Orange Moon Saturday, March 22, 2025 "We"

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe

"We"       

     

    

    Suppose we reach the end of a day wherein we feel ourselves to have been quite productive.  "I got a lot done" we think.  As believers, however, the thought comes to us, "Oh wait, the Lord provided the grace of His leadership and strength to make possible what I did."  We gratefully express our thanksgiving.  "Heavenly Father, You got a lot done."  

   Is the latter expression more true than the former?  In some ways, it certainly is.  We could do nothing if we did not exist by God's creative handiwork.  "It is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves" (Psalm 100:3).  Moreover, our Lord provides "life and breath and all things" to all, making possible our doings in this lifetime (Acts 17:25).  For believers, we furthermore recognize that the Spirit of Christ lives in us, that we may "live through Him" (I John 4:9).  Thus, we can certainly affirm in truth and gratitude that a productive day assigns all glory, praise, thanksgiving, and credit to God.  "He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord" (II Corinthians 10:17).

    If we could converse directly with our Heavenly Father about the day's doings, however, He might recount the matter differently.   Considering the Bible's clear and constant refrain of real relationship and fellowship between God and those who trust Him, we might hear Him say, "We got a lot of things done."

    "We are laborers together with God" (I Corinthians 3:9).

   Born again believers in the Lord Jesus live life as a "we" with none other than the living and true God, the glorious Creator and Sustainer of all things.  We are "the fulness of Him that filleth all in" (Ephesians 1:23).  We are not merely ourselves, and we most surely are not God.  We are, however, ourselves as spiritually united to the Spirit of the Lord Jesus.  "God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying Abba Father" (Galatians 4:6).  Thus, we play a real role in our walk with the Lord, a role certainly characterized by utter dependence, but a role of real response nonetheless.  As led and enabled by the Holy Spirit, we "work out" that which God "works in" (Philippians 2:12-13).  On some occasions, He may seem to carry us, as the beloved "footprints in the sand" scenario suggests.  We rejoice in such times when life overwhelms us.  The norm of walking with our Lord, however, involves both His promise, "I will dwell in them and walk in them" and our response, "I will walk before the Lord" (Psalm 116:9).  Christ lives in us that we may live through Him forms and informs the Biblical protocol of our life lived as a "we" with God.

   Our Lord forever serves as the presence, power, motivating, and life-giving presence whereby we may live for Him by living from Him.  We serve as the responsive supplicants who trust, submit, and walk in the confidence that we are not alone, and do not function as alone.  God made humanity in His image to live as His spiritual temples in a real bond of loving fellowship and cooperation that could not exist had He made us to merely serve as programmed drones.  Our Father would find no satisfaction in such heartless coding without heart-determined communication.  Nor would we.  ""When Thou saidst, Seek ye My face; my heart said unto Thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek" (Psalm 27:8)..

    A productive day directs all glory to the Maker of our days.  Every believer knows deeply within the truth of our Savior's words, "Without Me, ye can do nothing" (John 15:5).  We nevertheless play a real role in the relationship, however, a response so significant regarding  believers that one day "every man shall have praise of God" (I Corinthians 4:5).   At the end of this day, may our Lord be glorified for providing to us a life that is personal rather than programmed, conscious rather than coded, and graced with the glory of a true and living "We" that pleases His heart and fills our hearts with worship, wonder, and the blessed answer to our Lord's prayer offered just before He endured the cross that made possible its fulfillment…

"Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word, that they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us: that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me. 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 17:20-26).

   

Weekly Memory Verse

    For though He was crucified through weakness, yet He liveth by the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, but we shall live with Him by the power of God toward you.

(II Corinthians 13:4)

  

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