ICS Daily Devotions
Journey With One Another
Rom 12:15 (AMP) Rejoice with those who rejoice [sharing others’ joy], and weep with those who weep [sharing others’ grief].
Everyone and every family will have some sort of challenges at different stages in our lives. While our spouse who is supposed to be our helpmate might not always be around or happen to be away during the darkest moment of our lives. We can have friends who really love us to journey with us if we allow them to do it. We cannot be rejoicing or weeping with someone unless we are sharing life together. We cannot journey with one another when we do not accept or offer sincere love for one another. Journeying with one another will require time and effort.
While we are spirit being, it is very important for us to look after our soul where our emotions and feelings are located. Rejoicing and weeping with one another will require every part of us, especially the emotion aspect of us! It involves empathizing with people. That’s where we as the family in Christ steps in to journey with them.
Proverbs 18:14 (NKJV) The spirit of a man will sustain him in sickness, but who can bear a broken spirit?
Many people struggle with rejection. Rejection is the sense of being unwanted, the feeling that although you want people to love you, no one does. Or it is wanting to be part of a group, but feeling excluded. Somehow always being on the outside looking in.
Genesis 3:23 (NKJV) Therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken.
The root of rejection started in the Garden of Eden after the fall of man. The spirit of man inherited the sin nature and is separated from God. This is the root of rejection. There is nothing that is able to help us to feel accepted by God. Not everyone is knowledgeable of this truth. We might not even know that it is rejection that we are dealing with in life. We have sibling rivalry when we are growing up especially if we are the middle child who might be neglected. The pressure in society adds on to the rejection in our lives. The definition of success is meted out to us regardless whether we like or not. The world tells us that we are accepted when we have an excellent education, a big house in a good district, drive the ultimate driving machine, have a good class luxury yacht, have many helpers in the house, belong to a prestigious club, and be known as high net worth individual. While there is nothing wrong to do well academically, pursue a good career and have all the above, it should not be used to define our worth. Rejection is deeper than the mind, deeper than reasoning, and deeper than memory. Rejection is in the spirit man.
Eph 1:5-6 (NKJV) Having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.
The solution to the root of rejection is to know that we have been ACCEPTED in the Beloved by God. It gives us the greatest sense of security because the root issue has been settled in the spirit man. We are blessed with all the spiritual blessing in the heavenly places and it includes being acceptedby God. Of course, we need to continue to renew our mind regardless what defines us. The most important thing is to know that this time on earth is temporal. We are pilgrims and so journers on this earth. Everything on this earth is temporal.
Jesus said that His disciples will be known if they have love for one another. Therefore, let us love each other with sincere love without prejudice and stereotyping the different nationalities among us. Let us choose to journey with one another during our earthly walk. May the name of the Lord be glorified when we choose to love one another in spite of our imperfections.
Sermon Series: Living out the New Identity
