We Can Do/Have/Be Part 4

Posted on June 4, 2015 by America's Keswick in Freedom Fighters

We Can Do/Have/Be…Wha? PART 4

“Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”  Matthew 26:41 (ESV) 

One of the last things Jesus taught on was being careful with falling into temptation. And we all need to be as careful with the last part of three things that were introduced in The Garden as today we cover the boastful pride of life. The pride of life is a desire to be what we want to be even if it means (well you will) stretching the truth at times. Now to put it into a perspective in my own life I am privileged to write for Bill Welte’s Freedom Fighter daily e-devotional, I have been doing this since 2008, a few of my devotionals have made the “Real Victory for Real Life” Keswick devotional book volume 2 so technically that makes me a published writer. HOWEVER, I have made no money at it and by the world standards I couldn’t call myself a real writer. BUT if I wanted to toot my horn about it anytime I could stretch it a bit and say that “I AM” Mr. Freedom Fighter himself, but “I AIN’T”. Moving on…

In Secularland it flies a different way and we’ve got pop singers who boldly come right out and say they live for the applause. They may not have a specific talent that sticks but somehow, someway they’ll do what they gotta to get us to applaud them. We can see our political leader’s campaign one way and after they are elected govern contrary to what their platform stood for. We have newscasters who embellish stories just to get you to tune in. We have show’s on television that are called “Reality Shows” and if that’s their reality hell is gonna fill up real fast. We even have other TV shows with the beautiful people dishing the dirt on the beautiful people and all of it is done in the style of self-promotion. “Any press is good press” Sad but true….

The world as a whole, Christian or not, with their desire to receive praise and applause from others, is putting God to the test. Eve plucked that piece of fruit because of the desire to make one wise. After all, God was holding out on that blessing wasn’t He? And what about what we read about the Israelites in Exodus 17:1-7 with their unrighteous anger at God and Moses because they wanted water and were absolutely certain that the only reason their Creator brought them out into the desert was to watch them die. This is what happens when we can’t accept that Gods plan doesn’t need our approval and we test His tolerance. The only thing we need to understand is that no plan of God will ever be thwarted. (My elder brother-in-Christ, Bill Darpino says that all the time)

The boastful pride of life leads us straight into deception and we think we can question God’s motives once we get there but in Luke 4:9-12 Jesus unraveled its inner workings to us. Satan test’s Jesus about being the Son of God and even uses God’s Word to back up his questioning but Satan didn’t use the WHOLE context of Scripture and left out part’s that say you need to dwell in the LORD and the serpent would get trampled underfoot. Jesus knows His identity and who He is so He doesn’t have to please the hound of hell nor is it His aim to please man. Jesus only seeks the approval of The Father and those of us who look to have our identity line up with Jesus Christ need to rest in the same. That has been the plan of God since Genesis 3:15 and it ain’t gonna be thwarted no how, no way…unless you choose unwisely.

So to wrap up this series let’s remember this…You can’t do whatever you want because there’s consequences to consider. You can’t have whatever you want because there’s payment to consider AND you can’t be whatever you want unless God equips you for it. Anything less takes you down the wide path of destruction and will have you trying to fill the emptiness with temporal stuff that serves no purpose in eternity, making having anything an eternally useless purpose instead. Let’s just keep this one thing in mind and that is God is really only concerned with one priority and if you claim to be a child of God it should be your priority as well: His Glory. Amen? – Chris Hughes is a graduate of the Colony of Mercy and blogs weekly for Freedom Fighter. You can email him at cphughes515@verizon.net

Daily Bible Reading: Hosea 12-14; Matthew 20:1-16

Think About This: “God made us for Himself: that is the only explanation that satisfies the heart of a thinking man, whatever his wild reason may say. Should faulty education and perverse reasoning lead a man to conclude otherwise, there is little that any Christian can do for him.” ― A.W. Tozer

This Week’s Verse to Memorize: The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. John 10:10