There is such freedom in knowing that all God calls me to do is my best in everything and then allow Him to take care of all the results.
It is when I sit back and examine this fact that I realize how exciting this statement truly is. The world teaches us to put forth our best effort and to never stop until we achieve what we've set out to do. I am not about to say that this is bad teaching, for working your hardest at everything you ever pursue is a strong quality to have, but working until you accomplish something, there is no peace of freedom in that. Rather, that can lead to quite a bit of stress. However, when we work our hardest as if it depends on us, and then live realizing it doesn't, by surrendering all results of our efforts to God, we are allowing the God who created all things, and Who wants what's best for us, to lead us where He wants us to be. That's freedom, because it ensures that, as long as we are properly surrendered to Him, we will end up accomplishing whatever He wants us to, wherever He wants us to, whenever He wants us to.
Now I mentioned the idea of trying to "will" yourself to accomplsih your goals and dreams. As long as one has the proper attitude of surrender, I don't believe this is a bad thing. For when we attempt to will ourselves to accomplish something, it means that we are putting forth our best effort, which is what God calls us to do. By putting forth our best effort we are worshiping God. Therefore, trying to will yourself to accomplish something is fine, as long as you maintain proper surrender of the results to God. This means accepting whatever He chooses the results to be. And this brings peace because you know that you did your part in the process by putting forth your best effort.
Tuesday 31 January 2012
Go and Make Disciples
God said for us to "go and make disciples", and He provided the model of how to do so. He taught what the Bible teaches and spent time to help people apply it to their lives.
And when we go out and witness to others, we can have complete confidence in Christ knowing that He is with us, and has gone before us, and that He is working in the lives of the people who we are ministering to. There is great comfort and confidence in this. We are simply being used by God in the processes that He has already started in people's lives.
I must never get comfortable thinking that I've got witnessing to others down. I need to be constantly pursuing God to show me how to become increasingly more effective at spreading the good news that He brings. After all, it is the most important message that anyone will ever hear, and the greatest decision anyone will ever make in their lives.
And when we go out and witness to others, we can have complete confidence in Christ knowing that He is with us, and has gone before us, and that He is working in the lives of the people who we are ministering to. There is great comfort and confidence in this. We are simply being used by God in the processes that He has already started in people's lives.
I must never get comfortable thinking that I've got witnessing to others down. I need to be constantly pursuing God to show me how to become increasingly more effective at spreading the good news that He brings. After all, it is the most important message that anyone will ever hear, and the greatest decision anyone will ever make in their lives.
Sunday 22 January 2012
Tebow's Mentality in Working to be Better
Tim Tebow said in an interview something which I liked very much. He said that each day that he practices he does so with the goal in mind that at the end of the day he will be able to say two things. The first is "I got better today" and the second is, "No one would have outworked me today". I like those mentalities. I feel that both, combined with an attitude of doing your best to worship God, will do exactly that - worship God.
Tebow has also said in the past that he always pictures that there is someone out there who is trying to out work him, and one day when they meet, he wants to be able to know that he is ready and that he was not out worked and thus he has the upper hand. With this mentality, you can then always go into any competition knowing that you are better prepared then any of your competition.
Tebow has also said in the past that he always pictures that there is someone out there who is trying to out work him, and one day when they meet, he wants to be able to know that he is ready and that he was not out worked and thus he has the upper hand. With this mentality, you can then always go into any competition knowing that you are better prepared then any of your competition.
As Branches We Need All of the Vine
When God tells us to come to Him, for His "yoke is easy and burden light", He is telling us that He is looking to do the actual "work" of becoming more like Christ for us. My pastor this morning spoke on this topic and helped me recognize that much more just how great God is, and how powerless I really am. God calls us to live for Him by pursuing after Him wholeheartedly and being completely surrendered to Him in all areas of life. Once we do this, we are opening the doors and allowing God to come in and change us to become more like Jesus. Often times we feel like we need to "work" to become more like Christ, but this is not the case. The "work" that God calls us to do is to pursue Him in relationship, and pursue obedience and surrender in every moment, but when it comes to actually becoming more like Christ, that is the work that God does for us. Only He can do it, and He does it through pursuit of relationship, obedience and surrender. But we must do our part if we expect God to do His.
