August 6, 2025

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“But now we call the arrogant blessed. Certainly, evildoers prosper, and even when they put God to the test, they get away with it.” (Malachi 3.15)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD TO US:

Faith cannot be short-sighted. We dare not make faith conditional. We should not say, “I will believe if….” IF there are conditions before one believes then it isn’t belief and there is no faith. As the Apostle Paul wrote in Hebrews 11.1, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of what is not seen.” Jesus made it abundantly clear that it is by “our” faith we are healed. What is meant by that is if we do not believe and do not have faith then whatever Jesus did would not be seen. Yes, even if the healing happened would we know it? Would we take hold of the healing as if by our own device we worked it in ourselves. The Holy Spirit is what communicates that power to heal. It is wielded by those whose faith is complete in God. Jesus is the evidence of that. He was able to bring sight to the blind, mobility to the lame, restoration to the diseased, speech to the mute, hearing to the deaf. Most of all, He is able to bring reconciliation to those who are experiencing a great distance between themselves and God. Mighty ones of God, we are that “new creation.” It was in the beginning creation that God wielded the Holy Spirit to shape and form the chaos into order and bring light and life out of the darkness. God gave the command, the Holy Spirit followed the instruction and what we are able to see today was brought forth and set in motion. The same is true for those who believe that Jesus is the Christ. In Him, the old has passed and the new life of faith, hope and love are begun. We remain in the motion of this new creation being formed and fashioned back into the likeness of the One who has rewarded our faith with the substance of what we hoped for. “He who has begun a good work in us shall continue working it to perfection until the day of Christ’ return.” (Philippians 1.6)

Yes, we are renewed at once. We feel the life in us as we had not felt it before. We yearned for something different and that something different was begun in us. And though it has begun it is not yet finished. The work of faith cannot be complete until we are fully and completely alive in Him. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test? ” (2 Corinthians 13.5) What is that test? It is the measure of the purpose and meaning by which we do all things? Is it for our good and grandeur or God’s? Is it for our benefit and welfare or that of one another? Is it to receive acclaim and by that gain some advantage for ourselves or to bring glory to God for the work of righteousness wrought in us? Paul went on to say, “For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth.” (13.8) Our conscience is quickened to be alert to the move of the Spirit in us. We may seek to deny the truth of the Spirit. We may attempt to live apart from the presence of the Spirit in us (we are, after all, a tabernacle for the Holy Spirit). Regardless of our attempt to escape the truth, the truth continues to speak. To continue to deny this truth will conclude in the profound collision with the truth who will bear witness against us.

It is at that point, mighty ones of God, that the people of Malachi’s day came into that profound collision. They confessed they called the arrogant blessed. How fitting that God had already addressed them as being arrogant because they refused to see God as their God even when their “evidence” to the contrary was presented. They did not see by faith. Rather they viewed the world by sight. They admitted that evildoers prospered. Again, it was with the short-sightedness of living “off the land” instead of “in the Kingdom.” The flower grows and blooms and then dies to return to the earth. But that which is rooted in God shall never die. Its splendor shall not fade but come into full glory in the Kingdom of God. Their folly is complete when they reason that the “arrogant” have put God to the test and get away with it. Did they really? Were they really? If God had already proclaimed that these people of His were the arrogant ones, were they passing the test? Were they not already showing their failure to “walk by faith and not by sight”? They were becoming their own worst enemy and therein lies the tragedy for us all if we follow that same line of reasoning. For who is our true worst enemy but Satan, the fallen and cast out Lucifer. It is he who stands against God and God’s people. We know that in that rebellion of darkness, one-third of heaven’s angels were in agreement with Lucifer and began to sing “his” song. Now they sing only the lament of their folly and are bound to it. They attempt to ease their grief, for even they cannot deny the truth even they it was their intent, by bringing such grief to others. They cannot stand on their own. Their hope is to create such a company to share in their grief that they will find some company there. That is foolishness. Such grief is only exponential. It will be compounded in those who are confounded. The weight and burden of it holds them in place so that they cannot escape it. Why, mighty ones of God do we dare add to it by contributing to it ourselves? Take up the cause of faith. Be rooted in the depths of love. Focus on the hope of your salvation which is given by God in Christ Jesus who is Lord. Do not be like those who are of the world. Rather, be like those who are of the Kingdom of God which shall know no end!

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, in these days we are finding the need to believe even more than ever before. We all have known trouble, some in greater ways than others, but You are offering us the assurance that we will not be consumed by it forever. Regardless of the “time” we are in and the “time” we have been given, we ask for Your Holy Spirit which Jesus asked You to share with us, to lead and guide and direct us in the paths we should go. Teach us what we still need to learn. Empower us to put that learning into action. Bless our actions not as a works righteousness but as righteous works which bring others near to Jesus in faith, hope and love. AMEN.