Archives

Matthew 5 – Salt and Light

Mar8

Good morning y’all. Today I’m looking at  Matthew 5. There is so much to learn from this chapter but i’m going to focus on verse 13 -16.

Be blessed 🙂
image

“You are the salt for everyone on earth. But if salt no longer tastes like salt, how can it make food salty? All it is good for is to be thrown out and walked on.    You are the light for the whole world. A city built on top of a hill cannot be hidden,  and no one lights a lamp and puts it under a clay pot. Instead, it is placed on a lampstand, where it can give light to everyone in the house.  Make your light shine, so others will see the good you do and will praise your Father in heaven”. (Matthew 5:13-16 CEVUS06)

Here, Jesus is saying we are the salt of the earth and light of the world.

Salt adds flavour and makes things taste better.

Light brings illumination where there was once darkness.

Bringing this home to our christian walk, we are called to add flavour here on earth and to bring illumination to the darkness around us in the world. There is so much darkness it’s unbelievable. We are not meant to add to the darkness, rather we are meant to bring light.

Question is are we truly loving up to this expectation from God? Do we act as salt and light everywhere we go? In our place of work or school, can people detect that we are children of God? When we go somewhere do people say after we’ve left of how we’ve made their lives better; how we have impacted them for good?

This was what Jesus lived for. Everywhere He went scripture says He was doing good.  People saw the love of the Father in Him. Even the disciples of old,  people recognised them as followers of Christ by the life they lived and how they conducted themselves both in speech and action.

Our lives should truly reflect that of our heavenly Father. People should see the love of Jesus reflected in us and that love should draw them to God. I once heard a pastor say “your lifestyle can either attract people to God or repel them from God”. I pray we are attractors and not repellants.

Some of us started out as salts and lights but somehwere along the line, we have lost our saltiness and light. I realised that the only way we can keep the saltiness and light, is to remain in constant fellowship with the Holy spirit. Completely yielding to him and offering the members of our body as instruments unto righteousness. Time with the Holy Spirit will produce the fruits of the spirit in us.

“But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!” (Galatians 5:22-23 NLT)

“Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives”. (Galatians 5:25 NLT)

If we fail to walk with the Holy Spirit, we will loose our saltiness and light. We would be of no use but to be cast away. This sort of reminds me of the scripture that says any tree that doesn’t bear fruit will be cut away.

“Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me”. (John 15:4 NLT)

“Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned”. (John 15:6 NLT)

Let’s do a honest check today and make the words of Psalm 139: 23-24 our prayer.

“Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life”. (Psalms 139:23-24 NLT)

Have a blessed Sunday 🙂

***With God all things are possible***

Matthew 4 – Fighting Temptation

Mar5

Good evening y’all. Today we are looking at Matthew 4

Be blessed 🙂

Jesus was tempted in different ways but He didn’t yield to the temptations. It is possible to resist temptation(s). To be tempted is not the sin, its yielding to the temptation that is the sin.

The book of James explains that when we are tempted, we shouldn’t say, God tempted us: We are tempted by our own evil desires.

“Let no one say when he is tempted, I am tempted from God; for God is incapable of being tempted by [what is] evil and He Himself tempts no one. But every person is tempted when he is drawn away, enticed and baited by his own evil desire (lust, passions). Then the evil desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is fully matured, brings forth death.(James 1: 13 – 15 AMP)

You might say, ‘overcoming temptations is easier said that done’.  That is only true when we are ill-equipped to fight the temptations; or we decide to forsake the most effective tool God has given us to fight temptations: the word.  The most effective way to counter the enemy is by using the word of God. The word of God is the sword of the Spirit. The word is powerful and effective. Its sharper than any 2 edged sword.

“For the Word that God speaks is alive and full of power [making it active, operative, energizing, and effective]; it is sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating to the dividing line of the breath of life (soul) and [the immortal] spirit, and of joints and marrow [of the deepest parts of our nature], exposing and sifting and analyzing and judging the very thoughts and purposes of the heart”.(Hebrews 4:12 AMP)

Jesus used the word of God that He knew to combat the devil. Note the devil too knew the bible but he twisted it to get the effect he wanted.  We have to be careful of people who lure us into temptation by twisting the bible. This is why it is important for us to spend time reading our bible. We have to know God’s word for ourselves. We can’t afford to wait till temptations come for us to start reading our bible: by then it might be too late.

Jesus’ interest in the word of God start at an early age. In Luke 2:46-47 says, ‘After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers.‘  He was twelve years old at this time.

We have to be sensitive to the spirit to know that some of the offers we are given, even though they sound good, are not actually from God.  What Jesus was offered in the temptations wasn’t too bad superficially, but Jesus knew that the devil was just trying to distract him from His purpose, so he combated him by quoting the scripture back to him.

“But He replied, It has been written, Man shall not live and be upheld and sustained by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God”. (Matt 4:4 AMP)

“Jesus said to him, On the other hand, it is written also, You shall not tempt, test thoroughly, or try exceedingly the Lord your God”.(Matt 4:7 AMP)

“Then Jesus said to him, Begone, Satan! For it has been written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him alone shall you serve”.(Matt 4:410 AMP)

Some temptations are glaring and we should be quick to resist them. Scripture says submit to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you.  We shouldn’t even entertain the thoughts. 

“Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you”.(James 4:7 NIV)

Let’s do what Jesus did and put on the whole amour of God.  The word of God is very vital in the various items of the amour of God.  The scripture below tells us so:

“Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” (Ephesians 6:17)

May God give us the grace to study His word diligently; resist the devil always; and submit totally to Him. In Jesus’ Name I pray. Amen.

Thanks for joining today.

Have a blessed evening 🙂

***With God all things are possible***