No Other Like Him

 

Although it may not seem like it for many people, this is a season of rest. It is a season to quiet ourselves and spend some quality time with Heavenly Father. It is very sad that most people are not doing this. Instead, they are feeling anxious and fearful, and can’t wait until they can get back to business as usual. We will do ourselves a favor by recognizing that things will not go back to the way they were. Life will change in ways that will be mind-blowing to many of us. This is one of the reasons the Lord has given us this time to take a breath. We need it in order to gather our strength for what is to come, and one of the best ways to gather our strength is to spend quality time in prayer. Now, more than probably any other time in our lives, we should be talking with God often and listening to what He has to say.

2Corinthians 5:7 tells us that one of the defining characteristics of a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ is that we walk by faith and not by sight. This means that we do not lose control of our emotions and flip out based on what we see with our physical eyes. The conditions and circumstances might paint a completely different scenario than the one we’d like, but we don’t give up because of this. Instead, we go to God’s Word and see what He has to say about the matter. We look at His promises, and we place more trust in what He says than how the situation appears. We never lose hope, because Hebrews 3:6(NLT) says, “But Christ, as the Son, is in charge of God’s entire house. And we are God’s house, if we keep our courage and remain confident in our hope in Christ.”

We are God’s house! 1Corinthians 6:19 tells us that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. He lives inside us, and he was given to us as a gift from God. So, we don’t belong to ourselves. We belong to Heavenly Father, and He tells us to honor Him with our bodies. This matter of honoring God isn’t something to take lightly. The times will demand more of us and our faith must be strong, but many of us are not doing all we can to keep our courage so that we remain confident in our hope in Christ. We need to honor God so that He can teach and help us be strong. We must do this so that we are strengthened in faith and will have it when we need it most. In John 5:44(NLT), Jesus Christ told those who refused to strengthen themselves in him, “No wonder you can’t believe! For you gladly honor each other, but you don’t care about the honor that comes from the one who alone is God.”

There are countless examples among us of those who refuse to honor Heavenly Father and give Him the praise and thanksgiving He so richly deserves. For instance, you might know a sports fan that is quite reserved in their demeanor for the most part. They might be well-known for being restrained or mild-mannered, but this same person absolutely loses all decorum when their favorite team is playing. Their usual decorum goes out the window, and they jump up and down with over the top excitement when their team scores a touchdown, loses or wins the game. This same person may not have ever considered that God is the only One that truly deserves our excitement and exuberance. His goodness is incomparable. Our praise and gratitude demonstrate that our hearts are near to God, and that we understand how incredibly awesome and amazing He is.

We’ll find that our faith increases in response to our level of humility to God through Jesus Christ. We have been moving at such a fast pace that in many cases we have allowed the awe for who God is to get away from us. Even though many believers were going through the motions, our hearts were far from God. Our current environment reminds us with crystal clarity that we are not in control. He has given us this opportunity to turnover a new leaf, and we can start by honoring a greater commitment to pray often and spend more time with God.

Prayer is the gift that God has given us to build our relationships with Him. It’s about intimacy, and we have learned through our interactions with one another that intimacy is cultivated by spending quality time together. Prayer should be important to us because it is important to God. He wants one-on-one time with everyone. It demonstrates our faith in the finished work of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. It also means that we are receiving something spiritual that we desperately need. So, let’s tighten our commitment to come to God with a heart that is eager to praise Him and to show Him that we appreciate His amazing grace. Let’s give Him our focused attention, and acknowledge that He is the Lord, our God, and there is no other like Him. ■

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

“No Other Like Him”, by Alexandra Copeland. Copyright© 2020. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.