"Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always
obeyed--not only in my presence, but now much more in my
absence--continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling,
for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill
his good purpose. Do everything without grumbling or arguing so that you
may become blameless and pure, "children of God without fault in a
warped and crooked generation" Then you will shine among them likes
stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life. And then I will
be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in
vain." (Philippians 2:12-16 NIV)
Did you ever think
about the phrase--"when the cat is away the mice will play" and what it
means? In this analogy, the cat is the authority and the mice the
subservient to the cat. So, while the cat is in their presence, they do
what they must do--play hide and seek to keep from being destroyed. When
the cat is away--the mice roam freely and are totally unconcerned about
being caught.
Some people honor the authority in their lives only when the authority is present--right there--can't be missed.
Employees will do their jobs while the boss is in their office, but if
the boss is out of the office, many can hear a collective sigh of relief
and most get lazy and lounge--doing absolutely nothing.
When
teachers are out of their classrooms for a day or days--a substitute
teacher can count on not getting anything done because the students have
determined--the teacher isn't here and we don't have to do any
work--even if work was left for them to do. I've heard all the
stories--"the sub lost it; I didn't know we had to turn it in, the sub
didn't give us any work, I took it home and forgot to bring it back." Students make up so many excuses for not doing work that they could have saved themselves some time by simply doing the work.
Paul
understood that when he was around, the people honored his presence and
he's commending them on doing so and encouraging them to keep on doing
the right thing--whether he's there or not. And that is what all
Believers should be doing, right now. Living like we know (because it's
true) that God is present--in our midst at all times--and we should do
the right thing at all times.
I know many won't understand this
because they're thinking on a carnal level. "I can't be good all the
time." Yes, we can. When we know God's Word and have a relationship with
Him, we can be good all the time. The thing that keeps us from being good is our flesh--when we give in to temptation to fit in with others who don't know Him.
I'm guilty--not intentionally, but guilty nonetheless.
Sometimes, my
flesh overrides my spirit and I'm immediately impressed by Holy Spirit
that I need to repent for the things I allow to escape through my lips.
"Grieve not the Holy Spirit" I hear every time I mess up. The
bottom line is--I'm more careful to not mess up, but when I do, He
reminds me--He's right there and hears everything I say and sees
everything I do.
The biggest problem for Believers is
when they tend to act like God can't see or is deaf. He's always in the
midst of everything we do and yes--He can see and hear it all. Now, we
have a decision to make--to honor Him at all times, recognizing His
presence or to act like He's only around in church on Sundays.
It's our choice, and the world needs us to make it right now--for our
time on this side of eternity is almost over and we have many souls to
introduce to Jesus before He returns.
Let's do all things as unto The
Lord, desiring to please Him only!
No comments:
Post a Comment