Orange Moon March 15, 2022 "Not To Faint"

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…

"Not To Faint"

    

   

     Where there's life, there's hope.

    "One of the malefactors which were hanged railed on Him, saying, If thou be Christ, save Thyself and us. But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with Me in paradise" (Luke 23:39-43).

   A life largely wasted, but redeemed at the last hour, became a beacon of hope that has sounded and resounded for two millennia.   The so-called "thief on the cross" died and rose spiritually before his last physical breath, becoming a supremely powerful witness of the Gospel through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Countless lessons of God's redeeming truth thereby bear witness to our hearts and minds, including the aforementioned "beacon of hope."  Indeed, how many people have come to know the Lord Jesus through Luke's account of a man who died not as a thief, but rather as a saint on his cross?  How many who thought themselves beyond rescue discovered that so long as a breath remains, the hope for redemption through the Savior abides?

   I often think of this in terms of prayer.  How easy it is to give in to discouragement or neglect in our requests, whether for others or ourselves.

   "Men ought always to pray, and not to faint" (Luke 18:1).

   One wonders if the man we consider had long been the focus of prayer by someone who loved and cared for him?  I suspect so.  Perhaps a mother or a father.  Perhaps a friend from childhood who became aware of his former companion's wasted life.  Perhaps the Lord Jesus Himself, who doubtless prayed for those who suffered and died with Him on their sorrowful trees.  We do not know who might have prayed.  We can be sure, however, that someone did not faint in their intercessions for the thie… excuse me, for the saint on the cross, redeemed by the Savior on His cross.

   No truth about prayer transcends our calling "not to faint."  Yes, where there is life, there is hope.  Where there is hope, there is the Savior.  And where there is the Savior upon His throne of grace, may we be found kneeling there also, "continuing instant in prayer" for thieves who may become saints, and for all other matters that require God's grace as administered through those who do not faint (Romans 12:12).

"Pray without ceasing." 

(I Thessalonians 5:17)

Weekly Memory Verse

   In Him we live and move and have our being.

(Acts. 17:28)

  

 

   

 

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