I wish to encourage you all with what the apostle Paul recognised as a vital element of walking in the Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is for us to …make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification (Romans 14:19). Three useful observations which I pray will assist you this week:

1. Walking with Christ and serving others with a genuine view to growing in unity will take your every effort. There are no shortcuts and no room for selfishness or laziness.
2. Growing Godliness is progressive. As we choose to do what leads to the benefit of others, one Christ pleasing act will lead to another, and to another, and so on.
3. One of Christ’s is  peace and mutual edification. A personal spiritual thermometer is; does the way I speak and act toward others actually build peace into their lives and constructively develop mutual edification in your relationship with that person? This should be especially true in our marriages then with others.

May the Lord enable us by His Spirit, feed us by His Word, and fulfil His will in our lives as surely as He fulfils His will in Heaven.

I want to encourage you all to walk faithful for Jesus Christ today. During the course of today’s events the enemy will try to dilute your belief in Jesus Christ, to distract you from putting Christ first in your decision making processes, and to politely neglect your fellow believer.

We are well aware of Satan’s schemes (2Co. 2:11) to distract us from Christ and to simply blend us into the crowd of worldliness, to find groups of people that will invite you to simply fit in comfortably without any of those stresses caused by pursuing a life of obedience to Jesus as Lord.

Gal. 5:14   The entire law is summed up in a single command: “Love your neighbour as yourself.”
Gal. 6:2     Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfil the law of Christ.

Today I ask that the Lord would allow you to see those opportunities that He has prearranged for your life. Opportunities to live the love of Christ by carrying someone’s burden in some way that the recipient would recognise that it is Jesus Christ intervening in their lives.

Live Christ Beloved, be uncompromising in His love and faithful to His truth!