I had come home early from church one night. While worshipping and loving the Lord, with tears filling my eyes because of loneliness and despire, the Lord said to me, "You are fulfilling My highest calling." I said, "I am?" The Lord said, "Yes, because you love Me, and fellowship with Me. That's why I created you..."
I am overwhelmed at how simple God is. Just to think that the God who created us, and everything around us, and who is in control of all things would simply ask that we love Him. That is so simple that every person can fulfill it. To love God with all of our heart, soul and mind doesn't require any special skill or ability. All it requires is a heart after God as Psalms 42:1 says, "As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God."
We hear so often of the rewards for the people who do great works, or those who win a great number of souls to God, and so we should as these are great accomplishments. But did you know that God has a reward for those who simply LOVE HIM? Paul knew this when he quoted from Isaiah who stated, "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard; Nor have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for those who love Him." (1 Corinthians 2:9). God didn't say that we all need to be super stars, or great preachers, or even great witnesses or soul winners to have a reward. What God longs for first and foremost from His people is love and fellowship. I can't tell you what a comfort it was to me when I really understood this simple, yet profound truth. It took away a fear that I had had for so long. I was afraid that God would reject me if I didn't win any souls to Him. Now I can relax in the assurance that even if I do nothing, but love God for the rest of my life, He still has something prepared for me. I believe He still says, "Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord." (Matthew 25:21).
My heart is so overwhelmed at the thought that all God wants is love from the depths of our being. If only we could really see and grasp this truth with spiritual understanding, I believe it would cause our love for God to grow every day. This is what I believe Paul was talking about when he wrote, "I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 3:14). I also believe this verse refers to pressing toward what each of us has been called by God to fulfill in our lives. Paul's goal was to know the Lord in the deepest way he possibly could in this life. "That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death." (Philippians 3:10). May this be our deepest desire and goal. The more we love the Lord, the more we will fellowship with Him, and the more we spend time with Him, the deeper our love will grow for Him.
In Luke 10:38-42, we have an account of two sisters. Mary loved to just sit at the feet of Jesus and drink in all the richness of Jesus' words. On the contrary, Martha was the one serving her guest, and she thought that Mary should be helping her instead of wasting all her time just sitting and listening to Jesus. In Martha's eyes, Mary wasn't doing anything important. How many times has someone sad to you, "You're just wasting your time praying?" But I love Jesus' response to Martha when He said, ""Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But only one thing is needed and Mary has chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her." (Luke 10:41-42). May we not be like Martha, and get so busy doing the trivial things in life that we forget our Highest Calling, and the purpose for which God has created us, and called us to Himself - to LOVE Him and be in constant fellowship with Him. God so longed for this, that even when we choose to go our own way, God Himself came in the person of Jesus Christ to offer His life, so that we could have fellowship with our Heavenly Father once again. In the eyes of the world, it may look as if we are wasting our time. But it is not a waste, it is most precious.
In Revelation 2:1-5, Jesus is speaking to the church of Ephesus, and after listing all their "good works" He says, "Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love." Jesus continues in verse 5 and says, "Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works or else I will come quickly and remove your lampstand from its place - unless you repent." (Revelation 2:4-5). What stern words! We can be busy in the church, doing all the right things, and still lose our first love. The things of God cease to be precious and real to us. We give God lip service, but our heart is far from Him. While we have a form of godliness, we deny His power. Oh, may we return to our first love, and worship God from our hearts in spirit and in truth.
I find it interesting that this is the first of the seven churches in Asia Minor to whom Jesus speaks. Could it be that to lose our first love for the Lord, the One that we are to love with all that is within us, is the greatest of all evils? Even Paul says says in 1 Corinthians 13:1-2, "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become as sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains, and have not love I am nothing." After all, Jesus said this in answering the question, "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?" Jesus said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment." (Matthew 22:36-39). Love will produce obedience. As a result of loving God with our whole being, we will automatically seek for ways to express that which is deep within us. We will want to serve Him, therefore we will serve one another, as He lives within us.
