Some may be familiar with the song: Footprints in the Sand. Many of us are familiar with the comfort of the poem: Footprints in the Sand. The poem speaks of the comfort of our Lord, Christ Jesus, during those most difficult times when we thought that we were walking alone. The poem was likely inspired by a sermon of Charles Haddon Spurgeon – THE EDUCATION OF SONS OF GOD. (The link to it’s opening paragraph is well worth your consideration and prayer.)
The test of Spurgeon’s sermon is Hebrews 5:8 KJV
“Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered
Yes, we are all comforted at times from this application of the letter of Hebrews to our personal suffering. We may wipe away a tear of loneliness and defeat in eventual memory and thankfulness that Christ Jesus IS always with us.
Yet lately, not only was I finally comforted by this thought, but through conviction of the Spirit I have thanked the Lord for small ways He might use me to comfort others.
Worse, I realized that I often thought that I walked alone because I never reached out to hardly anyone with this same love of our Lord, the One always carrying me and leaving footprints in the sand of many lonely places.
I’ve sat with hundreds of my neighbors at almost every football game for the last two years. I have lived in this small PA town for six years. I see many nameless faces in the grocery store, at our community food bank, at the Borough Hall shelter after a last year’s hurricane, and even almost every week at church.
“Who is my neighbor? I have no idea.
After walking just a little in Jesus’ love, as if He were using me to walk with another, I became convicted even more.
I am no different than someone who does NOT know Jesus. I have not bothered to engage their souls in relationship in the same loving way as our Lord did for so many on every unexpected occasion.
Ephesians 4:17-5:2 excerpts: 17 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds.
18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.
19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.
20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!—
30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.
32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
“Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Dear Lord,
Forgive me.
I have not imitated God.
I have not imitated the example of God’s Son.
Most of all I have NOT walked in love — agape — as Christ Jesus loved me.
I have not sacrificed time for hardly any neighbor.
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“I have not sacrificed my love for others as a sacrifice to God — the same God who did sacrifice his Son on the Cross for me.
Dear brother or sister in the Lord,
How are you doing with that?
When was the last time you reached out to your neighbor to help carry their hurting soul? Are you also convicted?
40 And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’ 41 “Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: 42 for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; 43 I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’
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Show your thankfulness.
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“Leave some footprints on the heart of someone walking alone — someone much in need Christ Jesus to walk with them through the sands of this brief time.
English Standard Version (ESV)
