Saturday, August 5, 2017

August 6, 2017

Mountain-top experiences are amazing! Few things in life are better than being on a spiritual high!

But, unfortunately we don't dwell on the mountain we live at ground level. So, how do I stay high on Jesus after I come down from the spiritual high?

In my previous post, I gave the answer:

When the feelings wane you replace those feelings with faithfulness!

See, what often happens when the feelings go away the enemy whispers that the experience has gone away, too. He will tell you that what happened to you wasn't real and he will try to make you feel foolish. If you believe that and give into that he knows he can then cause you to be overcome with evil (aka - old habits, thought patterns and behaviors).

In Romans 12, Paul writes, "Be not overcome with evil but overcome evil with good."

That's his version of my statement, "Replace feelings with faithfulness."

So, what does faithfulness look like? The rest of that chapter gives one of the most clear and practical explanations of faithfulness ever given!

Give it a careful and prayerful read.

"So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. I’m speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you. Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it’s important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him. In this way we are like the various parts of a human body. Each part gets its meaning from the body as a whole, not the other way around. The body we’re talking about is Christ’s body of chosen people. Each of us finds our meaning and function as a part of his body. But as a chopped-off finger or cut-off toe we wouldn’t amount to much, would we? So since we find ourselves fashioned into all these excellently formed and marvelously functioning parts in Christ’s body, let’s just go ahead and be what we were made to be, without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other, or trying to be something we aren’t. If you preach, just preach God’s Message, nothing else; if you help, just help, don’t take over; if you teach, stick to your teaching; if you give encouraging guidance, be careful that you don’t get bossy; if you’re put in charge, don’t manipulate; if you’re called to give aid to people in distress, keep your eyes open and be quick to respond; if you work with the disadvantaged, don’t let yourself get irritated with them or depressed by them. Keep a smile on your face. Love from the center of who you are; don’t fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle. Don’t burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don’t quit in hard times; pray all the harder. Help needy Christians; be inventive in hospitality.Bless  your enemies; no cursing under your breath. Laugh with your happy friends when they’re happy; share tears when they’re down. Get along with each other; don’t be stuck-up. Make friends with nobodies; don’t be the great somebody. Don’t hit back; discover beauty in everyone. If you’ve got it in you, get along with everybody. Don’t insist on getting even; that’s not for you to do. “I’ll do the judging,” says God. “I’ll take care of it.” Our Scriptures tell us that if you see your enemy hungry, go buy that person lunch, or if he’s thirsty, get him a drink. Your generosity will surprise him with goodness. Don’t let evil get the best of you; get the best of evil by doing good."

That, my friends is what faithfulness looks like!

That is what faithful people do! And they do it everyday day no matter how they feel or what is happening in their life!

That is how you can stay high on Jesus after you come down from the mountain-top!

Living faithfully is hard while feeling good on the mountain-top is easy. But faithfulness lasts while feelings come and go!

In fact, there will be times when doing the faithful things will not feel good at all! But in those difficult times when doing good feels bad remember that JESUS IS FEELING GOOD ABOUT YOU!