Help People Grow Strong In The Lord

September 6, 2017

Help People Grow Strong In The Lord

“For I long to visit you so I can bring you some spiritual gift that will help you grow strong in the Lord.”

Romans 1:11

Read: Romans 1:8-13

The phrase that captured my attention in today’s reading is, “your faith in him is being talked about all over the world.” Why do you think the faith of this little community of believers in Rome was known throughout Paul’s world? Because for the followers of Jesus in Rome, Jesus was not just one of many gods they could worship; Jesus was Lord and Savior of the world. For these Christians, Jesus was not optional for life; Jesus was their life. They believed Jesus was the only way to be reconciled to God the Creator. Without Jesus they would stand as guilty sinners on the Day of Judgment. Without Jesus there was no hope of eternal life. The Christians in Rome were living in the shadow of the Emperor of the Roman Empire, who proclaimed himself as divine and ruler of the world. To proclaim another person as Lord was to pronounce a death sentence on their life. Faith for these Christians was indeed risky.

Like our spiritual ancestors in Rome, I want to be more aware of opportunities to let my faith be known. Some of these opportunities may be risky and take me out of my comfort zone by challenging conventional cultural wisdom. I pray that this faithful little church in Rome will inspire me to love mercy, do justice and walk humbly with my Abba Father; especially when Abba leads me out of my comfort zone.

My Takeaway: In Verse 11 we see that Paul was very aware of his spiritual gifts and wanted to share them generously to help people grow strong in the Lord. I want to share Paul’s humble acceptance of the gifts God has bestowed on me, and be as eager as Paul to share these gifts to help others grow strong in the Lord.

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

Copyright © 2017 by Alex M. Knight

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.