Sunday, March 14, 2010

Perseverance of Faith By Gift

The Kingdom of God does not ask much from its children; mostly for us to live righteous, pure, simple lives. Indeed this can get sometimes complicated, but not because the task its self is complicated. It is more because we ourselves make them complicated. It is not a hard task to love one another, or to not steal; I think we can all agree on this. Yet we all find ourselves constantly contemplating over these same pinnacle moral judgments every day. Part of this nonsense is because of our own self will; the idea that we have the answers. I spoke in my last writing about the God consciousness that we all have, yet seldomly chose to acknowledge. We may get away with this ignorance before our walk with Christ, but once we enter the Kingdom, we must acknowledge. We must rely on our God consciousness if we wish to live the lives that Gods asks us to live.

But how is it exactly that we are to go about handing our reasoning over to Christ? It comes two-fold. First and foremost you must come to Christ, receive his grace. Once we have entered his place, he gives us faith. Notice that I say that He gives us faith; faith is not of our own. It is not manmade and we have no dominion over it. It can be given, strengthened, but also weakened. I can say that I have faith in God, or that I have faith that this will turn out right. All this would seem that faith is of my own, and that I am giving it to God himself. But could you have faith (real faith that is directed and received from God) if he has not blessed you with grace? It is more of a plea from a man to a stranger. What we have more is a faith, which is directed to the grace that Christ has blessed us with.

So we have faith; but is that enough? Is it faith and faith alone that will lead us down the path that we have searched for in vain our whole lives? Certainly not! Our faith is a virtue, a trust between God that he is good. Faith is our energy; our energy that allows us to do the work of the kingdom. It is impossible to do the work of the Kingdom without the faith that is given to us from God. But as the Gospel of James says, “Faith without works is dead.” Our faith will weaken if we do practice it; we must do our part to maintain the energy that God has bestowed on us.

Miraculously, all that entails is for us to live righteous, pure, simple lives; for us to help one another, to be truthful, to love. It is not enough for us to just talk about what God has done for us. We must carry his will with us everywhere we go. Listen to our God consciousness, and fulfill the part he lays at our feet. When we accomplish this, we exercise our faith; it will grow. It will blossom into a beautiful and powerful thing. It will allow us to communicate on a more personal level with our creator. But without our works, the gift of faith will fade away. Our relationship will weaken, and our personal will may creep to the surface. Do not ignore a beautiful quality that our God has given to us. Embrace it, and never forget it.