In Romans 5:5, Paul tells us, "Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us." As a result of God's love being poured into our hearts, we will want to serve one another just as Jesus served His disciples. Even as Galatians 6:2 says, "Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ." If we are not willing to bear one another's burdens, we have no right telling someone that we love them. Love is more than just words, it is a commitment to another person.
As the Lord said to me that night so long ago, "You are fulfilling the calling I've created you for." All I was doing was fellowshipping with Him, and letting Him know how much I loved Him. Its so easy in this day and age to get so busy that we lose our first love for the Lord, even by doing "good works" for Him. Let us not make the tragic mistake that the church of Ephesus did by losing our first love. Above everything else, let us love the Lord with all our heart, mind, soul and strength. As we do, we will be fulfilling our Highest Calling.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Monday, February 6, 2012
Borders Enhance Focus
Almost everywhere we go, we come across pictures. Most of the pictures we see have a border, or in some cases a double or even a triple border around it. Have you ever wondered why the border is there - what purpose does it serve? The border is there to bring the picture into sharper focus - it enhances the main features that the artist wanted to bring out in the picture.
Our lives are pictures which God has created - each one as unique and different from the other. Just as the artist puts borders around the pictures they create, so God, the Creator of all life, has put borders around each of our lives. Whether we want to admit it or not, we all have to live within the confines of the borders which are unique to our individual lives. God, in His infinite wisdom and sovereignty knows exactly what kind of borders each one of us need, and has carefully selected the perfect borders He intends for us to live within. As it was God who created each one of us unique in order that we may fulfil the purpose which He had in mind for us even before the beginning of time, as Paul states in Ephesians 2:10. "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." Even as God knows the specific purpose for which He has created us to fulfil, so He knows the perfect balance between the borders of our lives being too confining and too freeing for us to live within. What may be too confining for one person may be just what another person would need to keep their life focused on the purpose God has for them to fulfil.
Some of our borders are more apparent and visible than others. My border happens to be a disability which confines me to a wheelchair. Learning to live victoriously within the confines of life in a wheelchair has been, and continues to be a life-long pursuit. It has only been by the grace of God, drawing on His strength that has enabled me to live and accomplish His purpose for my life. You may or may not be living within the confines of a wheelchair, but you may have a job which places certain limitations on you. The same holds true if you have a family member to take care of, or elderly parents to tend to. All of these various situations place certain limitations and responsibilities upon you, which become the border within which you live.
We need to learn to live victoriously within our borders, and therefore cause them to enhance our life and focus upon God's purposes, instead of seeing our borders as hinderances against which we are constantly fighting. This requires coming to a place of contentment with our life situation, including the seemingly negative situations, which many of us have been taught not to do. We have been taught to fight against those things which confine us, although we would not admit that that is what we are doing. We spiritualize it by saying, "I'm believing God to heal me, or deliver me from this situation." In some situations, it may be God's will to deliver or heal us, and it is not wrong to pray for healing as we serve a God with whom nothing is impossible. But when it is evident that God, in His wisdom, is not going to bring the healing or deliverance we desire, we begin to get frustrated. But maybe what the Lord wants to do is to manifest His grace and strength in the midst of our weakness and limitations even as Paul discovered when the Lord didn't remove the borders from his life. Instead, the Lord answered Paul by saying, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." Paul's response is one of acceptance and contentment with his situation. "Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me." (2 Corinthians 12:9).
As I have found in my own life, we can waste a lot of time and energy trying to escape our borders that we lose sight of the vision and calling which the Lord has destined for us to fulfil in Him. Yes, there will be those who will tell us that unless we are free from our afflictions, the Lord cannot use us. But I can tell you from personal experience that they are wrong. The Lord is not looking for ability as much as as He is looking for availability. Yet it took me years to come to the place of accepting my disability and allowing God to have His way in my life. The amazing thing is, once we stop looking for a way to escape our borders, that's when the real freedom comes, as suddenly we are no longer focused on how limited we are. Now we are free to discover all that we are able to do within our borders, and how much we can do and accomplish within them. Please don't make the same mistake I did, and focus your entire life on the possibility of being healed or delivered from you negative situation someday while missing the opportunities which might be right within your reach at this present moment. We have to live with the realities of today, as we anticipate the hope of tomorrow.
