Obedience by faith

[notice]A monthly column by farmer, preacher and writer  for Jesus, Angus Buchan[/notice]

1 John 4:20 (NKJV) The Word of God says, “If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can[a] he love God whom he has not seen?”

The hardest place to be a Christian is often in your own home. Why? Because your family know you intimately. All of us are very good at putting on masks when we go out to visit or if we deal with the public, but when we are at home the real person comes out and in my own personal life I have found that the devil will attack me many times with relationships which are meaningful and very precious to me.

You see my friend the devil cannot cause me to stumble when people whom I don’t really know don’t like me for whatever reason. However when I have an altercation with someone who is very close to me, a member of my family, or a very dear friend, that is extremely painful for me which causes a lot of anxiety, pain and suffering. Of course the evil one knows that. Remember he has got no power whatsoever. The only thing he can do is tell lies. He is the deceiver of the brethren and is the father of all lies. So he will kill us with his lies. We need to guard our relationships with everything that we have. Remember 2 Corinthians 10:4 “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal (fleshly), but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds.” 

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We need to guard our minds with everything we have. If a loved one forgets to greet you because they didn’t see you or they are in a rush, we must not allow that to become a mountain in our lives. If a loved one forgets your birthday, that is no reason to have strife in the home. There could be a very valid reason why it happened. It is the so-called little foxes that seem to spoil the vine. In my travels around the world I am noticing the family, like never before is under fire. We really need to love each other, because Jesus says in 1 John 4:18 (NKJV) “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.” It is love that will keep our family together. The love of Christ. Remember none of us is without fault, so we need to stop trying to take the speck out of our loved one’s eye when there is a plank in our own eye. We need to talk through issues. One of the biggest stumbling blocks that hinders keeping families together is a lack of communication and then of course the devil steps in when we don’t speak. He puts all kinds of thoughts into our minds. Your loved one does not love you anymore because they have not spoken to you and that is not the case at all. So we need to confront issues as they arise and that keeps our relationships healthy.

May God bless you richly as you guard your family literally with your very lives. For The Bible says in Mark 8:36 “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?” Well we say “What does it profit a man when he becomes the richest man in the world, but he has no one to share it with because his family can’t put up with him any longer?” Let us put our priorities in order. First God, then our husband or wife, then our children and then the rest.

God bless

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Angus Buchan