I must never confuse work done by my own effort and fruit of the Spirit. I can do a lot of work for God without actually relying on Him and His strength. For instance, I can go and visit people in the hospital and teach children in school and work really hard at it, but if I am not surrendered and focused on Christ in doing so, then I am relying on my on strength and effort. I must instead be focused on, and relying upon, Christ and His strength so that I can produce fruit for God rather than just doing work which is meaningless because I am relying on my own strength.
In order to grow in Christ I must ensure that I, as a branch, am receiving nurishment/power from the Vine. The Vine is the Holy Spirit. A branch can do nothing meaningful without the nourishment and strength which is provided by the vine alone. It is the same for us. He is the Vine and we are the branches. We cannot produce any fruit without Him. Therefore, we must at all times ensure that we are completely surrendered to Him in every area of our lives so that we can ensure that we are receiving all the power that God, the Vine, wants to make available to us, His branch. As branches, we need all of the Vine in order to live life to its fullest, not just some of the the Vine. This comes through complete surrender.
Every nook and cranny of my life needs to be about Him. Every moment of my life needs to be about Him. The reason for this is the fact that God created us, and in doing so He wired us so that the only way we would ever be truly fulfilled in life is when we are completely surrendered to Him. And notice the term completely. Not partial, or a little bit, or mostly surrendered; but completely surrendered. Every aspect of my life needs to be about Him. It needs to be about bring glory, honor, praise and worship to Him, and this can only happen when I am completely surrendered to the Lord in every area of my life.
Yield signs on the road mean we must give the right of way. I must be fully yielded to God.
I must never confuse work done by my own effort and fruit of the Spirit. I can do a lot of work for God without actually relying on Him and His strength. For instance, I can go and visit people in the hospital and teach children in school and work really hard at it, but if I am not surrendered and focused on Christ in doing so, then I am relying on my on strength and effort. I must instead be focused on, and relying upon, Christ and His strength so that I can produce fruit for God rather than just doing work which is meaningless because I am relying on my own strength.
In order to grow in Christ I must ensure that I, as a branch, am receiving nurishment/power from the Vine. The Vine is the Holy Spirit. A branch can do nothing meaningful without the nourishment and strength which is provided by the vine alone. It is the same for us. He is the Vine and we are the branches. We cannot produce any fruit without Him. Therefore, we must at all times ensure that we are completely surrendered to Him in every area of our lives so that we can ensure that we are receiving all the power that God, the Vine, wants to make available to us, His branch. As branches, we need all of the Vine in order to live life to its fullest, not just some of the the Vine. This comes through complete surrender.
Every nook and cranny of my life needs to be about Him. Every moment of my life needs to be about Him. The reason for this is the fact that God created us, and in doing so He wired us so that the only way we would ever be truly fulfilled in life is when we are completely surrendered to Him. And notice the term completely. Not partial, or a little bit, or mostly surrendered; but completely surrendered. Every aspect of my life needs to be about Him. It needs to be about bring glory, honor, praise and worship to Him, and this can only happen when I am completely surrendered to the Lord in every area of my life.
Yield signs on the road mean we must give the right of way. I must be fully yielded to God.
Friday 13 January 2012
Tebow on whether meeting with sick people before games is bad for his game.
"Just the opposite," Tebow says. "It's by far the best thing I do to get myself ready. Here you are, about to play a game that the world says is the most important thing in the world. Win and they praise you. Lose and they crush you. And here I have a chance to talk to the coolest, most courageous people. It puts it all into perspective. The game doesn't really matter. I mean, I'll give 100 percent of my heart to win it, but in the end, the thing I most want to do is not win championships or make a lot of money, it's to invest in people's lives, to make a difference."
"Just the opposite," Tebow says. "It's by far the best thing I do to get myself ready. Here you are, about to play a game that the world says is the most important thing in the world. Win and they praise you. Lose and they crush you. And here I have a chance to talk to the coolest, most courageous people. It puts it all into perspective. The game doesn't really matter. I mean, I'll give 100 percent of my heart to win it, but in the end, the thing I most want to do is not win championships or make a lot of money, it's to invest in people's lives, to make a difference."
Wednesday 4 January 2012
Be content, don't take credit for your accomplishments and work hard as if the results all depend on you, but then live realizing they all depend on God.
It is very easy to look at those around you who have more than you materially, and to envy them. It is our sinful nature. Deuteronomy 8 (specifically verses 6-20) shows how dangerous this can be. I need to make sure that I never am desiring more materialistically, as well as never taking credit for anything that I gain, accomplish or achieve, but rather give God all the credit and the glory for everything.
