The Present Grip

Monday, August 12, 2024

Good morning, Lord

Verse of the Day: Romans 8:11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.

Memory verse: Psalm 90:14

14 Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.  

Today's reading: Psalm 87-88 Romans 13

The Present Grip

There was a competition where the contestants would hang by their hands on a steel bar and strive to hang for the longest time. They were in a safety harness on a platform high above the ground. One by one, they would grip the bar and step off the platform and hang there as long as their strength would support their grip and then their hands would begin to weaken and tire and they would fall and hang in the harness until pulled back to safety.

If you were hanging there by your strength in your hands alone, what would be in your mind?

This is about the very present danger of not holding firmly to our faith.

Hebrews 3:14 "We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly to the end the assurance we had at first."

Holding firmly to our faith-getting a grip that will not fail-based on the foundation of Christ and His grace in our lives is always a present need. The moment we take our minds off our seeking God and His kingdom-His grace and power in us-we lose our grip and fall.

The danger of falling is right now-always right now-maintaining a grip in faith on God right now or we fall.

This is what we call maintaining 'God consciousness'.

Before someone gets a frantic feeling from this, we know that Christ is our safety harness and lifeline who catches us when we fall and we, in faith, depend on Him.

But the point is to depend on Him for the strength to concentrate on Him as His grace secures us to keep us from falling-not to take chances with 'golden calves' knowing that Christ will catch us...

We have a problem-the devil plans for us to fail. It is either hold on to faith and depend on God each second or get our focus off Him and onto a worldy prize and step off into the enemy's plan for us to fail.

 God's plan is for our success-our sanctification-our daily growth in Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit as we, in faith, 'hold firmly' to Him-keep our hearts and minds trained on Him.

Years ago, I had a chance in a leadership activity to climb a pole, like everyone else, in a harness and jump from the top of a pole to catch a hanging bar a few feet away-everyone else did it. I got up there and thought, "This is the 'stupidest' thing"-so I climbed back down the pole to jeers from all the others. To this day, I am glad I did not jump.

If God wants us to take chances, he is our safety-not one made by human hands from the natural mind.

Get a grip on God and don't let go.

...because He loves us...

Father in Heaven,

I must concentrate on Your name and how great You are, oh God. the World is not my bread, You are. Forgive me for looking at the stuff of the enemy. Lead me away from evil.

God of all righteous strength,

In the name of Christ Jesus,

Amen