Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: Abiding in His Love 8/27-9/3/26 (08/27/26)
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TITLE: Walking Close Beside Him | Previous Challenge Entry
By Doug Laird
08/30/26 -
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The first indication that one has reached this level of spiritual maturity, is when one is experiencing the confidence in the security of one’s salvation (Rom. 8: 1), and the freedom (John 8: 32) from the fear, insecurity, and anxiety that dominates weaker believers.
The permanency of the relationship that a born-again believer has established with God does not improve or diminish, but one’s fellowship and the intimacy of that relationship can change, based upon choices we make.
The moment we commit any sin (James 2: 10), we are out of fellowship with God, and remain out of fellowship until the sin is confessed (1John 1: 9).
The time we spend out of fellowship with God can be as brief as the few seconds it takes to confess the sin to God in prayer, or for as long as the rest of one’s post salvation spiritual life, here on Earth.The amount of accumulated time spent out of fellowship with God determines the quality of one’s post salvation spiritual life.
This underscores the negative impact that a sinful lifestyle can generate.
Confessing (1John 1: 9), but not forsaking (John 8: 11) the confessed sin will block one’s forward progress along the road to spiritual maturity, as one inevitably will commit the same sin, or returns to, or remain in, the same sin. or sinful lifestyle.
This repeated cycle of committing, confessing, but then not forsaking sin, results in one spending much of one’s post salvation spiritual life in a revolving doorway, going around and around, being in and out of fellowship with God, and never moving forward in the plan of God.
With each repeated cycle, one invites more frequent, and more intense levels of divine discipline (Heb.12: 6).
When out of fellowship, there will be no abiding intimacy.
Meaningful “love” relationships is a two-way street.
God the Father demonstrated His love for fallen Man when He sent His Son to make atonement for the world’s (1John 2: 2) sin debt. It is on the basis of one’s individual faith (trust/confidence) in what God’s plan did for us, that God bestows on believers the unearned, undeserved, irrevocable (Rom. 11: 29) GIFT, of eternal life.
The born-again believer (on this two-way street) demonstrates his or her love for God (John 14: 15), by learning and applying the principles of Bible Doctrine to ALL that he or she thinks, says, and does, 24/7.
When one is abiding in Christ, he or she is consciously aware of His presence, and will not want to say or do anything that would grieve the Spirit of God (Eph. 4: 30).
This is a far cry from just “checking in” for an hour or so once a week for a worship service, or spending 20 min. a day reading the Bible, considering this to be “good enough.”
Discipleship is a 24/7 abiding walk in a two-way love relationship and walk with God.
In this 24/7 weekly scenario, there are 168 hours. There are 10,080 minutes. If one spends 60 minutes a week “in Church,” and let’s say another 20 minutes a day (140 minutes a week) in private Bible reading and prayer, that accounts for less than 2% of the total time that God desires for us to spend in an abiding, 24/7, intimate, walk with God!
Secular professionals will concur that it is in the hours we spend sleeping, that we process much of the information and the emotional impact of what we have more recently experienced and or allowed to become a part of what theologians would call our soul structure.
Every day we are bombarded with human viewpoint that Scripture (Eph. 6:16) calls fiery darts from the Kingdom of Darkness, whose objective it is to take us out of the plan of God.
We can reduce the number of darts by making positive choices regarding the sources of our information and the activities we CHOOSE to embrace on a daily basis.
In some cases, such as co-workers and fellow students, we have no choice, over who we will rub elbows with during these daily activities.
By CHOOSING to respond doctrinally when being hit by the Eph. 6: 16 fiery darts, we maintain our intimate, abiding, fellowship, with God.
The opinions expressed by authors may not necessarily reflect the opinion of FaithWriters.com.
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