January 17th Ready To Be Ridiculed?
Ephesians 2:8-10
8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
We will be talking much about fulfilling your God given spiritual purpose this year. Verse 10 above tells us we are made for a mission. God has a special plan and will for you and me. We shall be rewarded for how well we accomplished our good work at the Bema seat of Christ.
The world and the devil does not want us to fulfill our purpose. The enemy will do anything and everything to keep us from being effective Christians.
Be prepared to be abused and abondoned by people you love and care about. It’s part of the method used to discourage us and get us out of God‘s will. The tremendous pastor, Adrian Rogers, who impacted millions for Christ, recounts this story and advise:
“One evening, I overheard my father and a friend of our family talking. “What’s Adrian going to do when he gets out of high school?” My dad replied, “Well, he wants to go off to college and study to be a preacher.” That man just laughed and said, “He won’t make it. He’ll never stick it out. He’ll quit.” This was a man that I admired and respected very much. I almost felt like crying.
That’s what the world says about Christians, “They won’t stick it out. They won’t make it.” You see, the devil hasn’t changed his tactics. He’s still mocking and throwing cold water on our walks with the Lord. Get ready. If you don’t feel the flames of ridicule now, just wait.”