Hosanna Restoration Church

Whenever we read the 5th chapter of Acts, there is one thing that jumps out at us right from the start. That of course, is proper fear of the Lord. We best be honest with God. Lord help us all. Most every preacher, teacher, or bible student, has considered the fact that this sort of thing could happen again one day soon. But do we live like we believe it. Again I say, Lord help us all.

The thing that spoke to me this time however, may seem a bit off the track, but if you will bear with me it may be fruitful. As I read that the people were afraid to join them, but still esteemed them, it struck me that we may not realize the favor that God has given us, and therefore we are being poor stewards of it. There is so much talk today about how everyone is against Christians, that I think we tend to be writing off most of the world thinking they don’t care for us. Honestly, I think the majority of people in this world can appreciate decent, God fearing people. People who have good morals, that are loving, joyful, peaceful, kind…you see where I am going here. I did not say they were ready to join, but still they like that kind of people.

This caused me to ask the question, “do I live in such away as to be esteemed.” God has given me the power to live this kind of life. It does not matter if people want to join me in what I do, but do they see a difference in how I do what I do? Enough so that even if they don’t love the Lord they can find nothing wrong with His representative.

So then, while we must be good stewards in our giving, and with all that we have materially, let’s not forget to be good stewards with all the God has put into us spiritually. If in fact God has put these things in us, then through implementing them He has also provided that we will have favor. With this in mind, we no longer have to be so defensive about everyone around us. Let’s begin to claim the favor and esteem that God has given us.

You know, if you think someone does not like you, you have a tendency to act differently toward them. Certainly there are those who just plain do not like the idea of christianity or Christians, but we don’t know for sure who they are. So why don’t we just assume that we have favor with people and then treat them like they give us favor. Let’s not wait for them to love us before we love them. We have probably missed a lot of blessings that God had planned for us. It is time we started living in a way that would make us worthy of the esteem God has provided for us to have and then use it to advance the Kingdom of God.