My faith becomes stronger by keeping my covenants.
Covenants are tied to my state of being-
Which has everything to do with believing deeply.
With humility and with hope, I begin to implement the covenant as part of who I am.
Keeping the covenant with intention changes my perspective and my attitude.
Instead of feeling used, I choose to sacrifice my time in the service of others.
I willingly accept church callings knowing that I will be sacrificing.
In faith, the sacrifice is made holy and moves me to a new level of spiritual growth.
I seek to obey the next covenant.
The natural man kicks in and the covenant makes no sense, it even looks foolish.
In faith, I believe that Christ is telling the truth and modeling the truth.
I meekly submit even though I don't understand.
The culture all around me tells me to do the opposite.
The gospel law teaches me something different.
As I believe in Christ and his teachings, I realize that I cannot do it alone.
At first it requires 'blind' faith.
I struggle to do the right thing and fail over and over again.
But I pray, pleading for Christ's grace to change my heart so that I can obey this covenant.
I want the gospel way life to be part of my being.
I want my nature to change.
Little by little the change begins to occur.
This requires faith that what I cannot see is really there and valuable to me.
It requires faith that this apparent foolishness will bring me happiness and joy.
I feel pressure from all sides.
No one seems to believe that it is possible to keep this covenant.
As I walk in faith, my anger subsides and disappears.
I know that it is a gift of grace from God.
Virtue begins to garnish my thoughts.
I realize that my faith is bringing forth fruit.
Miracles are manifesting themselves in my life.
It is a miracle to have a natural desire removed by an unseen power.
I no longer revile back when confronted.
Contentiousness departs.
I begin to try to forgive all those that have offended me.
I want mercy for all my wrong doings so I am merciful to others.
I even forgive those that have no idea the pain they have caused-
Or don't care or continue to hurt others like they did me.
I pray for my enemies.
I begin to realize that the way is easy for the spiritually minded.
The natural man and its natural world created an illusion which I believed.
The new man is struck by the contrast between the two men within-
The one receding and the other becoming stronger.
I still have bouts where the natural man takes over.
But, I trust in my God.
People mock me for not taking action,
For not fighting back,
For not taking matters into my own hands.
If taking the matter into my own hands causes me to drop back to the natural man,
I will not do it.
This seems foolish to many.
I cannot judge them.
I was there
And still am there much of the time.
This is why we judge good to be evil and evil to be good.
Covenant making steers me in the right direction.
Although keeping a covenant has to do with obedience and works,
I believe it is much more than just doing.
We can all do things grudgingly or minimally.
This is not faith.
Why are we surprised when no good thing comes?
Hungering and thirsting after righteousness brings with it great humility.
We become aware of our weakness.
It is impossible to make the change on our own.
When we have arrived at this place -
Viewing our own nothingness -
This is 'all that we can do'.
Grace steps in and rescues us.
We know in every fiber of our being that we have been snatched-
Rescued from the grasp of awful monster of despair.
We have become new creatures.
For....'without faith it is impossible to please him:
For he that cometh to God must believe that he is,
And that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him'.