So many of us waste our time and energy wishing we could serve the Lord in ways we never gifted for, and therefore will never be free to do. Some people even go one step further and actually attempt to do things they were never gifted for, and wonder why they are not finding success and fulfilment in what they are doing. God has placed the borders of His choosing upon our lives, not to hinder or frustrate us, but to bring His calling into sharper focus than it would otherwise be in our lives. The more we try to fight against the borders in our lives, the more we hinder the Lord from using us just as we are, and fulfilling His perfect plan in our lives.
Our lives are pictures which God has created - each one as unique and different from the other. Just as the artist puts borders around the pictures they create, so God, the Creator of all life, has put borders around each of our lives. Whether we want to admit it or not, we all have to live within the confines of the borders which are unique to our individual lives. God, in His infinite wisdom and sovereignty knows exactly what kind of borders each one of us need, and has carefully selected the perfect borders He intends for us to live within. As it was God who created each one of us unique in order that we may fulfil the purpose which He had in mind for us even before the beginning of time, as Paul states in Ephesians 2:10. "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." Even as God knows the specific purpose for which He has created us to fulfil, so He knows the perfect balance between the borders of our lives being too confining and too freeing for us to live within. What may be too confining for one person may be just what another person would need to keep their life focused on the purpose God has for them to fulfil.
Some of our borders are more apparent and visible than others. My border happens to be a disability which confines me to a wheelchair. Learning to live victoriously within the confines of life in a wheelchair has been, and continues to be a life-long pursuit. It has only been by the grace of God, drawing on His strength that has enabled me to live and accomplish His purpose for my life. You may or may not be living within the confines of a wheelchair, but you may have a job which places certain limitations on you. The same holds true if you have a family member to take care of, or elderly parents to tend to. All of these various situations place certain limitations and responsibilities upon you, which become the border within which you live.
We need to learn to live victoriously within our borders, and therefore cause them to enhance our life and focus upon God's purposes, instead of seeing our borders as hinderances against which we are constantly fighting. This requires coming to a place of contentment with our life situation, including the seemingly negative situations, which many of us have been taught not to do. We have been taught to fight against those things which confine us, although we would not admit that that is what we are doing. We spiritualize it by saying, "I'm believing God to heal me, or deliver me from this situation." In some situations, it may be God's will to deliver or heal us, and it is not wrong to pray for healing as we serve a God with whom nothing is impossible. But when it is evident that God, in His wisdom, is not going to bring the healing or deliverance we desire, we begin to get frustrated. But maybe what the Lord wants to do is to manifest His grace and strength in the midst of our weakness and limitations even as Paul discovered when the Lord didn't remove the borders from his life. Instead, the Lord answered Paul by saying, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." Paul's response is one of acceptance and contentment with his situation. "Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me." (2 Corinthians 12:9).
As I have found in my own life, we can waste a lot of time and energy trying to escape our borders that we lose sight of the vision and calling which the Lord has destined for us to fulfil in Him. Yes, there will be those who will tell us that unless we are free from our afflictions, the Lord cannot use us. But I can tell you from personal experience that they are wrong. The Lord is not looking for ability as much as as He is looking for availability. Yet it took me years to come to the place of accepting my disability and allowing God to have His way in my life. The amazing thing is, once we stop looking for a way to escape our borders, that's when the real freedom comes, as suddenly we are no longer focused on how limited we are. Now we are free to discover all that we are able to do within our borders, and how much we can do and accomplish within them. Please don't make the same mistake I did, and focus your entire life on the possibility of being healed or delivered from you negative situation someday while missing the opportunities which might be right within your reach at this present moment. We have to live with the realities of today, as we anticipate the hope of tomorrow.
So many of us waste our time and energy wishing we could serve the Lord in ways we never gifted for, and therefore will never be free to do. Some people even go one step further and actually attempt to do things they were never gifted for, and wonder why they are not finding success and fulfilment in what they are doing. God has placed the borders of His choosing upon our lives, not to hinder or frustrate us, but to bring His calling into sharper focus than it would otherwise be in our lives. The more we try to fight against the borders in our lives, the more we hinder the Lord from using us just as we are, and fulfilling His perfect plan in our lives.
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