Passing Through Perseverance's Inspection
- kingdomcitizensinc
- 4 days ago
- 6 min read
the polygamous plight series
Welcome to the kingdom citizens blog!
Our faithfulness to Christ causes us to flourish, benefiting the relationships we have with mankind as well. Likewise, our unfaithfulness to Christ naturally reaps unfavorable outcomes with God and mankind.
Okay…so you’re not married to another idea of what you want, outside of God’s provision; but where do you dabble when you want to meet your own needs, your way, and with no strings attached? I think that’s a valid and accountable question to ask. We may joke about a work husband or wife, debate over whether emotional cheating is better or worse than physical cheating, and even entertain the doctrines of demons that so subtly become a casual-cultural norm in our day-to-day lives. However, what we may do and what we should do can become frustratingly compromising conflicts of the heart; especially when we are not fully committed to faithfulness within our marriage to the Word and will of the Lord.
We are either married faithfully to Christ or unfaithfully flirting with the attractiveness of variety and novelty. The freshness of options can distort our view of home and plague a wholesome foundation with shiny, but toxic and brittle, building materials that suffocate God’s original and intended floor plan for our life. Think about the new builds that are going up today. They are built so quickly and look really pretty but when you take the time to investigate, you’ll tend to notice how cheap the building materials are. Unlike older homes that took longer to build and used better materials, these new builds focus on agenda, not longevity.
The agenda of the builders for these new homes tend to focus on profit margins, not the well-being of the home owner. Whatever gimmicks they use these days to sell these properties, you can tell by the type of matte paint, cheap fixtures, and skimpy wiring that the home owners safety and investment is not their bottom line. How cheap and how fast can we build a home, while maximizing profits? I imagine this is the question many realty companies ask in their boardrooms before breaking ground.
Building TO Last
Okay…so you’re not married to another idea of what you want, outside of God’s provision; but where do you dabble when you want to meet your own needs, your way, and with no strings attached? I think that’s a valid and accountable question to ask. We may joke about a work husband or wife, debate over whether emotional cheating is better or worse than physical cheating, and even entertain the doctrines of demons that so subtly become a casual-cultural norm in our day-to-day lives. However, what we may do and what we should do can become frustratingly compromising conflicts of the heart; especially when we are not fully committed to faithfulness within our marriage to the Word and will of the Lord.
We are either married faithfully to Christ or unfaithfully flirting with the attractiveness of variety and novelty. The freshness of options can distort our view of home and plague a wholesome foundation with shiny, but toxic and brittle, building materials that suffocate God’s original and intended floor plan for our life. Think about the new builds that are going up today. They are built so quickly and look really pretty but when you take the time to investigate, you’ll tend to notice how cheap the building materials are. Unlike older homes that took longer to build and used better materials, these new builds focus on agenda, not longevity.
The agenda of the builders for these new homes tend to focus on profit margins, not the well-being of the home owner. Whatever gimmicks they use these days to sell these properties, you can tell by the type of matte paint, cheap fixtures, and skimpy wiring that the home owners safety and investment is not their bottom line. How cheap and how fast can we build a home, while maximizing profits? I imagine this is the question many realty companies ask in their boardrooms before breaking ground.
The Finished Work of Perseverance
Take these new builds and swap them out with the construction of your mind, body, and soul. You and I are living temples of the living God , Yahweh (1 Corinthians 3:16). Yet, can our Master Realtor, Jesus, say that His throne is securely established in the throneroom of our hearts? Do we respect the leasing agreement we signed in His blood and sealed in His Spirit? Are we allowing Him to build on the foundation of His love and commandments? Or, perhaps, have we disregarded the gold, silver, and precious stones of perseverance for the wood, hay, and straw of fleeting pleasures and costly comforts? 1 Corinthians 3:11-15 introduces us to this idea of building to last:
“11 For no one can lay any foundation other than what has been laid down. That foundation is Jesus Christ. 12 If anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw, 13 each one’s work will become obvious. For the day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire; the fire will test the quality of each one’s work. 14 If anyone’s work that he has built survives, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is burned up, he will experience loss, but he himself will be saved—but only as through fire.”
What we build may pass inspection but doesn’t mean that it will last. Are you building to last or are you building to grasp? When we build to last in Christ, we not only survive the fire but receive a reward for our diligence. When we build to grasp in our impatience and greed, we skimp on quality for instant gratification — which eventually and certainly will reveal the lack of quality in our work.
The Purity of Perseverance's Legacy
I don’t know about you but I’d rather count the cost and invest the time, than to do the bare minimum just to lose out on my investment in the long term. I can either build a lasting legacy in the fires of perseverance up front, or lose out on passing down a legacy to the fires of perseverance, on the back end of it all. The purifying process of perseverance provides a reason for us to rejoice in our trials. This may sound like crazy talk but check out what James 1:2-5 mentions about the purity of perseverance:
“2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.”
The word “pure” in verse two is the Greek word pas (pahs: Strong’s Greek: 3956.) which is defined as: All, every, whole, totality; each and every part of. Within its proper context scripturally, pas, is describing the accumulation of joy by putting our emphasis on the total picture, overcoming our trials one piece at a time, until we are fully matured. The fullness of joy expressed in this scripture isn’t just referring to our arrival at full maturity as a result of our faith-walk through our trials.
This type of pure joy is the result of knowing, by trusting in God’s Word, that this testing of our faith can be faced with enduring gladness. This is the proper response our faith should produce as a result of our awareness of God’s grace and favor. Recognition of God’s grace towards us in our trials can present within us the calm-delight of trusting in the purifying process of perseverance. This is the true joy (chara (khar-ah') Strong’s Greek: 5479.) of tried-and-tested, faith-produced — perseverance.
Make sure to stay tuned in for this next blog post so you don't miss out on your word of instruction and encouragement...Our next blog will focus on building in Christ with the appropriate resources rather than substituting quality with foreign and lesser materials. Thank you and God bless!
Scripture of Emphasis:
Matthew 7:24-27 (ESV)
24 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”
Thank You and God Bless!
Thank you for reading this blog. Your support and contribution is treasured here. Please continue to share this content so that God may work through us to be a benefit to others. I invite you to leave a comment and stay tuned in for the next blog. I pray that this blesses you and honor’s God. Let’s continue growing together as Kingdom Citizens in Christ. Show love, be kind, and trust in God. Thank you and God bless.
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