Study #9: GIMEL
Today I shall sum up our study of GIMEL.
Remember GIMEL is both a pictogram of a Foot and a Camel. These two images tie up to designate our spiritual walk in Christ, the pilgrimage of our lives from faith to faith, from strength to strength.
This is also echoed in the Old Testament – in the journeying of the 3 Patriachs of Faith (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob ) who loaded the necessities of life on the backs of camels and travelled by foot.
The 3 basic meanings of GIMEL is seen in the progression of our spiritual pilgrimage as believers of Christ:
1. TO BE PRODUCTIVE – what comes out of the work of our lives.
2. TO BE BROUGHT UP AND RAISED AS CHILDREN OF GOD.
3. TO BE REWARDED for our good works AFTER our born-again experience – the good works that matter according to the Book of James who taught us that faith without works is dead ( James 2:14-26 ).
Previously I mentioned the Holy Spirit as our chief motivator as every step pulsates with His breath in us. Thus we are led by the Spirit ( Romans 8:14 ).
Let us see how GIMEL works out in our daily walk:
1. We are in Christ as He is in us. We are His workmanship. In Him we live and move and have our being. His Spirit lives in us. Our life is the life of the Spirit and we are to set our minds on things of the spirit. For in this is life and peace ( Romans 8:6 ). In so many words, we are to produce the FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT ( Galatians 5:22-23 ).
2. We have been raised like God’s children, adopted in His family. As we submit to our Father God as loving and obedient children, His life and power are in work in us to transform us into Christ-likeness. Our best testimony is thus to become the true CHILDREN OF GOD which the earth is expectantly waiting for ( Romans 8:19 ).
3. Our best reward? JESUS is All and in All ( Colossians 3:11 ).
Father God, indeed Christ in us is the hope of glory ( Colossians 1:27). This is what the one Hebrew letter GIMEL truly teaches us – a life beyond this earthly existence – a life that will be glorious beyond all imagination.