Perception and Practice

Observation is a great thing to do especially with ones own life and the life of others. The fascination comes in watching what people say and what they do. I was reminded of the Apostle Peter who though confess Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of the Living God. His confession comes from a revelation of who Jesus was (and still is) but His perception of what the Messiah should be is a very selfish self-centered one. Like many other Jew they were waiting for a political deliverer, Messiah who will make life easier when He overcome the Roman domination of Israel. They probably remembered the Old Testament days when the Lord used kings and judges to deliver them from their enemies and to lead them into a land full of milk and honey, peace and prosperity. They are so secular and humanistic on their outlook of life that it was difficult for them to perceive the spiritual implication of the coming Messiah. Similarly when we received Jesus as our Christ, the Son of the Living God we are all looking at HIm delivering us from our human enemies (which cause us emotional and mental stress) and from our material poverty. So most of the time we are focus on our emational, mental and material needs and take very little notice of our spiritual poverty and bankruptcy. Therefore in most of our prayers we pray for the Lord to provide for our financial and material needs . We do not see the Lord as our need but look to Him to meet our need. And because our perception of Jesus is political and humanitrian we have the tendency to live our lives in defence and in indulgences, defending our responses to people and situation and also defending our lack of concern to look into the interest and needs of others other than our own. Plainly its just selfish and self centered living. If therefore our perception of the Christ is similar to the Apostle Peter than our response to Jesus will be similar to His. Death to self and the sin nature is not a welcome thing for us. And Jesus would say to us, "Whoever wants to save his life will lose it but whoever loses His life for my sake will find it." For what good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world YET FORFEITS HIS SOUL?

The last few months has been another eye opener for me and hopefully it will be for others too. It may seems right for us to only think of ourselves and say "God help those who help themselves" and yet close our eyes and heart to the needs of those around us. We need the wisdom, discernment and sensitivity of the Holy Spirit and not the humanistic self life to lead and guide us daily. To Him be all praise and glory.