Thursday, 4/23/20 – Discipleship – Priorities (& COVID-19)

Priorities (& COVID-19)

“Abide in Me,” said Jesus to His disciples then, and to all believers since (John 15:4). “We walk by faith,” wrote Paul, (2 Cor. 5:7) and to have “faith” in someone requires having known them, having seen their past faithfulness. The friendship and confidence is proven by time and consistency, intimacy and reliance.

So it is with Jesus. He has called His own His ‘friends’ and ‘siblings’…

“You are my friends if you do what I command” (John 15:14).

“Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.” (Heb. 2:11).

John The Baptist personified Christ as the Bridegroom and himself as the Bridegroom’s “friend.” (John 3:29).

Oswald Chambers writes about this friendship the believer is privileged to have with the Lord… it is a friendship which grows from the habit of abiding… of remaining in Christ as He is in the believer.

To maintain this friendship and faithfulness to the Bridegroom, we have to be more careful to have the moral and vital relationship to Him above everything else, including obedience. Sometimes there is nothing to obey and our only task is to maintain a vital connection with Jesus Christ, seeing that nothing interferes with it. Only occasionally is it a matter of obedience. At those times when a crisis arises, we have to find out what God’s will is. Yet most of our life is not spent in trying to be consciously obedient, but in maintaining this relationship— being the “friend of the bridegroom.” – Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest (March 25 entry)

Unshakable faith, writes Yancey, “is the result of faith having been shaken.” – Philip Yancey, Disappointment with God.

Those who have walked long and abide in Christ have found Him faithful. Those who have not, but will trust Him now as their faith is shaken indeed will find Him faithful. Even to the faithless, Christ is ever faithful (2 Tim. 2 13). He cannot be otherwise.

So what is our priority amid the COVID-19 crisis? It is simply this: to remain in Him.

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33).

Press on…

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