Completing Character and Communication not Competing for Power

UV 3301/10000 Completing not Competing
Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and He will say, “Here I am.” If you take away from your midst the yoke of oppression, the finger pointed in scorn toward the oppressed or the godly, and every form of wicked, sinful, unjust, speech.

Isaiah 58 v 9

The Lord rushes to our help the moment we call on Him, the moment we cry for help. We need to imitate the humility of the Lord that He comes to us as soon as we call even though He is the Sovereign Master of all. It is His love, His commitment, His zeal to restore His children that causes Him to come to us when we call. We need to reciprocate by avoiding every form of incorrect, improper, imperfect speech. We need to be shrewd as a serpent to avoid the oppression of the enemy of our souls but also humble and gentle as a dove, wise as an owl, brave and sharp as an eagle. In the name of Jesus, we have the power to break every yoke of oppression the enemy lays on us or threatens us with. As someone said, “faith maximizes possibilities while fear minimizes it.” Our faith should be God-honouring, self-equipping, others-empowering.

In the kingdom of man, hard work, talent, creativity precedes rewards while in the kingdom of God, faithfulness, obedience of the principles embedded in the living Word, humility precedes rewards. Though God’s love is unlimited, infinite, unconditional, the rewards in the kingdom of God is conditional to obedience, humility and gratitude. We are a race set apart to be holy or “adorned with the qualities of the Lord.” We cannot conform to the norms of behavior of the world. Like an eagle, we need to fly high above the standards of our peers and float effortlessly on the wings of prayer and the word on the currents of His grace.

We should behave and communicate with people as if our tongues and talents do not belong to us but to the Lord. Then we will avoid every form of wickedness- for wickedness has many forms- sarcasm, insults, envy, pride, arrogance, indifference, indolence, ingratitude. Though righteousness is not a prerequisite for our salvation in Christ, the righteousness of character and communication should follow in the wake of our being saved by faith. The Holy Spirit like a gentle supernatural dove descends on us and teaches us what we should speak, to whom and when. Two things are extremely important in the kingdom of God- our character and our communication. Our chief challenge in life is to make these resemble as closely as possible to that of Christ. He gives us grace and wisdom to perfect and establish our character and communication as a wholesome pattern for others to emulate.