The Lord Has Chosen You To Be His Special Treasure

(Originally published in the Swazi Gospel Sun)

As long as we are still in this world we will face adversities. As long as we are here on earth we will encounter challenges that will try to shake us. Being a child of God does not give you an exemption from hardship. I have heard it, read it and experienced it – it seems like the more you grow in the grace of the Lord the more challenges come your way.

There are cases when hardship will be a result of your disobedience to God’s commands. But I do not believe that is always the case. The fact that you are special to God, the enemy will always fight tooth and nail to see you suffer. It is because you are special to the Almighty God.

Sometimes you do not have to do anything but you will be hated for being special. The people around you may not be pleased that you are getting preferential treatment and they will make life difficult for you. No matter how innocent, sincere and kind you are to them, you will be loathed for being a special person.

“Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age. Also he made him a tunic of many colors. But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers they hated him and could not speak peaceably to him,” (Genesis 37:3-4).

Joseph had done nothing to his brothers, but they hated him because he was special to his father. They hated him even more when he told them his prophetic dreams. We read that they mulled over killing him but eventually sold him as a slave. He had done nothing wrong that warranted such a reaction from his brothers, he as only a special child to his father.

My dear friend, you are special to God. However that does not mean you will not face challenges. Again, facing challenges does not necessarily mean there is sin in your life. It is because you are a child of God and you are special to your father. The enemy is not pleased with that fact. He will try by all means to destroy the relationship you have with your father.

It does not matter what and how many challenges you are facing, God will always love you in a special way. When the Israelites were in the wilderness they faced many challenges and the Lord delivered them. God spoke to Moses in Mount Sinai and gave him a message to proclaim to the people of Israel. The Lord said, “Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all earth is Mine,” (Exodus 19:5).

The very same God, who never changes, regards you as His special treasure. Our Great God and Saviour Jesus Christ gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people (Titus 2:14).

We tend to forget or not realize that we are special in the eyes of the Lord. He chose us. What a privilege to be amongst the chosen few! Jesus said many are called but few are chosen. God chose us for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth (1 Thessalonians 2:13).

Jesus Christ said, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you,” (John 15:16)

In our last article we discussed that challenges, like pruning to a tree, enables us to bear quality fruits. The purpose God chose us is that we may be fruitful in doing his work. Remember that by grace he saved us to do the works that He prepared for us before hand. God knows that we are capable of being fruitful in the varying works he assigned each one of us, whatever the circumstances. That is why in our previous discussion we said ‘The Lord has chosen you, be strong and do it!’

Sometimes you only discover how special you are when you go through difficult times. God tests (NOT tempts) us through trials and tribulations and that is when we should apply longsuffering and hold strong to our belief in truth. He may allow us to be tempted but He always provides a way to get out of that temptation. We just need to trust in Him at all times.

Recently I read a story by one pastor who has had many spinal surgeries after he was assaulted as a teenager in high school and the pain never went away. He says, “… [I] have learned to embrace my pain as being a part of God’s plan for my life. It keeps me humble. It keeps me reliant on Him. It has caused me to have a real heart for hurting, broken people. As a person prone to being a lone ranger, my pain forces me to call on and rely on others. Most of all, because I am in pain daily – hourly even, I am aware of His grace in ways that I can imagine a much healthier version of me would have ignored.”

This may sound like someone resigned from life but his point is that he has learned to see it as a blessing that was meant to be a curse. He has realized how special he is in God’s eyes and he is unwavering, immovable and abounding in the work of the Lord knowing that he is not doing it in vain. He has chosen not to be hindered by circumstances from doing what God has called him to do.

My dear friend, know that God knows what you are going through. Know that God cares for you. Know that he wants you to bear fruits. David says many are the afflictions of the righteous but God delivers them from all. The Lord says, “Call upon Me in the day of trouble, I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me,” (Psalm 50:15).

When we ask for God to come to our rescue we should not lose sight of his main purpose – that His name is glorified. We should not expect Him to deliver us from troubles for our own selfish gains, but for His glorification. The Lord is not willing to share his glory with anyone else. That is why He has chosen us in the furnace of affliction - that He is glorified.

“Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. For mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it. For how should my name be polluted? And I will not give my glory unto another,” (Isaiah 48:10-11 KJV).

Just because you find yourself in the furnace of suffering it does not mean you are no longer special to Him. God has chosen you in whilst you are going through that hardship. And he has chosen you to bear the fruits of the Spirit (which patience is one of them).

Our Savior Himself, the Lord Jesus Christ, was chosen in the furnace of affliction and therefore He knows how to rescue us. That is why the Apostle Peter writes, “Come to  Him, to that living stone, rejected by men but in God’s sight chosen and precious,” (1 Peter 2:4 RSV).

