Faith that provides real change
... you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault. But you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it. Don’t drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News. The Good News has been preached all over the world, and I, Paul, have been appointed as God’s servant to proclaim it. Colossians 1:21-23
The slogan used by the US Army from 1980 to 2001 was “Be all that you can be." The implication was that once someone joins the Army, you can achieve your longing for fulfillment. Yet, no matter how good the slogan sounded the reality of attaining it through one’s effort seemed to be impossible. The good news of the gospel as stated by the apostle Paul from the text was that what we longed for was fulfilled by God through the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. God provided the only means for us to experience real change in life. In the midst of the darkness in this world God provided hope. There was a point in time when all of us who are now Christians were separated from God. The presence of sin in our lives hindered us from experiencing the presence of God. We did not consider what He offers and were contented to go about our plans each day without any thought of Him. We lived for ourselves. If there was a moment that we thought of God, probably it was during the time that we need some answer to our problem but not really expecting anything from Him. This mindset caused us to be far away from God and became hostile to His plans for our lives. “Yet now” from the text signified that something significant took place in our lives. We responded to His offer to be reconciled with Him when we accepted Christ in our lives. As Paul said, it resulted to a change in our lives for we became aware of His presence within us. God is in the business of changing lives so we could be the person He wants us to be. But this is a process towards God’s specific goal of presenting you “holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.” God has fully intended to accomplish His purpose for our lives. By faith in Him, we will “continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it.” Faith to God can be shaken at times, it could grow dim, but if it is real faith in God it will not fizzle. Perseverance because of faith in God proves that God has changed us. “We know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us” (Romans 5:3-5).
Blessings,
