Aim High

Aim High

Aiming High means that there are some things that we must be 

For instance BE:

1. Kind“And the Lord’s servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone…” – 1 Timothy 2:24

• One of the requirements of following after Jesus is to be kind to everyone.
• Paul went so far as to say that rather than returning evil for evil, we should be kind to someone who harms us (1 Thessalonians 5:15).
• Have you noticed that people usually treat you better when you’re kind to them?
• Proverbs says “a kind-hearted woman gains respect” and “a kind man benefits himself” (Proverbs 11:16-17).  Being kind to others doesn’t just make their lives easier – it makes your life better too!
• Even God shows kindness, even though we don’t really deserve it (Genesis 39:21, Jeremiah 9:24).

2. Forgiving“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” – Ephesians 4:32

• God expects those who follow him to be ready to forgive, because He always is.
• Even though God doesn’t need to forgive us, He is always quick to do it whenever we seek Him (Psalm 86:5, Psalm 130:3-4).
• Jesus went so far even as to teach that if we don’t forgive people when they sin against us, God won’t forgive us either (Matthew 6:14-15).
• We need to forgive people no matter what they’ve done.  As we forgive them, Paul said it can bring healing to their lives (2 Corinthians 2:5-8).

3. Gentle“Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.” – Ephesians 4:2

• There are certain qualities everyone wants – bravery, good looks, a sense of humor, etc. – but God tells us to aim high and pursue humbleness, gentleness, patience, and other less exciting character qualities.
• Raise your hand: would you rather be an eagle or a little yellow duckling?  Most of us would rather be the eagle, which is fine, but when God says to pursue gentleness, it’s like he’s pointing out that we should want to be the duckling too.
• Paul told us to “clothe” ourselves with gentleness (Colossians 3:12).  When you’re clothed in it, that’s all people will see.
• Even Jesus, as strong and brave as He was, was also gentle (Matthew 11:29).  Same goes for Paul (1 Thessalonians 2:7).
• According to Proverbs, gentleness is actually stronger than it looks (Proverbs 15:1, 25:15).  There’s a lot of power in being gentle.

Just look at these words from the Lord Jesus Himself

“…If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” – Matthew 16:24

• Following Jesus means you need to aim high and not be content with just sliding by.
• Jesus said that those who want to follow Him need to do three things: 
• First, you need to deny yourself.
• Second, you need to take up your cross.  When you take up your cross, you’re going to your death.  To follow Jesus, you’ve got to do some things that would “kill you.”  Maybe it’s being gentle, or forgiving someone or letting go of lust or an argumentative attitude.
• Third, you need to just take a deep breath, jump in, and follow Him wherever He takes you.

Have a great day walking with the Lord

John

This entry was posted on 26/06/2009 at 09:22 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.