Have The Mindset of Christ

MY DAILY COVENANT WITH GOD DEVOTIONAL

Devotion for Tuesday July 18, 2017

Topic: Have The Mindset of Christ

Text: Philippians 3:15 – 16

The word mature as used in our text was translated perfect in King James Version. It implies full grown, as opposed to babes or children. Full grown here is used for me and women who are grounded in the word of God (1 Corinthians 14:20 compare Hebrews 5:12 - 14).

The mature in this context means striving for perfection and not perfection. Our mindset determines our perspective of issues, the way we react and respond to issues. The mind factor here had to do with maturity; showing perfect love and manifesting itself in perfect humility through Christ.

Paul exhorts the full grown Christians to imitate His perseverance, urging them to forsake any claim to legal righteousness. He charged them to seek that righteousness which is through faith of Christ so as to know Christ; to win Christ and to press ever forward to obtain the prize. For us the present day Christians, the mindset Paul expects us to develop is having deep personal desire for a daily experience with God and the pursuit to be like Christ. It should be an experience that can give vitality and meaning to life.

To attain maturity expected of us in this Christian race, we should focus on knowing Christ the more (Philippians 3:8), having righteousness of Christ (Philippians 3:9) and desiring moral transformation which leads to encounter with the resurrection power (Philippians 3:10). This should be our concern as we race towards heaven.

Food for Thought: Christians must live like Christ or nothing else

Memory verse: Philippians 3:15

Prayer: Lord God, help me to have the mind of Christ which is love, obedience and humility

WHY NOT ACCEPT WRONG? Devotion for Tuesday October 18, 2016

WHY NOT ACCEPT WRONG? Devotion for Tuesday October 18, 2016

Text: 1 Corinthians 6:1 – 7     Memory verse: 1 Corinthians 6 verse 7

The greatest desire of Jesus Christ concerning His disciples is unity. He prayed earnestly about it. In the New Commandment He gave to His disciples, He charged them to love one another. This shows His desire for His church. This notwithstanding, there are bound to be misunderstanding where more than one person meets. This led to the problem Paul addressed in this First Epistle to the Corinthians.

Paul’s opinion about disputes between Christians is that such cases shouldn’t be filed in a lawsuit. This is in every aspect the standard that Christians should adopt.  He suggested that disputes between Christians should be handled by qualified Christian leaders in the church. This is so because Christians are seen as brothers and sisters. If that be the case, why should people of same family go outside to settle disputes?

Some other reasons Paul had against secular court settling disputes between Christians because (1) if the judge and jury were not Christians, they would not likely be sensitive to Christian values and standards. (2) The basis for going to court is often revenge; this should never be a Christian’s motive. (3) Lawsuits make the church look bad, causing unbelievers to focus on church problems rather than on its purpose. Above all, Paul’s position was that the best thing a Christian should do is to accept wrong for the sake of peace which ordinarily is the emblem of Christianity.

That these Corinthian Christians had to resort to lawsuits to settle disputes among them was a worldly act and condemnable. It showed that they were still immature in their Christian faith. Paul explained the direction in which they needed to grow; they needed to willingly accept injustice if that would mean protecting the church from abuse and scandal.

Beloved, you should not wrong and defrauded someone especially fellow Christians for any reason at all in the first place. Mature believers would not act in that manner. Such act of defraud is peculiar to unbelievers and non Christians.  A matured Christian should be willing to turn the other cheek when wronged (Matt 5:39) as Jesus taught us. How matured are you in the things of faith? Will you be willing to turn the other cheek?  

Food for Thought: Romans 12:17 – 19

Prayer: Almighty God and my Father in heaven, grant me the grace to grow unto maturity in this Christian race.

HE DID NOT DISAPPOINT GOD: Devotion for Tuesday March 15, 2016

HE DID NOT DISAPPOINT GOD: Devotion for Tuesday March 15, 2016

Text: Job 1:20 – 22    Memory verse: v 22   

We are fond of asking God why He allowed problems and troubles of life to come our way. The bad impression about Christian life is that most of us believe that nothing evil, sickness or problems of life should come our way. We all know that Christ’s suffering was His path to glory and severally in the scriptures, He intimated us that if He suffered, we shouldn’t expect anything less.

In our text, Job did not hide his overwhelming grief and he didn’t lose his faith in God; instead, his emotions showed that he was human and that he loved his family. Upon all these calamities, He did not charge God with acting unkindly towards him by asking God, Why? Rather, he accepted all with faith. Anyone who assigns motives to God’s actions is foolish. If Job had used hasty words against God (see Prov. 8:36), he would have sinned and injured himself.  

God created our emotions, and it is not sinful or inappropriate to express them as Job did. If you have experienced a deep loss, a disappointment, or heartbreak, admit your feelings to yourself and others, and grieve. Thereafter, pick yourself up and begin life again. God boasted about Job and despite the quick succession of calamities that came his way, he did not disappoint God.

Beloved, how do you handle the problems of life that confront you? Do you lose your faith simply because you are in another environment? Do you speak harshly and thereafter, you begin to regret? God expects us to show maturity of faith when passing through trials of life   

Food for Thought: We know true Christians during trials and temptation.  

Prayer: Help me never to disappoint you O Lord when I am faced with temptation.