A CUP OF COLD WATER

 ‘IN CHRIST’- MADE BRAND NEW- PART TWO

In this second Part of ‘In Christ-Made Brand New’ we will discuss our main responsibilities as kingdom citizens. The rights and privileges that we enjoy as kingdom citizens also come with responsibilities, and to achieve these responsibilities, we have the Holy Spirit, who lives inside us, and He is our Helper, Guide, Teacher, Comforter and Friend who walks alongside us throughout our life’s journey. Our reliance on and co-operation with the Holy Spirit is therefore vital if we are to fulfil our responsibilities as kingdom citizens. For instance, our primary responsibility is to share the gospel of salvation with all people, and the help of the Holy Spirit is indispensable in this responsibility. When the gospel is shared with people, He convicts them of their sin, reveals Jesus to them and prepares their hearts to receive Him as their Saviour. We cannot do that on our own without His help. Furthermore, the Holy Spirit empowers us to do God’s will and to live in a way that pleases Him.

As followers of Jesus and kingdom citizens we have the responsibility to reciprocate God’s great love to us by loving Him back and by loving others also. In the Holy Bible we are commanded to love God, putting nothing and no one before Him. We are also commanded to love God with all our heart, soul and mind, and to love our neighbour as we love ourselves. Our love for Him would make us want to know Him more, and such knowledge should determine how we live our lives. To know Him more, we must make it a habit to read His word daily, and as we do so our minds will be renewed so that our thinking, character and priorities begin to conform to His. Our associations and friendships also begin to change. Some friends will be uncomfortable around us and we must not try to keep them. We begin to desire to spend more and more time with God and with fellow followers of Jesus, no longer enticed by the systems of this world and their status quo. We become all about our Father’s business, giving Him first place in our lives, with no competing priorities.

By obeying God’s commandments, we are also fulfilling our responsibilities as kingdom citizens. Obeying God’s commandments and keeping His laws come with a promise of having a prosperous life. God takes His word seriously and so should we. In the Holy Bible, God describes His word as light for our paths to show us where to go and where to avoid. We also read that God honours His word above His name and that heaven and the earth will pass away, but not one word of His will. His word is settled, unchanging and when we obey them, we find the help we need and are not expected to look for other ways to help ourselves. We must obey God moment by moment and train ourselves to know when He is leading us in any direction. Our obedience involves being quick to answer to His call and to do His bidding, knowing that He is always looking for ways to do good to us. God prefers us to obey Him rather than to disobey and then bring sacrifices to Him in our disobedience. God views our disobedience as rebellion against Him and He equates it to the sin of witchcraft. In many instances in the Holy Bible we see God punishing disobediences with withdrawal of His protection, care and guidance, similar to when a citizen breaks a country’s law and faces the consequences of such actions. We are then left to one’s own devices and very soon we run into trouble because we cannot successfully handle the evil that comes against us. The result of obeying God is living a successful life.

Trust in God is the ingredient that gives meaning to our love and obedience to Him. We are commanded to trust Him with all of our heart and not to lean on our understanding and experiences of things. To trust God is to hand over the reins of your life to Him. We have been bought with a price, the precious blood of Jesus Christ, and we are no longer our own; we now belong to God. We are therefore to trust Him for every detail of our life because He knows all things and knows what is best for us in the present time and for our future. We must trust Him in good and difficult times and in times when we are not sure of what is happening, what He is doing or what the outcomes will be. Trusting God to do something for you when it seems humanly impossible is also difficult because it often involves waiting for His timing which, in my experience, is always far different from our timing. For instance, waiting for a spouse, for a desired job, for healing or deliverance from adverse situations can be a challenge because we do not know His timing for when they will happen, but previous experiences we have had with Him helps build our confidence and trust in Him to handle our matters. We lack trust when we neither know who God is nor recognise Him as the one thinking good thoughts about us and wanting the best for us. He always shows us the way and advises us to choose the best path, therefore trusting in Him will always be to our benefit. 

Be thankful! There are many things outside our control that happens for the best to us. It is God working behind the scenes and making sure that we do not come to any harm. As a shepherd tends his sheep by finding the best pasture for them to graze, looking for the best water brook for their drink, providing their needs, protecting them from devourers and keeping a close watch on them, so God does, and exceedingly much more, for His children, hence we should always be thankful to Him. Our thankfulness should come from a grateful heart for His past, present and future interventions in our lives, irrespective of the outcome of our situations, whether good or bad, because we trust that He has our best interest at heart. 

Maintaining fellowship with God is priority now that we are living in Christ. We must ensure that we have unhindered fellowship with Him. We fellowship with God when we read and meditate on His word, the Holy Bible, pray, worship and listen to Him. These activities should be part of our daily routine because that is how we get wisdom, strength, direction for our lives and fortitude to deal with life’s challenges. God is holy and if we are to fellowship with Him we must be holy. We were made holy by salvation through Jesus Christ and we have a duty to maintain our holiness by avoiding sin, and if we do sin, we must quickly repent to regain our fellowship with God.

We have discussed the main aspects of our rights, privileges and responsibilities as citizens in the kingdom of God. Though we live in the world, we are ambassadors of another kingdom and our lives should portray the higher values of our kingdom as witnesses to Him who died for our salvation, Jesus Christ.