Built to Last, Built to Shine

UV 3723/10000 Built to Last, Built to Shine IF we endure, we will also reign with Him; If we deny Him, He will also deny us; 2 Timothy 2 v 12 If we endure till the end, then we will reign with Jesus. He is the Eternal King. IF we die with Him, we will also live with Him forever. If we cleave to Him, He will not leave us. If we cleave to Him, we will not perish. IF we deny Him, He will also deny us. If we declare that we belong to Him, He will acknowledge that we belong to Him before the Father. To die with Him, we need to hand over the reins of our lives, the controls to Jesus. When we do so, He rules in us. He will command every thought, word and action as well as reaction. This is what is meant by dying to our own wills, egos, sinful selves. In so doing we are denying ourselves the right to sin that came to be our heritage due to the first disbelief and disobedience of God’s word. Disbelief precedes disobedience, belief precedes obedience. Hence, if faith is genuine, belief should be followed by obedience in all aspects of our lives. We need to endure suffering, persecution, insults, troubles till the end of our lives. Much of these are visited on us on account of our faith in Jesus. But we are not alone as we suffer. The Lord Jesus is with us in our suffering. He wipes our tears as they fall. He allows us to go through such suffering as He wants to build us as a lighthouse on the Rock. The Rock is Jesus. The light are our thoughts, words and actions as well as reactions. We should be built strong, implying we should be able to endure the fiercest storms as well as the continual buffeting of the waves of fortune and human woes. We should not only endure suffering but the frailties of our nature, our flesh, our minds, the world and the temptations that it exposes us to. We are not only to be built to last or to endure but we are to built high so that the light from us is seen even at the distant horizon where people (ships) heading for destruction on the rocks or heading to be trapped in the shallows and sands of life can see the Light of Jesus and steer clear of the rocks and the sandy bars. A lighthouse casts it light not just in one direction but in all directions or 360 degrees. We, too if we reign with Christ, if we deny ourselves, if we live in Him, should shine in 360 degrees or in all that we think, speak and do.