The Pilgrim’s Progress In Holy Living
BRD REFLECTIONS
Colossians 3:1-17 and Psalm 109:1-20 (NIV)
(Chan Chee Choon Chuck, Zone 6 Leader, Small Group Ministry)
READ:
Colossians 3:1-17 and Psalm 109:1-20 (NIV)
OBSERVE:
After years of procrastination, I finally picked up the book, The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan to read. This 17th century Christian classic is a 2-part spiritual allegorical account of a man named Christian (in Part I) who embarked on a pilgrimage towards the Celestial City, the adventures — both pleasant and challenging — that he faced along each stage of his journey. In Part II of the book, his wife Christiana and their children took the same pilgrimage after having spurned her husband’s plea to follow him years before he left the City of Destruction. In the story, virtues such as Faithfulness, Charity and Prudence were given a human face that encouraged Christian and Christiana to follow the right path, whilst worldly vices such as Sloth, Hypocrisy and Flatter sought to waylay them along the journey.
In Colossians 3:1-17, Paul lays down guidelines for the Church in Colossae towards holy living. He instructs them to set their hearts and minds not on earthly vices such as sexual immorality, impurity, greed, anger, malice etc (v5-10), but to clothe themselves with virtues such as compassion, humility, gentleness, patience, peace, love etc (v12-17).
It is acknowledged that the path towards righteousness and the heavenly kingdom is not without its trials and challenges, where the road to eternal glory is sometimes paved with untold agony and pain. In Psalm 109:1-20, David suffered under physical, emotional and mental stress when being pursued by his enemies, to the extent that he sought God’s justice to bring curses and calamity towards his adversaries (v6-20). Yet, words of anger and desperation are usually not the last words in David’s prayers; these imprecatory passages are often enclosed within messages of hope and assurance that God will eventually deliver him from the fowler’s snare (v21, 31).
APPLY:
Today’s scripture passages reminded me that thorns are hidden even among a bed of roses. As pilgrims journeying along the narrow road, God in His faithfulness and grace will always sustain me along the way for me to finally enter the gate to His kingdom. All I need is to stay faithful to Him.
DO:
I will let the lyrics in Steve Green’s “Find Me Faithful” speak to my heart:
“Let us leave to those behind us the heritage of faithfulness passed on through godly lives… May the footprints that we leave, lead them to believe, and the lives we live inspire them to obey.”
PRAY:
Heavenly Father, may the kingdom be always before us, and may we believe steadfastly concerning the things that are invisible. Let nothing that is on this side of the world get within us. And, above all, may we look well to our own hearts and to the lusts thereof; for they are “deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.” Set our faces like a flint; we have all power in heaven and earth on our side. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
