Stepping in the Light

“Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. Matthew 5:43-45

Love your enemies. We have heard this admonition time and time again. It is so easy to say, but it often seems so hard to do. These three little words that we teach to young children in Sunday school constitute an enormous challenge for grownups. They are usually heard without the rest of the sentence that Jesus spoke as He gave them. He continued to further define what it means to love your enemies, and then He gave a reason for this instruction. “…That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven….” We are to follow the example of our Heavenly Father. He makes the sun shine on those who hate Him just like it does on those who love Him. He sends rain and gives sustenance to the ones who despise Him just like he does for those who honor and serve Him.

How can you become more like God? When someone says something unkind about you, say something nice about them. Do a good deed for someone who openly hates you. Pray most for those who like you least. Love your enemies.

“Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.” Matthew 5:6

Being blessed by God and receiving blessings from Him is something that Christians often take for granted. If you were to make a list of God’s blessings on your life, what would you include? Which blessings would come to mind first as you worked on your list? If you came back to prioritize your list, which ones would you place near the top?

For many of us, certain material blessings that God has given to us would be the first that we would think of, and some of those blessings would remain near the top of our list, even after we began to place our blessings in the order of their importance to us. Jesus certainly looked at life differently. He taught us in the text above that it was a blessing to have a desire to be righteous. And what is the reason that this desire for righteousness is a blessing? “…For they shall be filled.” In other words, those who desire to be righteous will be righteous, and being righteous is a blessing in and of itself.

Some foods are certainly more desirable than others. Dietitians encourage us to eat plenty of vegetables. If we find that vegetables are not very appealing, we can begin to develop a taste for them by including them in our diets.

Do you have a hunger for spiritual things? Jesus said that we need to work to develop a hunger and thirst for righteousness. We can do this by spending time in His Word.

“And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.” Genesis 11:4

After the flood, God had given Noah the command to replenish the earth (Genesis 9:1). God wanted the people to spread out across the whole world, but they did not want to do that. They decided to build a large city where they could all dwell together. We don’t know exactly why they feared the task of settling the vast landscape that spread before them in all directions, but this passage tells us a bit about their motives. The builders of Babel were concerned with making a name for themselves. They imagined a thriving city surrounding an enormous tower reaching to heaven. It is likely that this tower had religious meaning for these people, and it is easy to see the spiritual significance of the erroneous idea that man can make his own way to heaven; but it is clear in this verse that their goal was to be known for their accomplishments.

It is easy to employ the same mindset today. We are naturally concerned about our reputations. We want others to think highly of us, and we work hard to make good impressions. However, this approach to life is exactly the opposite of what Jesus did when he walked this earth. Philippians 2:7 tells us that He made himself of no reputation. Luke 19:10 says that He came to seek and to save that which was lost. We would be more like Jesus if we focused on making a difference in the lives of others rather than on making a name for ourselves.

“And the LORD said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.” Genesis 7:1

Nowhere in the Bible is there a more tangible image of the wrath of God against sin than that of the world-wide flood. The concept of eternity in the lake of fire as the punishment for sin is a bit more difficult to wrap our minds around than the physical destruction we see in the wake of a ravaging flood.

God was so angry with the sin of mankind that He decided to destroy everything and start over. “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord” (Genesis 6:8). After receiving instructions for building the ark, a massive ship capable of housing Noah’s family and two of every kind of animal, Noah went right to work. When the ark was complete, God said to Noah, “Come thou and all thy house into the ark.” Notice that God did not say, “Go into the ark,” He said, “Come into the ark.” This speaks to us of the fact that God is always with us. Noah did not know that he and his family would be in the ark for over a year (compare Genesis 7:11 with Genesis 8:13-14), but he knew that God was not sending him in there alone. Of course, he would have the company of his family, and they would be surrounded by thousands of animals; but God was letting Noah know that He would be there with him. In this epic story of God’s wrath, we also see His tender care. He wants you to know that He will be with you in the difficulties of life.

“And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.” Genesis 5:24

Enoch was the seventh generation from Adam. His father’s name was Jared and he had a son named Methuselah who lived to be 969 years old, the oldest person recorded in scripture. Not much else is known about Enoch, but he was surely unique in human history.

Enoch walked with God. We understand this to mean that Enoch lived his life with a constant awareness of God. He was always conscious of his Creator and made his daily decisions based upon his knowledge of God’s character and his understanding of God’s desires for mankind. Enoch must have understood the value of prayer, and he evidently spent a great portion of his time talking with God.

Enoch’s attitude and lifestyle attracted God’s attention, and God did something very special for Enoch. Hebrews 11:5 says that, “…Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and…before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.” Enoch’s faith in God was extraordinary and God rewarded his faith by allowing him to pass from this life to the next without having to experience death.

Sometimes it seems difficult for us to measure our own devotional life, but we can see from this story that God is certainly measuring it. How aware are you of God’s presence in your life? How much do you pray? Enoch’s example should encourage us to walk closer with the Lord today.

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” Genesis 1:1

God created everything. He is the Creator of all things. He is creative in His very nature. In His creation, there was perfection. Everything was meticulously designed, and He created everything in the perfect order. He did not make the birds before He made the atmosphere (firmament) for them to fly in, nor the cows before He gave them grass to eat. It was all within His perfect plan.

It was Satan’s desire to ruin God’s paradise on earth. He understood that mankind was God’s purpose for everything that He had created, so Satan attacked Adam and Eve. He did not have any other reason to try to destroy the human race except that we were the object of God’s love.

Adam and Eve made a choice. They could have rejected the temptation of the evil one and obeyed God’s one command, not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But instead, they listened to Satan’s lie and in taking of the fruit of the tree, they plunged the human race into the bondage of iniquity and brought the entire creation under the curse of sin.

As we begin a new year, how would you categorize yourself? Are you creative or destructive in your nature and actions? Are you more like God, or more like Adam and Eve? What could you begin in your life this year that would bring glory to God?