Walk in the Spirit" commanded the Apostle Paul, promising that obedient response leads to genuine experience of the life to which God calls us: "If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live" (Galatians 5:16; Romans 8:13).

   It is possible to have responded to God in salvation and received His free gift of grace in Christ, but to become stunted and stifled in our ongoing response as believers.  The New Testament epistles are replete with this sad and completely unnecessary failure by believers to consistently avail themselves of our Christ-enabled power to respond.  We must remember and affirm the ongoing work of God in our hearts, calling and enabling us to trust and obey Him.  "Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Philippians 1:6).  Such confidence will result in our being far more enabled to join David in seeking the face of the Heart that beckons us to Himself.  Indeed, the understanding that our role is forever response to God's initiating and empowering work makes it far more likely we will consistently play our role of seeking the One who first seeks us.

"We love Him because He first loved us."

(I John 4:19)

Weekly Memory Verse

    God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.

 (John 4:21-24)

  

5749