Assume your status! You are chosen!

Make note of what the Lord has done, and continue to believe!

We can and we shall, but only by the grace of God.

God seeks a relationship with us. For that, we need to be separated from the noise.

God is Almighty. Nothing is greater than God's strength! Why then try to take on the battle yourself? He has said that the battle is His!

Jesus used parables to provide insight into the kingdom of heaven. Why was this important? This week's Message gives us some insight!

I encourage you, as you experience challenges in life, as you make your way through your wildernesses, as you cross your River Jordan into the territory that has been promised to you by the Lord, to cry out, ‘Surely, the Lord is in this place!’ I encourage you to affirm, like Paul did in Romans 8:18, ‘I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us.’ I challenge you to shout out to the world, ‘See what the Lord has done!’, for everything that you have endured to this present date is in fulfilment of God’s word for you.

The Gospel passage this week is Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23: the Parable of the Sower.

I know this text well. Prior to this week's message, though, I had never given much thought to whether the four categories of soil could apply to one person. Perhaps it’s the wording, perhaps it’s my ignorance. I always assumed they were four discrete categories relating to different people. Never did I stop to think that these four categories could refer to one person on a journey of becoming – becoming who he or she was intended to be for God’s honour and glory. Never before did I consider that these four categories could be describing the beauty of the becoming of each and every one of us as we grow in our life in Christ, and in the Spirit.

Today’s Gospel passage, Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30 ends with Jesus telling the crowds of Israel that His yoke is easy. Who would consider a yoke, an instrument of control could be considered easy? Who would think that the yoke, and instrument that bruises and is heavy to support could be considered light?

Perhaps it might help if we considered the definition of a yoke. According to the Oxford Concise Dictionary, a yoke is ‘a wooden crosspiece that is fastened over the necks of two animals and attached to a plough or cart that they pull in unison’.

As Christians, we are called to make that choice every day. We are called daily to choose to continue to follow Christ, even when the tests and trials overwhelm us and seem endless. It is in those moments our Father calls us to buckle down in prayer, recognising that, while what we face is greater than we are, it certainly isn’t greater than He is. In buckling down in prayer, God calls us to praise Him, to worship Him, and to adore Him. Here’s a secret: if we’re busy praising God, we’re also busy chasing the devil away for the devil cannot thrive where praise abounds. If we’re busy worshipping God, we’re effectively pursuing a life that draws us closer to God so that nothing will separate us from His love. If we’re busy adoring God, we have no time to focus on the dreariness of our circumstances. And, as we continue in this vein, we grow in understanding of what is meant in Isaiah 40:31, ‘those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.’ In the waiting is the praising, the worshipping, and the adoring, which re-energise us through the action of the Holy Spirit to persevere, to continue to the end, to continue to our reward.