Do you believe? Are you obedient?

You are precious in His sight

Don't let despair seize you ... don't become despondent ... don't become bitter.
Go on.

Completely surround yourself with Christ - all of Him. Believe in Him, follow Him, be obedient to Him. Pursue. Do not stop pursuing because events in your life have darkened your path, resulting in increased hardship.

Hardships come and hardships go. We all struggle. We all suffer. At some stage in our lives we all are rejected -- BUT the rejection is from our peers, not from the Lord.

When we are one with Christ Jesus we understand better what it means to suffer and be rejected.

Jesus died for all - every one of us - those past, present and future. He died for me.
He died for you. He suffered. He was rejected. Yet He obeyed the will of The Father - His Father - God.

He had to suffer. He had to be rejected to fulfill God's promise. And we as believers in Christ can do no less.

"3He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. 4Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. 5But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. 6All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. 7He was oppressed and He was afflicted. Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth." (Isaiah 53: 3-7)

His death was not in vain. His life too, however much suffering and pain, was not in vain.

Our life, filled with suffering, pain, rejection, is also not in vain when it is to Jesus we cling.

All we do, as believers in Christ, show others where we stand - what we stand for, who we stand with. Is it for Jesus, with Jesus? Do we follow Him whatever the cost? Do we hear and respond? Do we say yes in our mind and no in our heart? Do we listen to outside influences? Has our subconscious swayed our thinking so much that whatever the Spirit of the Lord says to us "feels" wrong?

Feelings. Following Christ, obeying Christ, has nothing to do with feelings.

When we become One of His, we are called to a new life set apart for God.

We have been forgiven - God has forgiven us. What does it matter, of what importance is it really when our peers refuse to forgive us, when our families and "friends" bad-mouth us and turn their backs on us. Did Jesus receive any less treatment?

Jesus loves you.

If you profess to be One of His and wear His cloak upon you, then you must live and walk as He did, not as your peers.

You are just as precious in the eyes of the Lord
as a newborn baby.

You have been granted asylum..

You have received His grace.

He bids you go - to live, to walk, to pursue as He, to not stop to consider "did He really say.... did He really mean..."

His answers to our every question, every concern we face, is found in His Word when we study, meditate, pray, follow, obey.

Obedience is so very hard to do when we struggle to see the Light, when we allow thoughts of the world to penetrate our minds, when we find excuses, and we lose sight of Jesus.

He is our everything. Move Him to the forefront. Keep Him there. Don't allow those dark thoughts of despair to take control and rule your every move.

Live in the Light. Be fruitful. Be One with Him.

Walk with Him.

You stepped out once. Continue the steps, one foot in front of the other, being obedient to His demand, wherever it takes you. He is always with you.

Where there is obedience we find faith and our faith renews our obedience to Him who calls us.

Do you believe?
Are you obedient?