Don’t think of your service to the Lord as something you can count, as a sort of community service form you can submit for each hour of work completed. Don’t consider your acts of obedience as tally marks on your side of a divine scoreboard! Love dictates a pattern of behavior that cannot be tallied.
"Lovest thou me? Feed my sheep" (John 21:15 KJV).
The Lord would release you from the element of fear that is one of the prime motivators in your acts of service for others. You are afraid you will not be loved. You are afraid they won't love one another properly. You are afraid they will not listen to you, even when you know best. You are so afraid. Let go the fear, and exchange it for faith. God desires your prime motivator to be that you share His heart for those you serve. “To loose the chains of injustice…” (Isaiah 58:6). He has provided for you that you may provide for them.
“Jesus did not consider equality with God something to be grasped…” (Philippians 2:6). He did not appropriate God’s power for Himself, but for the sake of those He was sent to save. He used His power on your behalf. He used what He had been given to benefit you. Now. You do the same. Use what you have been given to minister to the little lambs He has entrusted into your care. Do it out of love; not your own, human love, but out of His love.
Scripture: "Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant..." Philippians 2:5-7.
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Friday, March 18, 2011
Repentance
Repentance is sweet. Repent.
If you can be graceful--full of grace--you will be richly blessed.
Repent before the Lord, and then apologize to those you have harmed.
The only block to an apology is your pride. Repent of your pride. Pride cannot be trespassed against and demands retribution. Humility can turn the other cheek. Your humility will enable those who have hurt you to repent and relent as well.
You do not understand the need for repentance? Then understand this: behavior based on fear is wrong.
Repent of wanting to take control. Repent of desiring the course of action that will cause you the least possible anxiety, but will perhaps not be God's perfect will or the path of greatest blessing for those you love. Repent of desiring to be freed of your burdens at the expense of the Lord's work in the lives of your loved ones. Repent of attempting to solve problems that only God is able to solve. Repent of advising out of your own well of wisdom, and for your failure to entrust your loved ones into God's hands.
Repentance is sweet. Repent.
If you can be graceful--full of grace--you will be richly blessed.
Repent before the Lord, and then apologize to those you have harmed.
The only block to an apology is your pride. Repent of your pride. Pride cannot be trespassed against and demands retribution. Humility can turn the other cheek. Your humility will enable those who have hurt you to repent and relent as well.
You do not understand the need for repentance? Then understand this: behavior based on fear is wrong.
Repent of wanting to take control. Repent of desiring the course of action that will cause you the least possible anxiety, but will perhaps not be God's perfect will or the path of greatest blessing for those you love. Repent of desiring to be freed of your burdens at the expense of the Lord's work in the lives of your loved ones. Repent of attempting to solve problems that only God is able to solve. Repent of advising out of your own well of wisdom, and for your failure to entrust your loved ones into God's hands.
Repentance is sweet. Repent.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Sufficient Unto the Day
Do not sound an alarm, Dear One. You would not accomplish the purposes you hope; those you seek to warn would draw together but only because you would provide them a common foe. The underlying issues would not be brought to light because those you seek to warn would perceive themselves to be under attack.
You are viewing this situation as a compendium of threats, and you need to accept that your perspective may be inaccurate. In this sense, the perspective of youth, even in its naiveté, is more accurate than yours; because youth does not perceive future threat. By contrast, in your propensity for getting the “big picture,” you attempt to face all of the foes of the next 30 years concentrated at one point on your time-line. Battles come one at a time. They will be fought one at a time. You have forgotten that the Lord grants strength only for the battles of the day. All of the resources for the entire war are not given all at once. That would be like attempting to pour the ocean into a teacup; you can’t accommodate the whole of God's provision for you. He gives only what is needed for this day.
You don’t have fight this battle. Stand firm and watch. Trust in the Lord. You don’t have to accomplish deliverance, and you do not need to call a warning.
Scripture: "You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the LORD will give you, Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged" (2 Chronicles 20:17).
You are viewing this situation as a compendium of threats, and you need to accept that your perspective may be inaccurate. In this sense, the perspective of youth, even in its naiveté, is more accurate than yours; because youth does not perceive future threat. By contrast, in your propensity for getting the “big picture,” you attempt to face all of the foes of the next 30 years concentrated at one point on your time-line. Battles come one at a time. They will be fought one at a time. You have forgotten that the Lord grants strength only for the battles of the day. All of the resources for the entire war are not given all at once. That would be like attempting to pour the ocean into a teacup; you can’t accommodate the whole of God's provision for you. He gives only what is needed for this day.
You don’t have fight this battle. Stand firm and watch. Trust in the Lord. You don’t have to accomplish deliverance, and you do not need to call a warning.
Scripture: "You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the LORD will give you, Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged" (2 Chronicles 20:17).
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