When I desire to have and gain more materialistically, I am in essence saying to God, "What you have given me is not enough", and furthermore I am stating, "I need more than just you in my life". It bothers me to even write such things because I know that I have been guilty of desiring more, but the reality of the matter is that when I do so, I am saying the things above, and that is downright sad and disturbing. Especially after all that He has done, and is constantly doing, in my life. The reality of the matter is that God is all that I need in life. He has promised to always provide all of my needs for me, just like he does the "birds of the air and the flowers of the fields" (Matthew 6:25-34). At the same time, "Every good and perfect gift comes from God above, Who never changes". (James 1:17) Therefore, God not only provides everything that I need, but even the additional blessings that come in life are from Him. Therefore, I must always ensure that I am completely content with all that God has chosen to bless me with. I must always resist the temptation to focus on the little I don't have, but rather focus, and be thankful for, all that I do have. After all, "Godliness with contentment is great gain" (1 Timothy 6:6).
Since all good things are blessings from the Lord, it is important to never take credit personally for the good things that are gained and/or accomplished in our lives. It is very easy to see the career that you have, the work that you've done, the awards that you've received, the accomplishments that you've had, and then think, "I did those things. I accomplished that. I set my mind on those goals and I went out and achieved them. I'm the man!" The truth is that God is the man, never myself. While we can work hard to achieve things and accomplish goals, it is God who is sovereign and controls the results of our efforts. We must never forget His sovereignty and we must humble ourselves before Him, recognizing that the best place to be is at His mercy, allowing Him to have complete control of us and our lives. While we are called to always work our hardest and do our best in everything we ever do (Colossians 3:23), it is not us who determines our fate, rather it is God. As we work our hardest to achieve goals and dreams that we set out to accomplish, it is important to realize that God may choose to bless our efforts, frustrate them, or He may choose to use our efforts to take us down an entirely different path that we never expected. The important thing to realize is that God is sovereign, He is in control, and that is a very good thing because His ways are always best.
Something that I question however is how exactly this applies for non-Christians. I look at people like Donald Trump and ask myself whether or not God has blessed his efforts to become a successful business man, gaining incredible worldly wealth in the process. Although I am not entirely sure whether the view that I have is completely correct, my inclination toward this issue would be to say the following: Non-Christians who pursue goals and dreams, if they go about it in a way which is wise and put forth great effort, they very well may be sucessful. If they are successful, I don't think this is necessarily God choosing to bless them, although it might be the case. I think however what this probably is, is God allowing them to be successful. He is not blessing it, but He is also not getting in the way. They worked hard, went about things in a wise way, and things worked out for them. At the same time, I don't think this always happens in the lives of Christians. I think sometimes God may choose to bless the efforts of our goals and dreams due to the fact that they are within God's will, while other times He may choose to frustrate them because they are not within His will. The key here is that God has a purpose for all Christians here on earth. He has things that He has pre-ordained for us to accomplish and so I believe that when we pursue goals and dreams that are not aligned with those purposes, He takes our efforts and through His sovereign control guides the results of our efforts toward the purposes that He has for us. As well, He uses those circumstances to teach us and make us more like Him. One may find some of this frustrating because we like the idea of being able to set goals and pursue dreams and then think that with enough dedication and effort we can accomplish anything that we set our minds to. The reality of the matter; however, is that these facts are actually things which should bring us great peace. God's ways are always best, and the fact that He will take the various events in our lives, including the results of our efforts to pursue goals and dreams, and then through His sovereignty steer those results toward that which leads to His purposes being accomplished in our lives, shows His great love for us. As mentioned, His ways are always best, and so the fact that He works things out in our lives so that His purposes may be accomplished, displays His love. And if we ever question that love, remember, He came to earth in human form to live and then die a brutal death all on our behalf so that we may have the opportunity to spend eternity with Him. He has more than proven the fact that He has our best interests at heart.
It is important for us to always be content with what God chooses for us to have, while at the same time never taking credit for the blessings that He does choose to bestow upon us. We need to make sure that we are always working our hardest at all things to be our best and accomplish our best for God. We should work with effort as if the results depend completely on us, but at the same time recognize God is sovereign, He has purposes for our lives, He has our best interests at heart and thus He will bring about the results from our efforts that He sees fit. And it is all a demonstration of His great love for us.
