Are You So Accounted?

Every believer should have a burning desire to be accounted by God as faithful.

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Acts 5:41 – And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name.

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Are you a Christian?  Do you really love the Lord?  Have you ever been in a place of suffering shame of any kind for His Name because you love Him?  Allow me a brief spot of your time today to speak to the issue of suffering shame for His Name.  In what we might term “faith circles,” suffering is often cast aside as an afterthought, or even something shameful.  So many “faith people” think that suffering of any kind is an indication that one’s faith is inadequate to lift one above the suffering and into a life that is totally free from it.  My friend, if that is your thinking, you need to hear the truth of the matter, AND you need to grow up.

I am, without equivocation, one of what is called “a faith person.”  I am unashamedly a “faith preacher.”  I am without hesitation one who believes from an absolutely Biblical perspective what many try to demean by calling it “confess it – possess it,” or “name it – claim it” faith.  I believe the Bible, and I pray you do, too.  However, I am NOT one of those who thinks one can live any kind of a life, speak whatever they want, treat people in any manner they choose, and use God as my purveyor of a wish list.  Such thinking is absolutely ludicrous.  Living and practicing holiness is demanded and expected.  Speaking the truth in love is demanded and expected.  Knowing and applying the principles of faith that works by love is demanded and expected.  And I could continue, but time and space prohibit that.  I am a man of grace, understanding that grace ONLY comes through faith.  And to that I must add, faith can ONLY be established on the Word of God.  If your life is NOT lived according to the Word of God, you limit the ability of faith to work in your life, for faith works by love, and the love of God is to keep His commandments.

So, my question to you is simple.  It has nothing to do with whether you have battled issues of sickness, disease, financial matters, emotional attacks by the enemy, and the like, for such are NOT are arenas of suffering shame for His Name.  People suffer that because there is a very real outlaw named Satan who has come to “steal, and to kill, and to destroy.”  My question is, “Has your faith in Christ, has your walk of obedience to the Lord and His Word, brought about revilings, persecutions, being cast out, mocked, or ridiculed for the sake of the Name of the Lord?”  I’ll leave it there.  Are you so accounted?

Manna for Today – Acts 5:17-42; John 3:16; Romans 3:4; 2 Corinthians 5:17-21; 1 Corinthians 1:30; Deuteronomy 28:1-14; Romans 10:17; Hebrews 11:6; 1 John 5:3; John 10:10