+DEV+ Pt 5. Soul Care: Our Responsibility: Appropriate Responses

Date: December 21, 2014 10:32 PM

Topic: +DEV+  Pt 5. Soul Care:  Our Responsibility:  Appropriate Responses

Pt 5 Soul Care:

OUR RESPONSIBILITY:  APPROPRIATE RESPONSES

. . .We have a part in the care of our soul - a definite part, a definable part, and achievable part, a vital part.

God and his church will do their part, but we must react suitably.  The simple but amazing truth is that genuine Christianity is a response to God in an appropriate, timely way.

Basically we are not initiators but responders, and our lives are determined by the way we react to any part of our environment.   Evil is part of that environment.  So is God.  I determine what kind of person I am by my response to both parts of my environment.  I can choose to respond negatively to God:  I can ignore him or reject him.  Or I can receive him.  All of my responses will affect me in varying ways.

A speaker at our church once remarked that great saints are great receivers.  Something inside of me rose up shouted, "No!"  Because I had been raised in a religious culture that taught that great saints were great achievers.  My spiritual failures at that time were mostly due to that false concept.  Since that time, I have found that the speaker was right, and my life's verse has become "Those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ" (Rom. 5:17b).

Receiving is the appropriate response to God, the great Giver.

To be a genuine maturing Christian does not take my initiative.  I need do nothing but respond in acceptance of God's initiative:

        Obedience is response to God's will.

        Faith is response to God's promises.

        Thanksgiving is response to God's goodness.

        Praise is response to God's revealed character.

        Sharing is response to God's benevolent love.

        Joy is response to God's gift of hope.

All I am asked to do is to respond to God properly.  The totality of my response is called Worship. . .

~~~

From the book: 

'Soul Care'

By Peter Lord

Please feel free to use this devotional to send on to your friends or share with your church fellowship and Bible study groups.

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