Thoughts in Worship

Message Magazine's Online Devotional for Wednesday, July 4, 2018

Audio Link: https://www.spreaker.com/user/reachmanyradio/thoughts-in-worship-07-04-2018

This is devotional thought number 79 in our devotional series titled, “The Gospel According to Paul.”

“For though you should in fact be teachers by this time, you need someone to teach you the beginning elements of God’s utterances. You have gone back to needing milk, not solid food. For everyone who lives on milk is inexperienced in the message of righteousness, because he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, whose perceptions are trained by practice to discern both good and evil. Therefore we must progress beyond the elementary instructions about Christ and move on to maturity, not laying this foundation again: repentance from dead works and faith in God, teaching about baptisms, laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And this is what we intend to do, if God permits. For it is impossible in the case of those who have once been enlightened, tasted the heavenly gift, become partakers of the Holy Spirit, tasted the good word of God and the miracles of the coming age, and then have committed apostasy, to renew them again to repentance, since they are crucifying the Son of God for themselves all over again and holding him up to contempt.” (Hebrews 5:12–6:6, NET).

God’s desire and goal for us, besides being saved initially, is to continue to grow in His power and to love and know Him more each day. This is no light matter any more than it is for an infant to continue suckling from her mommy and never to progress to solid foods. There comes the point when all who follow God must transition from stage to stage in our development. We must all continue in His presence and learn His will, what He would have us to do, and how we must impact the society around us. Particular questions of faith should be soon settled, and we move on, abandoning all doubts, as we wrestle with issues of greater import; and then the progress continues until we are developed into the full stature of the image of our heavenly Father.

Unfortunately, sometimes an unwillingness to surrender our will to God as we progress causes stunted growth. This creates an even bigger problem, which leads to us eventually returning to our former pride and lusts. The problem is that this time since we know better and refuse to do better, our hearts are hardened to the entreaties of the Holy Spirit whom we once loved and knew. This makes us callous and unfeeling; thereby creating such a schism between us that we stop hearing His voice when He calls us to repentance. In short, we slide back down the slippery slope of apostasy. We become like the proud men who, rather than loving Jesus, mocked and crucified Jesus, putting Him to open shame.

We all have a decision to make. Will we choose today, to listen to God’s voice and allow Him to stretch us in spiritual ways that might hurt at times? Life with Christ is no cakewalk; however, He promised that He would exchange our burdens for His, and He would give us rest unto our souls. While the trials and challenges that come with serving God are not always easy, the formula for success is. We need to surrender our will to God every day and allow Him to transition us from strength to strength as we await Jesus’ coming. Here’s a final word of encouragement: “Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard that you do not get led astray … and fall from your firm grasp on the truth. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the honor both now and on that eternal day.” (2 Peter 3:17–18, NET).

I’m not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, are you?—L. David Harris (