Focus: My Ways In Christ

Text: 1Cor.4:17

"Timotheus… who shall bring you into remembrance of MY WAYS WHICH BE IN CHRIST…"

Every man has his ways. We all have our ways. Every day we walk in our ways. The question is: what are your ways? The Bible reveals a lot about man's ways. Man has:

*Evil ways

*Crooked ways

*Rough ways

*Wicked ways

*Pernicious ways

*Perverse ways

*Ways of darkness

*Ways of the one greedy of gain

*Ways of death

There is the double minded man who, according to James, "is unstable in all his ways." Looking at outcome of man's ways, Paul declares, "Destruction and misery are in their ways" (Rom.3:16).

Paul is saying in essence, 'Now that I am in Christ my ways are in Him. Christ is in charge now. He decides the way I take and how I live.' That tells us that we do not stop having our ways when we become Christians, but they become ways in Christ, not ways outside Christ. 

A lot of Christians still have their own ways outside Christ. They think that life has sacred and secular angles to it. So when it comes to the sacred side of life they yield to the dictates of Christ, but when it comes to the secular side they subscribe to the ways of the world. They think or care less of what God thinks or cares about.

Let us retrace our steps and consider our ways. Twice in Haggai the Lord says, "Consider your ways" (1:5,7). Let us think of David who "behaved himself wisely in all his ways; and the LORD was with him" (1Sam.18:14). Let us consider Jotham who "became mighty, because he prepared his ways before the LORD his God" (2Chron.27:6). The psalmist says, "I have kept thy precepts and thy testimonies: for all my ways are before thee" (Ps.119:168). 

I pray we let the light of God's word shine upon our ways. Solomon says, "In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths" (Prov.3:6). Jeremiah instructs us, "Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD" (Lam.3:40).

Let us remember that "when a man's ways please the LORD, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him" (Prov.16:7).

Let us have this consciousness that the Lord knows us in the total context of our lives. The psalmist tells us that God "compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways" (Ps.139:3). He says, "I thought of my ways, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies" (Ps.119:59). He says again, "I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue: I will keep my mouth with a bridle, while the wicked is before me" (Ps.39:1).

I pray we yield ourselves to walking in the ways of the Lord. The psalmist says, "The LORD is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works" (Ps.145:17). His ways are the ways of holiness and peace. He has made known to us the ways of life. So let us cease to walk in our own ways, and walk in the way of love, peace, uprightness, forgiveness, and compassion! Let our ways be in Christ, not outside of Him! Amen!

by Bishop Moses E. Peter