“Yes, Yahweh, we wait for You in the path of Your judgments. Our desire is for Your name and renown.” Isaiah 26:8 HCSB
Our path may be straight and level, but on it, we also face God’s judgments, His discipline. He wants our path to be narrow. He corrects us so that we don’t wander too far toward the wilderness that encompasses our path. There are many dangers off the path and God disciplines us to keep us away from them.
In 1 Kings 13, we find a young prophet who was told not to eat, drink, or go back home by the same path he took to get there. He was faithful to do so till an old prophet deceived him and called him back to his house to eat and drink. during dinner, God put a word in the old prophet’s mouth that rebuked the young prophet because He disobeyed the Lord. The young man left and was killed by a lion on his way home. The old prophet went and buried the young prophet in his own grave and made his sons swear to bury him next to the young prophet.
The young prophet was on the correct path home, but wandered back into the wilderness to the old prophet’s house and was killed for it. Do we obey the Lord with all our ability or do we disobey God just because we want to?
Our desire should be for God’s name and reputation and not for our own. His name is to be glorified and lifted high. I don’t want my name lifted up as someone who is important, but for someone who wants Jesus to grow in reputation. I must decrease while He must increase. I want less of me visible and more of Him visible. My actions and deeds are to reflect Jesus’ nature. I must willing put down: sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar (Galatians 5:19-21), for they bring disciple and judgment to me. And I must pick up: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, self-control (Galatians 5:22-23) for they bring glory to God’s name and his reputation.
I must be Christ-like because I am a Christian. Pastor David said in the “Go Hard for Christ podcast: Peace”, “Being a Christian means nothing if you're not going to be Christ-like.” The fruit of the spirit is the example and reputation of Jesus. Without those working in our life, we look exactly like the world and God has called us out of the word to look different, to look like Jesus! To be unified with Him and each other just as He is unified with His father
“I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to You. Holy Father, protect them by Your name that You have given Me, so that they may be one as We are one. While I was with them, I was protecting them by Your name that You have given Me. I guarded them and not one of them is lost, except the son of destruction, so that the Scripture may be fulfilled. Now I am coming to You, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have My joy completed in them. I have given them Your word. The world hated them because they are not of the world, as I am not of the world. I am not praying that You take them out of the world but that You protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. I sanctify Myself for them, so they also may be sanctified by the truth. I pray not only for these, but also for those who believe in Me through their message. May they all be one, as You, Father, are in Me and I am in You. May they also be one in Us, so the world may believe You sent Me. I have given them the glory You have given Me. May they be one as We are one. I am in them and You are in Me. May they be made completely one, so the world may know You have sent Me and have loved them as You have loved Me.”
John 17:11-23 HCSB
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