Often times it is forgotten who we are and what we are here to do.  As Christians we forget and lose sight of what the ultimate goal and purpose is here on the earth.  We forget the acronym for BIBLE, basic instructions before leaving earth; as in death.  With the hectic shuffles of life, the ups the downs, the turn “arounds”, the disappointments, the frustrations, the mind-bending nature of what’s around us; it all aids in our forgetfulness of the end goal, the purpose of life.  Solomon wrote the entire duty of man was to fear God and keep His commands (Eccl 12 v13).    Jesus said that we are to serve our God and love Him with all our might; doing likewise to our fellow brothers and sisters. 

These are broad and general and the Word of God does get specific on how to do these but what I see as the underlying rule is to learn the ways of the Most High God.  Jesus had ways that were not like man; He exercised patience, He stressed love, He harnessed forgiveness, and He taught to stay in prayer.  Most people today have absolutely no patience.  If their child does not learn to use the potty, they give up, if they wet the bed once or twice, they are nearly sending the child to the nearest group home.  More than that we are always in a rush; doing this…fast, doing that…faster, New York City has its own time table, the New York minute.  Maybe most of this is done because we know that one day we are young, cute, powerful, youthful, vibrant, and then one morning we wake up and look as if we laid in water for 40 days.

Getting old is a dread to mankind, and dying is even worse; we can create high tech gadgets but cannot fight off disease, even common colds go through their course of action once contracted.  All of this has run us far from being patient with each other, and even with God.  One prayer is enough for God, but do we really have to wait 5 years for its actualization?  If we don’t see it right away, we are passive aggressive and tell the God of the Worlds, “I’m going to have to call you back!”  One of the ways of the Most High God is patience, He has it with us, let’s begin to have it with each other!

Forgiveness is another way of God; and this is to be taken very seriously.  There is a story or parable in the bible where one man owed let’s say $100,000 dollars and begged forgiveness to his lord and mercy and was granted.  He then went to the people who owed him money and demanded the little $100 dollars they owed, even getting in a fight and choking the man and had him thrown in jail.  The news got back to his lord of his actions and his $100,000 debt was renewed (Matthew 18 v23-35).  Jesus makes it clear, if you are unable to forgive how do you expect to be forgiven?  If you stand in judgment with a grudge towards anyone, the chances of you going into the Lord’s kingdom is slim to none.  The ways of the Most High Jesus includes forgiveness, having a forgiving heart is important.

The last way of the Most High God is to stay in prayer; Jesus prayed often to the Father when He was on the earth; King David, a man after God’s own heart, prayed betimes, prayer is your relationship with God.  If you are not praying always, you will slowly lose touch with God.  In Proverbs it says to consult or acknowledge God in all you do and He will direct you and make your ways smooth (Proverbs 3 v6).  These are the ways of the Most High God of Heaven and Earth; these are the ways we are to incorporate into our daily lives until the time of the end.  It takes daily bible study to really get these all and practice every day.  God bless you in the name of Jesus, Amen!

Koko Ishe