For there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve (Acts 27:23)
"No storms or tempests can hinder God's favour to his people, for he is a Help always at hand. It is a comfort to the faithful servants of God when in difficulties, that as long as the Lord has any work for them to do, their lives shall be prolonged. " (Matthew Henry). How fortunate we are to serve a living God...one with eyes to see, ears to hear, a voice to comfort with and arms to hold us! There is nothing more powerful than His love for us; there is nothing more mighty than His justice; there is no one more loving than He!!!
When our work is finished, we will go home. In the meantime, we have a very important job to do...we are to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ to all we meet. We are to live our lives as an example to others in such a way that it bears our true faith in Jesus! There are those among us who do not know of, nor believe in our loving Father in Heaven. They do not know the Son who came to save us from Hell. They do not know the power yielded by the Holy Spirit. Sometimes the hardest place to do that is in the midst of our own families. We tend to "let our hair down" when we are in their company. We are comfortable around them and often our "armor" becomes softened. We cannot afford to, not for a moment, give the enemy an opportunity to distract us from what the Lord has laid before us. In everything we do (our careers, our homes, our entertainment and our travels) we must put God first and each step we take must include Him.
We can't all be dynamic speakers, perfectly read preachers, spectacular evangelists or Pulitzer Prize winning authors. The majority of us will be considered "average" by the general public. But, it's not "public opinion" that dictates our greatness, for we are all nothing more than dust and water. We brought nothing with us into this world except the sin of being human and we will take nothing with us when we leave, save a life lived in honor and service to the King. The riches we amass here on earth will be left to those who remain. The jocularity of our lives here will remain here. The good deeds we have performed will be remembered in the letters of appreciation and plaques we've acquired. The only thing that will be seen when we stand before God will be our acceptance of Jesus as our Savior, the gift of grace through faith we receive when we humbled ourselves before Him on this plain; the realization that we could not attain Heaven by our own means and that He, through His life, death and resurrection - has attained on our behalf.
Don't fool yourself. You cannot buy your way into heaven. The only way in is through that precious blood of Jesus. He made the way - He built the bridge - He is the light!!! Take a lesson from today's verse - be known to Him, belong to Him and serve Him. He will stand by you in flesh someday and will tell our Heavenly Father one of two things ~ let Him say of you "Well done ~ welcome home!"
(photo by Jeff Beverly, Sr)
