A CUP OF COLD WATER

                                                                 WHAT’S NEXT?

One of the ways that you can grow in the knowledge and experiences of God after you are saved is by walking with Him daily, building your life on His word and growing your faith by applying His word to your everyday life. In the Book of Colossians in the New Testament, chapter 2, verses 6 &7 we read: ‘As you have therefore received Christ Jesus, the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving’.

When you asked Jesus Christ to become your Saviour, it was a voluntary action. You were convicted of your sin from His word, you repented of your sin, and by putting your faith in Jesus Christ as your Saviour you received salvation. Along with salvation comes the desire to live as His child and to spend the rest of your life on earth with Him and after you die, to spend eternity with Him. That desire leads to a commitment to follow His statutes and obey His commands. Jesus Christ reciprocates our desire to live as His children with giving us His Holy Spirit, as our Guide, to help us live holy lives. The Holy Spirit also teaches us the Word of God- the Holy Bible- and shows us all the promises that God has made available to us for our life and godliness.

To experience the abundant and eternal life that Jesus promised in the Book of John, chapter 10 and verse 10 and chapter 17, verse 3, we must continue walking with Him, once we are saved. This is not optional! When we walk with Him, we get to know Him better and we are able to know and do what He likes, and also know and avoid the things He dislikes. As in any human relationship, this requires effort on our part which includes reading, studying and meditating on His word, fellowshipping with other believers, listening to Him and more importantly, following His instructions. As His children, we must spare no effort to get to know Him, being consistent, focused and develop the habit to check in on Him regularly to know where we are in our walk with Him. We must also be ready to make the necessary adjustments in our lives to maintain our walk with Him. There no price too high to pay for a constant walk with Jesus Christ.  

As we walk with Him, we are being rooted in Him and He becomes the source of our nourishment, just as a branch get its nourishment from its tree. When we stay rooted in Him, we will understand His dealings with us, his ways and acts which will help us know His will at all times. We will gain wisdom and discernment to live successful lives, and our lives will be marked by expressions of faith, responsiveness to His leading, intimacy with Him and temperance in dealing with people of all walks of life. Just as the branch loses its nourishment, withers and dies if it is cut off from the tree, so we will ‘wither and die’ if we are not rooted in Jesus Christ. We must therefore resist anything or anyone that will hinder us from being rooted in Him if we are to continue our walk with Him. The resultant effect of being rooted in Him is that we will be productive in all areas of our lives and we will emit a fragrance that will draw people to us and when they come, we will be able to point them to Jesus, so that they can also experience what we have. 

Being rooted in Jesus Christ is being built on a solid and firm foundation, a sure foundation. Once when Jesus was teaching the crowds that had gathered to hear Him, it is recorded in the Book of Matthew, chapter 7 and verses 24-27, that He equated hearing his word and doing it to two men that built their houses on very different foundations. To help our understanding on what the passage in Colossians means by ‘built up in Him’, let us consider what Jesus said about the man that built his house on the sand compared to the man that built his house on the rock, a firm foundation. When the rains, winds and floods came against the house built on the rock, it was able to withstand them, whereas the house built on the sand was not, and fell flat, succumbing to the elements. Likewise, when we build our lives on Jesus, we can withstand the rains, winds and floods of life, that is, unforeseen troubles, trials and the vicissitudes of life that come against us. Jesus protects us and we have peace, safety and security in Him. We need not be anxious or worried or feel threatened by the storms of life. When do not build our lives on Jesus Christ, the opposite is true and we are helpless and hopeless when the storms of life come against us.

Building our lives on Jesus Christ will help us to be established in our faith. We would be unshakeable in our convictions. Our knowledge of God and our faith in Him makes us no longer tossed about by circumstances of life. Circumstances, no matter what they are, will not matter to us because with faith, we will commit all things into His Hands and we will be confident that He will take care of them. By our unshakeable, immoveable faith, we will also be an example to others.  

All of this should point us to one thing- thanksgiving to God. We must freely give never-ceasing thanks to God for sending us Jesus to die in our place, paying a debt we could not pay. We give overflowing thanks to God for reconciling us to Himself which made the way for us to have abundant and eternal life. We thank God for who He is, what He does, how far He has brought us and for all He will help us to be and to accomplish, to the glory of His name. 

As children of God, we belong to Christ and we must continue to walk with Him to the end of our lives. Our roots must grow deep down in Him so our lives can be built on His sure foundation and in doing so we will be strong in our faith and nothing will move us away from Him. His personal care of us will make us overflow with thanksgiving to Him every day. When we adopt this posture, no shaking in the world and its systems can affect us. We will remain steadfast and grow in the knowledge and experience of God, to the glory of His name.

A PRAYER

Father God, we have heard your word. Your heart for us is that we prosper and have healthy bodies and souls. Thank You for Your goodness to us at all times. You are faithful to us and even though we can be faithless, You remain our faithful God. We pray that You will give us grace to accomplish what we have read in Colossians 2:6-7; to walk with You daily, to remain connected to You so we can bear fruit, to build our lives on Your word which can strengthen our faith. Give us grateful hearts so we can overflow with thanksgiving at all times, we pray in Jesus’s name, Amen.