My Faith ~ My Jesus

June 2, 2010

Matthew 3
Baptism of Jesus


Inspired thots:
Again, the passage seems to hold nothing special…nothing that I did not seem to know; but I recalled from yesterday’s night prayer meeting when I read the article “Christians think too much” where it tells me that we Christians tend to think through and logic out God’s word to our convenience instead of embracing it and doing it. How true. So I waited on the Lord for His inspired thots for this morning, reading the chapter again from verse 1. True enough, the Lord reveals…

1) (v1) Why would one (like John the Baptist) choose to spend his life in seclusion, living out in the wilderness? Truly he had a calling from God ~ he heard the calling > he embraced it > he worked it out! He was willing.
a) God will use the one who hears His call, embraces it (accepts) and work it out (do it). I am not there .. yet. I remember when young, I joked about Isaiah 6:8 that “Here am I, send my sister”; for my sister went into the ministry full time. Yes, God will use the one who hears and embraces His calling and do it. This is the difficult part for me… perhaps for a lot of us.

2) (v9) Faith is a very personal thing. It establishes our relationship with God. It is from within the self. No one can establish the relationship with God on one’s behalf. Yes, no matter how I love my gals, I cannot have faith in God on their behalf. They cannot bank on my faith to carry them through the wrath of God which is coming. Oh, it is so urgent and vital for my daughters whom I love dearly, to establish their faith in Jesus themselves. That is my constant prayer, as a devoted mom.

3) Jesus set an example for us to follow by going through the waters of baptism. Although he was God, he chose to be baptized as all man should, to give an example to all man. Water baptism follows through from confession of sins, forgiven by God and a new life with Christ. Water baptism is thus a testimony to others that we now belong to Christ having confessed our sins, forgiven (1 John 1:9) and now to move on to bear good fruit in keeping with repentance (v8)

Thank You Lord for Your inspired thots today. I know that the Lord is great. He has been merciful to me all my life; I know He is working out further in my life now.. even though it has taken me a long time to come round to Him. Praise You, Jesus.

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