I will see what I allow or enable myself to see - will I attribute to God what He does?
Or… as Romans 1:19-20 warns us...
...what may be known about God is plain... because God has made it plain... 20For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
So His Divine power, also, gives us, everything we need for this life and godliness!
His divine power not only gives us everything we need for life and godliness - but a practical religion that is born from seeing and having experienced God in action - seeing God, experiencing God, I cannot help but be thankful to and reverent toward Him.
And He has made me, us, righteous! (2Cor 5:21)
God made him who had no sin to be sin b for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
As His righteousness, by that righteousness, He has made us righteous and this righteousness sees and does what is right (Isa 58) - the power of Christ gives us the nature of Christ that we might live, love, and act like Christ, and that is not merely be our speech, but, should shape our actual and daily lives.
This is practical religion to live and love as Jesus did is what we are and are becoming - as...
we are “created in Christ Jesus TO DO GOOD WORKS prepared in advance for us to do” (Eph 2:8-10)
and...
“who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood…
...Since you have purified your souls by obedience to the truth so that you have a genuine love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from a pure heart.” (1Peter 1:2,22)
What does this righteousness look like? What are these works we have been created to do? How does the power of Jesus, by His Spirit, make us righteous and live, love, and act according to that righteousness?
We were made with the potential to be like Jesus, being born again, Jesus’ power makes it actual… and in so, gives us…
Eyes to see
Ears to hear
Compassion to sense and feel and empathize with
Experience to draw from
Insight and discernment to understand
Resources to comfort
Willingness to give or hold back
Eagerness to serve
Compulsion to pray
Patience to remain, return, or let them walk away…
And this power enables us to live out Jesus, our righteousness, in some of the following ways:
James
1:27 religion that God consider pure and faultless
2:16 be warm and well fed… what good is it if…? (Matt 25:35-36)
James 5:13-18 Confess your sins, anoint, pray
13Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. 14Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. 15And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. 16Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.
1John
3:17 Seeing or hearing of need, give of what you have (4:20; Prov 19:17; Is 58:7-10)
5:16 if you see someone sin… Pray (Gal 6:1-10 and do good)
1Peter
4:7 Pray
4:8-11 Cover with love
Effectiveness and sensitivity increases with the effort we put into