My dear friend, God has chosen you because He has a plan for you. His plan is not to harm you but to give you a future and hope. He has promised that when we call Him He will listen and we will always find Him when we seek Him with a true heart. The Lord loves us so much that he laid down His life for us. He cares for us that He sympathizes with us in our weaknesses. He remains faithful to us even when we are faithless.

“Seeing that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need,” (Hebrews 4:14-16). 

In The Midst of Our Disgrace God Reveals His Amazing Grace

(Originally published in the Swazi Gospel Sun)

Sometimes you spend time and money planning to achieve a goal you set for yourself. You go out of your way to make sure that it happens. You sacrifice a lot to ensure that what you are planning turns out to be a success. You pray for God’s guidance and provision and you see things coming together.

You even celebrate, “All things work together for good to those who love God!”  Just a couple of days before you realize what you have been striving to achieve something happens that disrupts all the plans and you lose all everything and everything comes to nothing. Well, that is the experience I am recovering from.

It is amazing that before all this happened God had put in my heart the urge to pursue His knowledge. I even wrote on this subject in my previous article. The day before discovering the trouble I got myself into, the Holy Spirit led me to put together this piece with words from the Scripture.

GOD’S THOUGHTS AND WAYS

God’s thoughts are HIGHER than ours

His thoughts are VERY DEEP

His understanding is UNSEARCHABLE

His understanding is INFINITE

His ways are EVERLASTING

His ways are JUST

His ways are JUST and TRUE

His paths are MERCY and TRUTH

His way is PERFECT

WHATEVER THE LORD PLEASES HE DOES

He teaches and guides the HUMBLE

He teaches those who FEAR Him

SHOW ME YOUR WAYS, O LORD;

TEACH ME YOUR PATHS

TEACH ME YOUR WAY, O LORD I WILL WALK IN YOUR TRUTH;

UNITE MY HEART TO FEAR YOUR NAME

As I reflected on all the events that took place I realized that in spite of my loss and shameful situation God love was all over me. I got to understand what James really meant when he wrote “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing,” (James 1:2-4).

Dealing with the loss of something that you are emotionally attached to is very hard. It is even worse when you realize that you could have done a lot of things to avoid the disgraceful situation from happening. Guilt takes over and you start beating yourself over it. That is the point where we lose it and we start doing things we are not supposed to be doing.

However, through it all I have learnt how much God loves us. I have realized that God allows us to go through tough and disgraceful conditions to reveal His amazing grace. Our Lord Jesus Christ went through disgraceful circumstances for God’s grace to be revealed. That is how God demonstrates His great love for us. “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8).

I have heard so many times people asking why bad things happen to good people. My answer is simple; God is demonstrating His great love. My dear friend, in my young life I have learned that we cannot understand God’s thoughts and ways and it is not our duty to try to figure it out. God cannot be scientifically proven. All we have to do is to be obedient to His instructions and let Him do His work. All we have to do is to glorify Him because His plan is to make us complete, not to harm us.

In whatever challenges we are facing in life we have to know that we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. This is what separates us as children of God and those of the world. When the world questions, “Where is God?” we are rejoicing because we know that we have faith in the God who is love, the God who redeemed us with the blood of His only begotten Son whose death demonstrated the love of our Father. “He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, SO THAT YOUR FAITH AND HOPE ARE IN GOD,” (1 Peter 1:20 -21).

That makes us know that God is with us all the time, we are in His presence. The greatest wonder of being in the presence of the Lord is that we gain the confidence to face anything. If we have faith in Him He hears our prayers and provides whatever we need. When you are in the presence of the Lord there is no need to be worried and afraid. Jeremiah says, “You came near when I called you, and you said “Do not fear,” (Lamentations 3:57).

If we pursue the knowledge of this God we believe in, we will not be afraid because this is the God who said to Moses, “My presence will go with you and I will give you rest,” (Exodus 33:14).

This is the God who assured Joshua, “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord you God will be with you wherever you go,” (Joshua 1:9).

This is the God who declared to Jeremiah, “I will make you a wall to this people, a fortified wall of bronze; they will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you to rescue and save you,” (Jeremiah 15:20).

This is the God who encouraged Paul in Corinth, “Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city,” (Acts 18:9-10).

This is the God who said to Daniel, “Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them,” (Daniel 10:12).

God wants us to go on and do His work without fear because He is always with us. Like the true, good Shepherd, He is always taking care of us and there is no reason to be worried. Like Daniel we need to set our minds towards gaining understanding and humble ourselves before God. “He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way,” (Psalm 25:9).

