I recently attended a seminar held at my church which I enjoyed very much.
One of the things the speaker stressed in this seminar were the concepts of "essentials" and "non-essentials".
Since attending that seminar I have read numerous devotionals, prayers and other types of posts written by my friends.
A good many of these dealt with the different types of struggles we encounter.
Often. we as individual believers struggle.
There are times when entire church congregations struggle.
There are even times when it seems that the entire body of believers who call themselves Christians struggle.
I asked myself the question. "When we find ourselves struggling, what would be a good course of action to take?"
It occurred to me, that when coaches see their teams struggling, one of the most successful remedies they employ is having their athletes focus on the fundamentals.
That means going back to the basics.
More often than not, this strategy proves to be quite effective.
Why not take the same approach when we find ourselves struggling as Christians?
That means focusing on, the "essentials".
I then reflected on the essentials, which, according to the speaker are threefold.
First and foremost, it means focusing on God and how he reaches down to us.
God is perfect.
God is perfectly righteous and perfectly Holy.
We are not.
Yet God reaches down to us with His grace.
He does so through Jesus Christ.
Romans 3:24 (NET) - But hey are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
He reaches to us with the Holy Spirit.
John 14:26 (NET) - But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My Name, will teach you everything, and will cause you to remember everything I said to you.
On the other end of the spectrum, we find another component of the "essentials", namely ourselves and how we choose to respond to God.
How should we respond to God as He reaches down to us?
We should respond with the gifts he has given to us.
These gifts consist of faith, love and hope.
We must have faith in God, understand that our hope lies with Him and love Him with all of our being.
1 Corinthians 13:13 (NET) - And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was , His answer was in two parts.
Please note the first part.
Matthew 22:37-38 (NET) - Jesus said to him, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.
So, we have God reaching down to us.
We in turn give back to God our love, our faith and our hope.
How is this even possible?
It is only possible because of the other key component of the "essentials".
The bridge provided by God for us, namely, Jesus Christ.
John 3:16-17 (NET) - For this is the way God loved the world: He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world should be saved through Him.
Struggle is inevitable.
Sometimes the best thing we can do is go back to the fundamentals.
I know what some of your are asking right now.
Does that mean that other things are not important?
Of course not.
It must be understood that the word "non-essential" does not mean "unimportant".
There are many important things to Christians and the Christian way of life.
The reading of scripture is an excellent example.
Everything else aside, the relationship we as human beings (the created) have with God (the Creator) through Jesus Christ (the redeemer) is central to what it means to be a Christian.
Making certain that this relationship is what it should be can go a long way in helping us resolve our struggles.
Blessings,
Jim Pokorny
The Other Brother Jim
http://otherbrotherjim.blogspot.com
One of the things the speaker stressed in this seminar were the concepts of "essentials" and "non-essentials".
Since attending that seminar I have read numerous devotionals, prayers and other types of posts written by my friends.
A good many of these dealt with the different types of struggles we encounter.
Often. we as individual believers struggle.
There are times when entire church congregations struggle.
There are even times when it seems that the entire body of believers who call themselves Christians struggle.
I asked myself the question. "When we find ourselves struggling, what would be a good course of action to take?"
It occurred to me, that when coaches see their teams struggling, one of the most successful remedies they employ is having their athletes focus on the fundamentals.
That means going back to the basics.
More often than not, this strategy proves to be quite effective.
Why not take the same approach when we find ourselves struggling as Christians?
That means focusing on, the "essentials".
I then reflected on the essentials, which, according to the speaker are threefold.
First and foremost, it means focusing on God and how he reaches down to us.
God is perfect.
God is perfectly righteous and perfectly Holy.
We are not.
Yet God reaches down to us with His grace.
He does so through Jesus Christ.
Romans 3:24 (NET) - But hey are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
He reaches to us with the Holy Spirit.
John 14:26 (NET) - But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My Name, will teach you everything, and will cause you to remember everything I said to you.
On the other end of the spectrum, we find another component of the "essentials", namely ourselves and how we choose to respond to God.
How should we respond to God as He reaches down to us?
We should respond with the gifts he has given to us.
These gifts consist of faith, love and hope.
We must have faith in God, understand that our hope lies with Him and love Him with all of our being.
1 Corinthians 13:13 (NET) - And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was , His answer was in two parts.
Please note the first part.
Matthew 22:37-38 (NET) - Jesus said to him, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.
So, we have God reaching down to us.
We in turn give back to God our love, our faith and our hope.
How is this even possible?
It is only possible because of the other key component of the "essentials".
The bridge provided by God for us, namely, Jesus Christ.
John 3:16-17 (NET) - For this is the way God loved the world: He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world should be saved through Him.
Struggle is inevitable.
Sometimes the best thing we can do is go back to the fundamentals.
I know what some of your are asking right now.
Does that mean that other things are not important?
Of course not.
It must be understood that the word "non-essential" does not mean "unimportant".
There are many important things to Christians and the Christian way of life.
The reading of scripture is an excellent example.
Everything else aside, the relationship we as human beings (the created) have with God (the Creator) through Jesus Christ (the redeemer) is central to what it means to be a Christian.
Making certain that this relationship is what it should be can go a long way in helping us resolve our struggles.
Blessings,
Jim Pokorny
The Other Brother Jim
http://otherbrotherjim.blogspot.com
0 comments :
Post a Comment