The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"Assured Lives"
We considered in yesterday's message that born again believers live anticipated lives, that is, God knows all that will ever happen to us as if it occurs in the present moment. "His understanding is infinite" (Psalm 147:5).
Today we consider another truth, namely born again believers in the Lord Jesus live assured lives.
"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).
"We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren" (Roman 8:28-29).
Our Heavenly Father promises that all who trust the Lord Jesus will ultimately be conformed to His spiritual and moral image by the "good work" He began and continues in us. Of course, this does not mean we will perfectly respond in this life to such Divine working. No believer will (I John 1:8). Moreover, some believers more faithfully trust and submit to the Lord than others, and the Apostle Paul even referenced some people he identified as believers in terms of a waywardness that led to the most severe chastening of God, including even physical death. (I Corinthians 3:15; 11:27-32). Nevertheless, every believer will ultimately be conformed to the image of Christ as the product of God's promise, purpose, and faithful fulfillment. "We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is" (I John 3:2).
Realizing we are "His workmanship" goes far in the empowering of our calling to "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" (Ephesians 2:10; Philippians 2:12). Indeed, God takes the matter of our conformity to the image of Christ with utmost seriousness. This includes the present day and moment. We can trust and submit to Him in the holy process, and thus find ourselves flowing with the current of His purpose and working in our lives. We can also do otherwise, swimming against the eternally flowing tidewater of God's purpose, experiencing its waves not as friendly bearers of grace, but as greatly challenging ministers of correction and redirection. Either way, the Lord continues His work in us. "Being confident of this very thing" will further us on our journey as we walk in faithfulness, or help to restore us to the path of righteousness if we fall. "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it" (I Thessalonians 5:23-24).
God could do nothing more wondrous for us than to make us like His Son. Glories in the likeness of Christ await us in both this life and forevermore that will thrill and fulfill beyond all imagining. Knowing that our Father purposes such a wonder will keep us in our proper place of trust and submission whereby we flow with the current that leads us in the peace of living assured lives, assured that "we shall be like Him."
"And the glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one, I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me, and hast loved them, as Thou hast loved Me. Father, I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am; that they may behold My glory, which Thou hast given Me: for Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, the world hath not known Thee: but I have known Thee, and these have known that Thou hast sent Me. And I have declared unto them Thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them."
(John 17:22-26).
Weekly Memory Verse
Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.
(John 7:24)
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