TODAY BECOMES THE MOST IMPORTANT DAY OF YOUR LIFE
Greetings and blessings in the name of Jesus:
I feel that in my younger years most of my time was spent in trying to find ways to be blessed by God. It sounded as though that is what Ii should be doing for some reason; seeking God's blessing and trying to live the kind of up-right life that would put me into a position to be blessed; but I found out that that was not at all true. Instead I found that what I should be doing was to make decisions based upon what I was being shown in this life...both the good and the bad and then filtering my response through what I had learn ed from Christ and His example to me. Simply put I needed to learn how to become His witness to this world without the need to be repaid for doing it.
It occurs to me that today we are completely preoccupied with the idea of getting a payback for everything that we do. When ever we are asked for something by someone (at least if we are honest) inside our head we most always say to self " what's in it for me?" It feels more and more like we are beginning to teach new Christians to ask that of God as well. and that could be very dangerous. We already have more than enough self-seeking influence within us to make it very difficult to even love without some kind of pay back so in this case to seek a blessing gets to be very much like a small child making out the list of toys that they want for Christmas! This is especially true if we begin to look on Jesus Christ the way we do Santa Claus who gives gifts to all of the GOOD little girls and boys! The reason I have said today becomes the most important day of our lives is because it is the day we are confronted with just why it is that we do what we do in the name of Christ? Is it because we love Him for all that He has already done for us or is it because of what we still want to get from Him?
These questions should make us stop to think for a moment about such things as our true relationship with Christ and about our real motivations in service to God, but even deeper in asking ourselves just how selfish are we about the need for God to constantly bless us anyway? It isn't really hard for us to know what our answer should be to these things when we stop to think about it, but the self serving self glorifying world that we are subjected to every moment of our lives is constantly trying to put the thought in our heads that somehow God still owes us something. The truth is just the opposite, and the church cannot afford to adopt a policy of teaching us further about the mind-numbing forces of self when it comes to our love for God. Everyday we are shown more of what we still owe to the Father through what we see salvation is bringing us. We cannot know the wonderful things that God has prepared for those of us who really do love Him for who He is to us; but we can certainly see what the future holds for those who refuse to let go of the self centered attitude of this life. No matter how we shake it out it still leads to death. As we seek the answers to these and many more questions about the intent of our hearts we find this might very well become the most important day of our life. May you richly bless God through your life in Him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
I feel that in my younger years most of my time was spent in trying to find ways to be blessed by God. It sounded as though that is what Ii should be doing for some reason; seeking God's blessing and trying to live the kind of up-right life that would put me into a position to be blessed; but I found out that that was not at all true. Instead I found that what I should be doing was to make decisions based upon what I was being shown in this life...both the good and the bad and then filtering my response through what I had learn ed from Christ and His example to me. Simply put I needed to learn how to become His witness to this world without the need to be repaid for doing it.
It occurs to me that today we are completely preoccupied with the idea of getting a payback for everything that we do. When ever we are asked for something by someone (at least if we are honest) inside our head we most always say to self " what's in it for me?" It feels more and more like we are beginning to teach new Christians to ask that of God as well. and that could be very dangerous. We already have more than enough self-seeking influence within us to make it very difficult to even love without some kind of pay back so in this case to seek a blessing gets to be very much like a small child making out the list of toys that they want for Christmas! This is especially true if we begin to look on Jesus Christ the way we do Santa Claus who gives gifts to all of the GOOD little girls and boys! The reason I have said today becomes the most important day of our lives is because it is the day we are confronted with just why it is that we do what we do in the name of Christ? Is it because we love Him for all that He has already done for us or is it because of what we still want to get from Him?
These questions should make us stop to think for a moment about such things as our true relationship with Christ and about our real motivations in service to God, but even deeper in asking ourselves just how selfish are we about the need for God to constantly bless us anyway? It isn't really hard for us to know what our answer should be to these things when we stop to think about it, but the self serving self glorifying world that we are subjected to every moment of our lives is constantly trying to put the thought in our heads that somehow God still owes us something. The truth is just the opposite, and the church cannot afford to adopt a policy of teaching us further about the mind-numbing forces of self when it comes to our love for God. Everyday we are shown more of what we still owe to the Father through what we see salvation is bringing us. We cannot know the wonderful things that God has prepared for those of us who really do love Him for who He is to us; but we can certainly see what the future holds for those who refuse to let go of the self centered attitude of this life. No matter how we shake it out it still leads to death. As we seek the answers to these and many more questions about the intent of our hearts we find this might very well become the most important day of our life. May you richly bless God through your life in Him.THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
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