Clarity to Being Vigilantly Diligent
“Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” (Galatians 5:1) Liberty from what bondage? Bondage is not strictly present in the spiritual; Satan’s choice of battlefield may be the mind, making mental bondage the most common form of slavery. When we allow evil to latch to our feet the devil stops our spiritual advances, stifles our growth, and undermines our dependence on God. The enemy’s objective is to keep our needs unmet by isolating us from God, therefore precipitating the emotion of guilt when we realize our needs are insatiable.
However, scripture directly invalidates that thought process: “Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:3) A child does not question. Children simply ask with full expectancy of the need to be filled. God wants us to expect Him to fill our needs. He wants to prove that our insatiable spiritual, mental, and physical needs are just more opportunities for Him to be sovereign. Child-like faith is pure: they wholeheartedly believe in the intangible and base their responses and thoughts on what they feel. We must strive and pray fervently to develop these characteristics.
Our minds have idiosyncratic ways of operating, which brings many people to believe that our spirits all grow differently as well. In contradiction to that belief, the book of Isaiah reveals the exact method in which our spirits will grow. “For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little.” (Isaiah 28:10) We don’t have the capacity to understand the dynamics of the spiritual realm in one sitting. Our knowledge is acquired through time and grace. A toddler can’t understand the fluctuations of the stock market — nor do we expect them to — which is why they are gradually introduced to fundamentals one at a time.
Though God is the only one who can extricate us, we have been given many tools to keep ourselves pure and fastened to Him. The most prominent tool we have is diligence. Diligence is defined as having or showing care and conscientiousness in one’s work or duties. “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.” (Ecclesiastes 12:13) I challenge you to be diligent in putting God absolutely first. Start your day with His word and pray. “But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.” (Hebrews 11:6)
Very nicely worded ~ I keep being bless by what our young people have to say.
Your article is insightful and heartening; it will take child like faith to allow God to be Miraculous in our lives turning every weakness into opportunity for Gods sovereignty to shine.
This is a wonderful attitude to start each new day, as well as when each new problem enters in our life. God is not a man that he should lie, so we definitely can trust Him…..
My God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
Chalk full of good stuff! You summed Satans primary objective up nicely when you said, “making mental bondage the most common form of slavery. When we allow evil to latch to our feet the devil stops our spiritual advances, stifles our growth, and undermines our dependence on God”
Great advice; if we can be like children in our faith and like adults in our diligence, our success will be inevitable.
Children are relentless when they want something and so should we be. The issue here as Christians is we don’t know what we want from God.We know we want Him to use us, but how? We don’t think in the realm of the impossible because that is God’s territory, so we think. But He has told us that we are more than conquerers, so with relentless dependance on Him, we should believe in the impossible now and let Him what He made us for. Other than that, we fall short of what He made us for.
My family recently had Him show us in the natural what He could do in the spiritual, because I choose to believe in the impossible now. I shared it with some Christians and one comment was “Well that won’t happen on a regular basis”. I was not saddened by it but silently rebuked that persons “lack of understanding”. I plan on honoring Him with a child-like faith in the impossible,,,no matter who believes it. My family and I know it and plan to move in the miraculous because I beleive that is what this world needs to see, in order to be brought to truth.