Consider This

There are times when we must stop. During these arrested moments the believer considers. To consider is to think, ponder, mull over, positively meditate, and dwell on.

Hebrews 12:3 ¶ Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.

We seem to be creatures who are easily distracted and too easily forgetful. The Scriptures confront these weaknesses with a remedy by calling us to pause from our frenetic helter-skelter and to leave the freeway of distraction and come aside to the rest-stop of reflection. It is here that Ancient-Tried-And-True beckons us to consider Jesus. Consider that He endured completely unreasonable hostility for our sakes (Heb. 12:3). By considering this, we are promised that it will bring refreshment to our near weary and faint hearts. Christ's suffering and humiliation is considerable.

2Tim. 2:8 ¶ Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel

A challenge to consider is a call to think afresh about previously unrealised things. A challenge to remember is a gentle rebuke against our weakness of forgetting to easily and too soon. Christianity should be considered and reminiscent.

Consider Jesus in His sufferings, remember Jesus in His triumph.

I was sharing with some one recently who was struggling in their faith. I encouraged them to consider the One we worship who walked the earth a mere 2,000 years ago. Consider His impact. Consider the response of His audience. Consider the reaction of His opponents. Consider how historians (both Biblical and non-Biblical, in His own day) recorded His life. "Extraordinary" "Divine" "Unlike any other" "Messianic" "Sublimely inspirational" - are the terms we might use to sum up the universal appraisal of His life and teaching by historians. Consider that this homeless carpenter from Galillee claimed that He was the eternal God revealed in flesh who would abide with all those who chose to follow Him - even to the end of the Age. Abide. "I will never leave you nor forsake you" - I will abide with you.

But the call to consider is also the call to commit. We consider Christ and His promise to abide with us, but Christ challenges us to consider his charge to us: abide in Me. Considering Christ should lead to commitment to Christ. For the follower of Jesus there is a continual invisible drawing within our souls that causes us to walk not by the happenstance emotions of our mere circumstances, but by a mysterious yearning for something not visible with our natural eyes. For the person of gifted-faith, sometimes it's easier to see with our eyes closed. This mysterious yearning is perhaps not so mysterious in its origin-

1John 4:13 ¶ By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.

There are several ways to consider and remember Jesus.

Moment by moment the best way is in prayer.
Day by day the best way is in Scripture reading.
Week by week the best way is in the fellowship of God's assembled worshipers who give themselves to the Word, to Witness and to congregational Worship.
This weekly time together calls the redeemed to consider Christ through the words that we sing together, the Table of Institution, the preaching of the Living Word, and the fellowship of holy-provokers. This weekly time together calls us to remember Christ- what He has done, what He is doing, and what He will one day do.

Take this moment, this day and this week to consider Jesus and to remember Him. If the fire of passion for Him has dimmed, consider, remember.

John 15:16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.