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Tip: To see latest Words of Life, use Refine Search to list by Year.
If using Mobile device, Refine Search may be located at end of page.
To receive copies Words of Life Email The Apostolic Church of Queensland.
Let us put away our imaginary problems and bring closer that which we seek in the distance, but do not find because it is right next to us, namely God and His help.
We are reminded of Jesus words to His disciples when they wanted to stop the little children being brought to Him (Matthew 19:13-15). The disciples were listening to a conversation between Jesus and the Pharisees and thought the children were a disturbance. The topic of conversation was also very interesting: divorce and not getting married. We who are tense or worried should consciously try to relax – during prayer, Divine Service or quiet meditation – so that we may know ourselves better. We must become again like little children, join in their cheerful games, seek their purity and forthrightness.
Childlike simplicity is bliss. We grew up only after we were small! Happiness comes from allowing oneself to receive gifts, acknowledging that we are in need and dependent. Only he who can take can give, only he who needs others will be needed by others. To be a child means to be dependent on others.
As a youngster I had a craze for electrical toys: Little cars, lamps, bells, signals … What a maze of wires, and sometimes they just wouldn’t move, light up or ring, the wires were wrongly connected. Once the fault was corrected, everything worked again. It is so simple! We do not have to discover electricity. It is there and we have only to abide by its laws in order to receive warmth, light and energy from it.
It is the same with the Lord’s work of redemption, it is there and if offered to us, we must accept it with a childlike disposition. Chapter 10:6-8 of the letter to the Romans is addressed to those who create problems. In simple words these verses mean: “For God’s sake don’t create problems and do not worry nor act as if you have to bring Christ down from Heaven. He has already come.”
Accept things as they are, accept in faith what God, because of His great love has prepared for us. Our faith in Christ, to whom all power is given in Heaven and on earth, will give us the strength to conquer all that leads us away from God, and the strength to keep His commandments. Now we are also free, free from ourselves. This freedom does not create any problems and causes no tensions. Why should we be nervous if we have faith in Christ, whose victory is also our victory? .
The proof of our love: He who loves God, also loves those whom He has created – the neighbours. When God is loved above all other things, then He, and not ourselves, becomes the center of our lives. We lose nothing if we give ourselves up to Him. On the contrary, he who keeps his life, will lose it (Mark 8:35). Losing one’s life means living for God and our neighbour. If we hate our neighbour, how can we love God?