2 Peter 1:10
Wherefore the rather,
brethren,
give diligence to make
your calling and election
sure:
for if ye do these
things,
ye shall never fall:
Take HEED: If our calling and election WAS NOT ABLE to
be IN JEOPARDY, then the Apostle Peter would not have told us to be diligent
about MAKING IT SURE AND CERTAIN, would he ?
Yes, without a doubt,
there is a danger to the spiritual sluggard and a serious warning to such a one here in this
verse.
The Disciplined Life of a
CHRISTIAN .... is not optional. Listen to what this well-disciplined
ORDER of Christian sisters writes:
MORE PRECIOUS THAN GOLD
Used with permission from:
www.canaaninthedesert.com
Author - Basilea Schlink,
Publisher - Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary
You must be self-controlled and alert,
to be able to pray.
1 Peter 4:7 GNB January 29,
2014
“If you want your
prayers to reach the throne of God and
be answered, make sure you fulfill the conditions.
1 Lead
a life of self-control.
2 Be
disciplined in your words and actions, in eating, drinking and sleeping, and
enjoyment of physical pleasure.
3 By
continually placing every area of your life under the dominion of Jesus
Christ, you remove the obstacles to answered prayer and will
experience the help and grace of God.”
Used with permission from :
MORE PRECIOUS THAN GOLD
www.canaaninthedesert.com
Author - Basilea Schlink,
Publisher - Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
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Photo of GARDEN of GESTHEMANE |
What constitutes a
"discipled" life ? If our churches do not issue a call to
discipleship, then we must establish a Spiritual discipline ourselves.
· Yes, daily
Scripture reading
· Yes, daily
worship... prayer, praise, thanksgiving
· Yes, a
devotional TIME set aside solely for that purpose
·
Yes, a time for QUIETUDE... sitting still to
hear His+ Voice.... spending quality, priority time
with JESUS our LORD.
And like it or not, some
PRAYERFUL, CHRISTIAN restrictions placed
upon our own flesh in the area of
·
food and drink
·
dress,
·
entertainment
·
music
·
and in the company we keep.
Why discipline ourselves in these
areas ?
[ NO. Discipleship is NOT
"legalism." JESUS HIMSELF+
told us we MUST be HIS+ disciples.]
The first reason is to control the
flesh.
We must teach it to submit to our New-man following the Will of CHRIST JESUS, not to
continue doing the same things our old man, our Adamic Nature, has trained us to
do.
[ Most of us have not been blessed
with parents who submitted their SELF to The LORD and / or who taught us that
we must submit our SELF unto the LORD in order to be well-pleasing unto
HIM+.]
Our Flesh is supposed to be dead with CHRIST after Baptism.
Alas, the flesh has a habit of reviving
itself time and time again, though. By making ourselves submit in any little
way, we will be mortifying the deeds of the flesh... in a little way.
Being faithful in little will indeed enable us to be faithful in more, strengthened to
mortify the deeds of the flesh ... in the greater battles we have in our own
inner man against the Old Man values and habits we have acquired.
That submission to discipline
enables us to fight the GOOD FIGHT of FAITH in the Un-ending Battle Against SELF.
If we want prayers to be answered,
then we MUST engage this most-unpopular-of-all fight of faith: putting SELF to death.
Our LORD JESUS sacrificed His+
Life to empower us to fight our Adamic nature and put SELF to death.
BUT... it is our battle, our
decision.
HE+ will not do it for us.
Yes indeed, HE+ will help us and
has helped us; we CAN win in this battle to die DAILY to our flesh. HE+ will send His+ Blessed HOLY SPIRIT to
help us.
BUT... HE+ will not do that
part for us which HE+ knows is our own prerogative to do ourselves: that is, turn our will over to
HIM+.
HE+ cannot yield for us.
HE+ cannot MAKE us
choose TRUTH in the inner man.
Only we OURSELVES can YIELD over
the controls to HIM+. Only we ourselves can choose to follow in the inner man
The TRUTH Our LORD shows us. JESUS is The Way, The Truth, and The LIFE.
Do we want our prayers
answered?
Then we must yield all control
over our SELF-WILL unto CHRIST JESUS.
Then it will come to pass what is
written in Psalm 89: 7
GOD is greatly to be feared in
the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all
them that are about HIM.
Ah LORD GOD!
Behold, THOU has made the Heaven and the earth
by Thy great power and stretched-out arm
and there is NOTHING too hard for THEE !
Jeremiah 32:17