God loved us through Jesus Christ so that we shall have eternal life and nothing shall separate us from His love. He will never leave or forsake us. What more can we ask for other than the presence of the Lord?

The Almighty says, “I the Lord search and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve,” (Jeremiah 17:10). We need to keep our hearts pure all the time to better position ourselves for the blessings from the Lord. We need to keep our minds clear so that we are able to focus on what God wants us to do.

My dear friend, today you may be going through an embarrassing situation, the people you trust may be judgmental to your faults, you may be finding it hard to forgive yourself for a mistake that cost you a lot, you may be discouraged to even continue praying, you may find it a draining task to read your Bible – just know one thing, God is with you. Today He is saying to you, “Call upon Me in the day of trouble, I will deliver you and you shall glorify Me,” (Psalm 50:15).

I have said it before; God loves us, God cares for us, God is faithful!

INSPIRATION FOR THE WEEK: "...you shall glorify Me."

"Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me," (Psalm 50:15).

The past few weeks have taught me not to depend on my feelings but to trust in God's word. I have been stretched, tried and tested but there is peace and joy in my heart knowing that God has chosen me in the furnace of affliction.

Sometimes it is easy to tell someone to hold on and have faith in God. The most challenging part is when you have to practice what you preach. That is when you realize that you cannot do it on your own. That is when you realize that at the time when you are weak, the grace of the Lord gives you strength. That is when you realize that   Jesus sustains you through it all. That is when you realize that Him alone will keep your head up when you do not even have the energy to do that.

Something then registered in my heart. So many times when we are in trouble or in need we ask the Lord to rescue us. He is a faithful God and He helps us when we need Him. But really, why do we ask Him to save us when we are in trouble? So that we can have a better life? So that we are commended for our faith in God? So that we can be revered as prayerful children of God? 

"Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me," (Psalm 50:15).

When you are in trouble it is easy to think of yourself, nobody else but you. When you have no money you always think how you are going to get money. When you have no food you think of where you are going to get food. When you are in pain you think of when the pain will go away. When you are being ridiculed you think of why you have to be subjected to such... then you ask the Lord to come to your rescue. 

When God delivers you from whatever you are going through, is He glorified? Last year I posted an article discussing the fact that when God blesses us or do great things for us it is not for our own good but for His name to be glorified. My dear friend, it is time to take a moment, consider how God is glorified when He takes you through difficult situations. Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ said you are the light of the world and let your light shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. Your faith in God should be witnessed by everyone and see God working in you. The focus should be in giving glory where it is due.

Even though I had come to a point where I felt like I can lock myself in the room but God has kept me going and continues to do His work. It does not matter what you are going through, continue to do what God has sent you to do and His name shall be glorified. "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord," (1 Corinthians 15:58).

INSPIRATION FOR THE WEEK: Where Are You?

"Then the LORD God called to Adam and said to him, "Where are you?" (Genesis 3:9)

Everyday we are supposed to walk with the Lord, we are supposed to be in the presence of the Lord, we are supposed to rejoice in the Lord. We have the privilege of having direct access to the Lord. Although He is our Father in heaven, He is always near us. He has promised that He will never leave us. He is always taking care of us regardless of what is happening in our world. 

Because God loves us so much He doesn't want us to go astray. He delights in walking with us all the time. He is happy to see us trusting in Him. He derives pleasure in using us as instruments of His glory. "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them," (Ephesians 2:10). 

God is concerned about our well being. God is concerned about our present and future. That is why he is concerned when we lose His way and go our own way. His way leads to life and if our way is not His way then it leads to death. It saddens the Lord to see us transgressing from His way.  

That is why He says, "...repent and turn from all your transgressions, so that iniquity will not be your ruin. Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed, and get yourself a new heart and a new spirit. For why should you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies," says the Lord God. "Therefore turn and live!" (Ezekiel 18:30-32)

Even when we have fallen, He doesn't give up on us. He wants to give us another chance. He wants us to return to Him so that He can restore us. When we hear His voice we should not try and hide from Him just like Adam and Eve did when they had fallen into sin. The Word of God tells us that when they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden, they hid from the presence of the Lord. "Then the LORD God called to Adam and said to him, "Where are you?" (Genesis 3:9). 

My dear friend, when you are not with God where are you? When you are not walking in His love  where are you? When you are not walking in His light where are you? When you are not walking in His wisdom where are you? When you are lost where are you? When God is calling your name, where are you? 

Mind you, God knows everything and He knew where Adam and his wife were, but He asked him, "Where are you?" This was an opportunity for Adam to examine himself, consider his position, confess his transgression and repent. Today God is asking the same question to us, "Where are you?"