Saturday 29 March 2008

Faithfulness like a Morning Cloud

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Hosea 6:4b

"..For your faithfulness is like a morning cloud,
And like the early dew it goes away."

These are words spoken by Hosea the prophet, by inspiration of the Spirit to the people of Judah, but I reckon the description can often times be placed on us Christians today! I shamefully, would certainly see it at times in my own life.
One moment I can be pleading, sincerely with God in prayer for greater victory, closer walk and more consistent devotions as well as many other things, and I really mean it! I do want a closer walk with God, a deeper love for Jesus and for the fruits of the Spirit to be more evident in me, yet five minutes later I can neglect Spiritual duties like family devotions, prayer or Bible reading because there's something on TV that might be good? Or even worse I can give in to some sin that comes along tempting me!

This is weird, one minute we acan be so committed and sincere about gritting our teeth and following hard after Jesus, no matter what, and the next we can be either neglecting our walk or we Can even fall into sin, perhaps even a very sin or neglect that we've just prayed against - our faithfulness is like a morning cloud, and like the early dew it goes away.

I know that for my walk this has been the case, and I cannot say for definite that it won't happen in the future, but there are a few things that we can all do in order to combat this tendency.

1- Pray.
I know, nothing new, but to pray for faithfulness and deeper love can never be a bad thing.

2- Cultivate our love for Jesus.
This can be done by thinking about who He is, What He done on our behalf at the cross, What He has done in and for us personally and What He is doing now as well as what He will do in the future.

3- Stay in His Word.
I don't mean that we need to be reading the Bible 24 hours a day, but that we cultivate the ability to think and meditate upon His Word more and more, living our lives according to it.

4- Cut off the arm that offends.
We can get rid of or avoid, even set parameters on our use of whatever it is that leads us away from Christ, whether into sin or merely neglect. perhaps TV can be limited if not thrown away or Internet accountability software can be placed on a computer, perhaps food can be cut down etc.


I know that these are all areas that need constant attention in my life, as well as many more areas. May Christ by His grace and by His Spirit lead us into more consistent, devoted, victorious and passionate faithfulness with Him.
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About Boaly
Gary has been involved in printing the Scriptures for 20 years, enjoys photography and rambling online

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