Axioms for Life – Part One

“Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.” (Phillipians 4: 8)

An axiom is a proposition regarded as self-evidently true. This and subsequent posts will be devoted to consideration of some axioms.

In all of life there are certain actions that will result in predictable results. The same is true in the spiritual realm.

It is still true —
We reap what we sow.
We reap later than we sow.
We reap more than we sow.

The person who is guided by God’s GPS is certain to reach His intended goal. Chisel these in the marble of your memory.

AXIOM ONE
Have an invisible means of support. Though there are times we may seem to be alone, we are not. On Christmas Eve 1944, Martin Niemoeller was in the Nazi prisoner of war camp Dachau. Amid the horror he wrote:

“We are not alone amidst the horror of these years, cut off though we are from the outside world. We are in the Hands of God. . . He is with us in this dismal and lonely place to hold and comfort us and keep hope alive in our hearts.”

Friends may forsake us. Circumstances may plot against us. Hope may be faint, but we are never alone in our hour of need. Some see only a hopeless end. The Christian sees endless hope.

Feeling is one antenna. Faith is another stronger and better tuned one. Tune it to hear Jesus say, “I will never leave you.” That is a forever never.

AXIOM TWO 
God is a merciful God. There are many things that are difficult to understand in life, many puzzles that seem to have no solution. Riddles without answers abound in life. The loose end of some of life’s knottiest problems seems to reveal God’s mercy.

Governor Bradford of the struggling Plymouth Colony penned these words in his darkest hour: “Our fathers came over this ocean and were ready to perish in this wilderness but they cried out unto thee Lord and He heard their voices and had mercy on them in their adversities. Let us, therefore, praise Him because He is good and His mercies endure forever.”

Even when times aren’t good, God is, it is part of His unchanging nature.

The immediacy of God’s mercy is revealed in this couplet describing a rider thrown from his horse: 

“Between the saddle and the ground mercy sought and mercy found.”

Scripture reassures us of God’s enduring grace.

“Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘Therefore I hope in Him!’” (Lamentations 3:22-24)