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"I WILL NOT FAIL!"...Unless...

Word of the Day

I had the privelage, as you may have already heard, to see my brother graduate basic training for the Air Force. The discipline, the passion and the determination were intense and inspiring. What I really loved was when the graduating Airman recited their creed in unison (see video).

Their creed states who they are and whose call they have answered, what their mission objective is, what their proud heritage is, the sacrifice they are willing to make for their calling (their LIVES if you didn't pick that up in the video) and finally the loud and proud statement of..."I WILL NOT FAIL!" After I got over the instant, probably typical male response of, "our country can eat your country for breakfast", it hit me (and thus the practical application)...

Don't we "congregate" together, at minimum, every week and do something extremely similar?! We sing worship songs in unison and listen to God's Word about whose call we have answered, where we have come from, who we are and what our mission objective is...and then, we just dispearse. Our pastor continuously asks, "what is the greatest commandment?", and we like 'good Christian twinkies' say "love God, love others"...and then, for the most part, we go on and do nothing different during the week (well, maybe its only me at times...no, its you too).

God struck me with a series of passages this week in my quiet time in Romans...

"Bless those who persecute you..." Romans 12:14

"...so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men." Romans 12:18

"But if your enemy is hungry, feed him, and if he is thirsty, give him a drink. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." Romans 12:20-21

For specific reasons and current life circumstances I can't go into, this hit me hard. I am one of the many on Sunday's, or any day that I pick up my bible for that matter, praying that God 'conforms me to the image of His son' (Rom. 8:29), yelling out that I WILL NOT FAIL...unless, it gets too uncomfortable or affects my bank account or requires me to serve when work is so exhausting during the week or creates an awkward moment with my neighbor when I'm still working on the "relationship" stage of the process (???) or insert any other way you are not, to the utmost, loving God and loving others. Recently, I've acted like 'well, the Christ-like thing to do is to simply not respond to people that I "feel" are attacking me...wrong. Christ is calling me not only to take it as His will for my life to continually perfect me to reflect our Savior and make the 'invisible God, visible' (Isaiah 14:24, Rom. 8:28-29, Phil. 1:6, and a whole bunch of others) but to literally in turn for the insults and accusations, specifically, go out of my way and do something good for those people. Ignoring it, I realized, is nothing short of sin. If not in a similar situation it may be God calling you to finally tell your co-worker who you are in Christ, it may be that you apologize to a friend for gossiping so easily to them because of your proud biblical heritage/the great cloud of witnesses before us (Heb. 11) and/or maybe its shutting the computer off after 10 at night when your spouse goes to bed because of who you interact with on facebook or what you are tempted to look at...just yell in your head, I WILL NOT FAIL. And before you go thinking that I am urging theological heresey, or some "health and wealth gospel garbage", and that if you believe hard enough you won't fail...know that I know you will fail but "greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world" (I John 4:4). Its the heart that I am driving at. The passion to please the One who saved us from eternally burning alive. We so easily get amped up about fighting for our country, fighting to provide a very comfortable living for our family, our sports teams, our vacation time, ect...and all good things to fight for (one more sacraficing than the others listed) and so easily kiss off or justify 'why it just wasn't the right time to mention "Jesus"' or 'doing good to them would only make the situation worse' or whatever other way we DO FAIL at loving God and loving others.

In the very same quiet time He showed me how to do it...'the how to' the I WILL NOT FAIL. Romans 13:14, "But put on the Lord Jesus Christ...". Its HIM, not you (memorize Gal. 2:20). So why not say to yourself, I WILL NOT FAIL...in pursuing Jesus everyday in His word, I WILL NOT FAIL...in telling someone how they can have a personal relationship with Jesus, I WILL NOT FAIL...in loving those who attack me. Thank God our military does not yell 'I WILL NOT FAIL, UNLESS...' or we would probably be flying a different flag and, most importantly, thank Jesus that He did not tell His father "I will not fail you, unless the cross is too painful, or my people are unfaithful or...". Lets not fail in pursuing what is eternal and what truly matters, lets not fail in fighting to hear His voice daily through His word....I WILL NOT FAIL BECAUSE IT IS CHRIST WHO GIVES ME STRENGTH!