When I desire to have and gain more materialistically, I am in essence saying to God, "What you have given me is not enough", and furthermore I am stating, "I need more than just you in my life". It bothers me to even write such things because I know that I have been guilty of desiring more, but the reality of the matter is that when I do so, I am saying the things above, and that is downright sad and disturbing. Especially after all that He has done, and is constantly doing, in my life. The reality of the matter is that God is all that I need in life. He has promised to always provide all of my needs for me, just like he does the "birds of the air and the flowers of the fields" (Matthew 6:25-34). At the same time, "Every good and perfect gift comes from God above, Who never changes". (James 1:17) Therefore, God not only provides everything that I need, but even the additional blessings that come in life are from Him. Therefore, I must always ensure that I am completely content with all that God has chosen to bless me with. I must always resist the temptation to focus on the little I don't have, but rather focus, and be thankful for, all that I do have. After all, "Godliness with contentment is great gain" (1 Timothy 6:6).
Since all good things are blessings from the Lord, it is important to never take credit personally for the good things that are gained and/or accomplished in our lives. It is very easy to see the career that you have, the work that you've done, the awards that you've received, the accomplishments that you've had, and then think, "I did those things. I accomplished that. I set my mind on those goals and I went out and achieved them. I'm the man!" The truth is that God is the man, never myself. While we can work hard to achieve things and accomplish goals, it is God who is sovereign and controls the results of our efforts. We must never forget His sovereignty and we must humble ourselves before Him, recognizing that the best place to be is at His mercy, allowing Him to have complete control of us and our lives. While we are called to always work our hardest and do our best in everything we ever do (Colossians 3:23), it is not us who determines our fate, rather it is God. As we work our hardest to achieve goals and dreams that we set out to accomplish, it is important to realize that God may choose to bless our efforts, frustrate them, or He may choose to use our efforts to take us down an entirely different path that we never expected. The important thing to realize is that God is sovereign, He is in control, and that is a very good thing because His ways are always best.
Something that I question however is how exactly this applies for non-Christians. I look at people like Donald Trump and ask myself whether or not God has blessed his efforts to become a successful business man, gaining incredible worldly wealth in the process. Although I am not entirely sure whether the view that I have is completely correct, my inclination toward this issue would be to say the following: Non-Christians who pursue goals and dreams, if they go about it in a way which is wise and put forth great effort, they very well may be sucessful. If they are successful, I don't think this is necessarily God choosing to bless them, although it might be the case. I think however what this probably is, is God allowing them to be successful. He is not blessing it, but He is also not getting in the way. They worked hard, went about things in a wise way, and things worked out for them. At the same time, I don't think this always happens in the lives of Christians. I think sometimes God may choose to bless the efforts of our goals and dreams due to the fact that they are within God's will, while other times He may choose to frustrate them because they are not within His will. The key here is that God has a purpose for all Christians here on earth. He has things that He has pre-ordained for us to accomplish and so I believe that when we pursue goals and dreams that are not aligned with those purposes, He takes our efforts and through His sovereign control guides the results of our efforts toward the purposes that He has for us. As well, He uses those circumstances to teach us and make us more like Him. One may find some of this frustrating because we like the idea of being able to set goals and pursue dreams and then think that with enough dedication and effort we can accomplish anything that we set our minds to. The reality of the matter; however, is that these facts are actually things which should bring us great peace. God's ways are always best, and the fact that He will take the various events in our lives, including the results of our efforts to pursue goals and dreams, and then through His sovereignty steer those results toward that which leads to His purposes being accomplished in our lives, shows His great love for us. As mentioned, His ways are always best, and so the fact that He works things out in our lives so that His purposes may be accomplished, displays His love. And if we ever question that love, remember, He came to earth in human form to live and then die a brutal death all on our behalf so that we may have the opportunity to spend eternity with Him. He has more than proven the fact that He has our best interests at heart.
It is important for us to always be content with what God chooses for us to have, while at the same time never taking credit for the blessings that He does choose to bestow upon us. We need to make sure that we are always working our hardest at all things to be our best and accomplish our best for God. We should work with effort as if the results depend completely on us, but at the same time recognize God is sovereign, He has purposes for our lives, He has our best interests at heart and thus He will bring about the results from our efforts that He sees fit. And it is all a demonstration of His great love for us.
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