Yesterday I started the first of a 4 part letter to my church family. This idea came to me as I have been studying the letter of Paul to the church in Philippi. I will write a new letter a year from now and enjoy a years perspective in hind cite.
Again, to my faithful and true fellow followers of Jesus, it brings me great joy to see and pray with you in your growth. It brings me great delight to know and see that many of you are deep in your faith and walk with Jesus and many more desire and progress in a forward direction. God makes it clear from His Word, that not only are we called to put on many traits that are from Jesus, which are given to us in the power of the Holy Spirit, but we are also called to take off many of the worldly and sinful traits that we have outside of our lives with Jesus. It brings me joy knowing and seeing many of you put off as well as put on and knowing this has truly made my serves for Jesus, that much more enjoyable. I wish to write to you though today about a trait I desire for more of us to put on in our walk with God.
Many of us know the traits we are called to put on as they are commonly know as the fruit of the Spirit from the book of Galatians; love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control. The trait that I pray we put more on in our lives together is faithfulness. When many of us think of faithfulness we think of faith in Jesus and His death for us. This type of faith is a great faith and I have seen many in our faith family have this type of faith. A faith in Jesus is the first step that any person must take in their relationship with Jesus. Faith is a foundation for the Christian walk and a Christian cannot live this life without having faith. As the Apostle Paul would say, we are justified before God becasue of our faith and this faith is a great virtue that is essential to our walk with God.
But this faith must also present itself in action. This action and visible faith is again sometimes labeled and shown through commitment. Commitment in faith is a virtue that I pray we have more of. Being committed to Jesus is not always easy. In a world that is self focused and all bout self gratification, commitment to Jesus is a hard thing to put on. But commitment to Jesus is something that deepens our walk. When we commit ourselves to regular church attendance, loving one another deeper, striving for faithfulness in our walk and testimony, and reliance on the work of the Gospel, we present ourselves worthy of the Gospel and lights to the world. I pray for you all daily that your love for Jesus will deepen so that your commitment to Him and His bride, the church, will grow.
So, I am calling and praying for you, brothers and sisters I love to put on a deeper faith and stronger commitment to Jesus and His church. I pray that many of us will make a stronger desire to gather together and spend more time with each other. I pray that many will desire to be at church more and having a stronger love for one another. I pray that many will take their faith deeper and understand that the world will see our Savior through our actions and words. Many times good things can be shown in a bad light and bad things we justify for a good reason. I pray for many of you daily to take your faith deeper and grow in your commitment to Jesus, each others, and the church. Faith is vital and faith in action through a deeper commitment is just has vital.
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