The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
“The Morale Builder"
"His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue” (II Peter 1:3).
“I cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power to usward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power” (Ephesians 1:16-19).
We might think of God as the greatest of all morale builders. He commands born again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ to fulfill His will by first revealing how equipped we are to do so. By His Spirit and His Word, He informs us that He has provided all things in Christ for the life to which He calls us. In the light of such grace, He then works to encourage and strengthen us by revealing such abundant provision, commanding us to arise and go forth in the power thereof. His provision and promise in Christ precede His directives because only thereby do we any have hope for faithfully trusting and obeying Him. “Without Me, ye can do nothing” (John 15:5). The promises of God’s Word build morale, as it were, the joyful and confident assurance that we can fulfill His will through the enabling of the Holy Spirit, who “worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13).
Find the most fallen believer on the planet in this present moment. Certainly, our Heavenly Father works to address attitudinal, behavioral, and verbals matters of waywardness. However, He would first raise the issue of why His wayward son (or daughter) did not avail himself of the grace that makes overcoming temptation possible and actual. Every sin a believer commits occurs not primarily because of the wayward inclinations of our flesh, but rather because we fail to access the ever present and active grace that dwells within us. “Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16). We fail to avail, as it were, resulting in falls that could have been avoided had we remembered “there hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man, but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it” (I Corinthians 10:13).
God illuminates, inspires, and invokes. He enlightens, encourages, and exhorts. The sequence must never be reversed in our understanding. The grace that spiritually birthed our beginning of relationship with Him serves as the same grace that enables our fellowship with Him and obedience to Him. “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him… Let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear” (Colossians 2:6; Hebrews 12:28). Our Heavenly Father indeed works to build morale, that He may reasonably and justifiably command us to live a life far beyond our capabilities, based on how powerfully we are equipped in Christ to do so. Let us avail ourselves of the promises, that we may avail ourselves of the enabling to obey the commands…
“And God is able to make all grace abound to you, that ye, having all sufficiency in all things, may be able to abound to every good work.”
(II Corinthians 9:8)
Weekly Memory Verse
"They which receive abundance of grace and of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.”
(Romans 5:17)
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