The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
“To Reign in Life"
Our memory verse this week declares that born again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ receive in order to reign.
"They which receive abundance of grace and of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:17).
Clearly, when life seems to overwhelm us, the issue does not involve the measure or mode of the trial, but whether we have availed ourselves of God’s freely given “abundance of grace and righteousness” in Christ. Have we trusted God with our hearts in the faith, submission, and expectation that He will faithfully fulfill His assurance that we can reign, as opposed to being overwhelmed by our challenges? History confirms that countless saints of God have known His peace in their hearts amid circumstance, condition, and situation that would seem to make such assurance impossible. The martyrs of the church would all arise to affirm that grace in Christ led them through their earthly departure in His peace as they journeyed through “the valley of the shadow of death” with the Lord’s promise of “Thou art with me” sounding and resounding in their hearts (Psalm 23:4).
Do we believe that to“reign in life by one, Jesus Christ?” is possible? If not, we cast aspersions not on ourselves, but rather on the God who promises and provides such grace. As the Lord Jesus declared, it requires but a mustard seed of faith to not only climb mountains of hindrance, but to clear them altogether (Matthew 17:20). If we do believe, we will continue to experience the challenges and temptations that walking by faith always involves. “Cast down” confessed the Apostle Paul of times when life battered him in soul and body. However, amid the pain and perplexities of his life and ministry, Paul saw the opportunity to reign that being cast down provided. “But not destroyed!” he exulted as God faithfully fulfilled His promise to reveal Christ’s triumph of the heart (II Corinthians 4:9). We reign in life by remembering and affirming the risen life of Christ, so abundantly imparted to us that Paul declared, “Ye are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God” (Colossians 2:12).
The Apostle John joins Paul in proclaiming the triumph of the Lord Jesus, whose tomb is empty, whose throne is occupied, and whose reign does not yet appear outwardly in the world. No, He reigns in the hearts of all who believe, and who seek to consistently and increasingly discover the truth and triumph of…
“For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world, and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?”
(I John 5:4-5)
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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