Gentle.

God is many things, a God of justice, wrath, holy,and so on, He is also gentle, so many scriptures show a God of gentleness, one who deals with people in a gentle manner.It is an aspect of God that is so attractive, and appealing, and is a great challenge to me , for so often I am to say the least a bit heavy handed, a bit harsh towards others. the world needs more gentleness.So let us this day be like Him , who was gentle , meek and kind, Jesus.

Srength.

In the book of Neh 8 v10 we are told , that the joy of the Lord is our stength, in that little letter of Philippians the apostle stresses joy, of rejoicing continually, when he wrote those words he was a prisoner. Surely there is a joy in the Christian life that we can experience day by day, it cannot be woe is me all the time. This joy is not based on trivia it is the joy of the Lord, it is something only the child of God has, for only they have the the Lord. There may be many things in your life that are difficult, but just ask the Lord to fill you with His joy.

Preaching.

Although I feel called to preach, I still find it the most challenging of activities, it is not something that comes easy. First of all you have to discover what your going to preach on, most times that is not so difficult, yet it can be, then the preparation, that can be hard work, then the preaching of it, all very challenging.Why do it if it is so hard?, the answer Gods calling.Mybe God has called you , or is calling you , obey it, simply because obedience is what it is all about, that applies to everything, not just that special calling on our lives , everything.

Faith alone.

One of the things the N.T. writers seek to do, is bring a balanced view into their teaching, we are saved by faith alone, through grace, alone. One of my favourite books is by P. Yancey. called, Whats so amazing about grace, a wonderful book. Grace alone ,faith alone,but what about balance in our Christian life?. Well heres how I see it, if you read James and John letters, it appears to me they are simply teaching, the life that has experienced the grace of God , must manifest the reality of that experience, you cant have one without the other.This does not weaken the doctrine of , grace or faith alone, it strengthens it, as our Saviour taught we are known by our fruits.

The path I must go.

Consider our Saviour , consider the path He had to go, and how few really understood where he going , or what He had to do, continually He was misunderstood . There is a lesson in this for all of us, you see God has placed a calling on all our lives, the question is are we following that calling?. In obeying Gods calling on our lives remember , you are leaving yourself open to be misunderstood, and you must take up your cross and follow Jesus, irrespective of what people think or say.

He has a plan and a purpose.

Consider these words from Romans 8 v29 , For God knew His people in advance,and He chose them to become like His Son. You becoming a Christian was not by chance , consider Ephesians 1v4 .Even before He made the world, God loved us and chose us, it is a mystery. But there is more, His purpose ,He chose us to become like His Son ,all the events and circumstances of our lives are for this purpose,that we may be like Jesus.

Keeping life in proportion.

It is so easy to loose sight of what we have, the many blessings we have, often we look at life in an unbalanced way.We may be suffering from an illness , but we have medicine, let me encourage you to look for the mercies, life will always have its downside, thats the nature of life, but let us trace the rainbow through the rain. Look up today and give thanks unto God , do it in faith, honour your Lord, give thanks with a grateful heart, in Jesus name.