"There is another bit of wisdom that has impressed me as I have watched the way our world works. There was a small town with only a few people, and a great king came with his army and besieged it. A poor, wise man knew how to save the town, and so it was rescued. But afterward no one thought to thank him. So even though wisdom is better than strength, those who are wise will be despised if they are poor. What they say will not be appreciated for long.
"Better to hear the quiet words of a wise person than the shouts of a foolish king.
"Better to have wisdom than weapons of war, but one sinner can destroy much that is good." (Ecclesiastes 9:13-18 NLT)
"Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless." (2 Peter 3:14 KJV)
Yesterday, we had the Advent of Love, with which Pastor Chris gave a message on, showing us how that love is the most important of all four of those elements; because without love, there is no hope, or peace, or joy. It took a minute to let that sink in, because there is more to this love we have been given, then the ability we have to give it back.
Thinking about what all four of those elements represent, each and every one of them are not things we can produce on our own. We might think that we have the responsibility to pull it off, but without God's Spirit dwelling within us, none of them will yield the power that we need; especially the power to love.
Our love comes from knowing that God loves us; without us believing that He loves us, no matter what, we have no ability whatsoever to realize our great difficulty to love others; let alone, the obvious lack of consistency we have to love God as we should.
In my humble opinion, each and every one of those for elements are only made possible when we die to ourselves! Hope is one that some might think is a little more complicated; but if you are putting your hope in anything this world has to offer, then it is not the right hope!
Then we consider how peace works, as to die to yourself really doesn't bring about peace; well, I beg to differ; because if you are worried about yourself and the cares of this world, you really will not find the right peace!
Okay then, what about joy? As difficult this might be to understand, but joy is based upon the life that you have been given; which might contradict the whole patten of what it means to die to yourself; if that is, this life was about living with the comforts of this world. But Jesus never promised us that our life would be easy and comfortable; but that it would be abundant and eternal!
And then, the greatest of these is love; from which is the most important of all for us to die to ourselves and let God love through us...
"Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit." (1 John 4:11-13 KJV)
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