It never ceases to amaze me how the Lord speaks to my heart in various ways, over several days. Yesterday as I sat in church listening to our Pastor I did not yet see what the Lord had for me, until this morning as I was reading back over my notes from the sermon. As I read I could hear the Lord whispering to my heart, "Can you see it now?"
The main idea of yesterday's sermon was, "We live for Jesus, our Eternal God and Savior, not for this world that is passing away." Our Pastor is currently teaching through 1 Corinthians and I love how it is blessing my life but out of all the lessons so far this one really hit home. You see in the passage we looked at Paul was talking about how we need to keep our human emotions and perspective of the world in the proper view because once Jesus returns, all of these things will pass away and he will bring something amazing.
It is so easy today to let the things of this world, our spouse, family or friends become our everything. Are we trying to be the perfect wife...the perfect mom...the perfect (fill in your job here)? It is easy in the world today to think that money, success, lots of friends, a big family and a nice home means that we are all right with God and right on track. It is easy to think that everything is in balance if in the world's perspective it is all going your way. On the other hand it is easy to think that God is against you if you can't find a job, you struggle to pay your bills, your marriage is on the rocks and you feel like you can never get a break. In both circumstances it is easy to just pour all you have into fixing those things or surviving your struggles, yet, neither of those choices are what Paul calls us to do in 1 Corinthians 7.
In this passage Paul was talking about making sure that we are not dependent on anything but Jesus. If we are not paying attention it is easy to make our spouse, our children, our crazy lives and schedules what we are most dependent on. If you are like me you spend your day with your check list of what needs to be done and when a problem comes up you immediately begin to problem solve that issue. I don't want to be like that anymore. I want to be the person that the moment a problem comes up the first thing out of my mouth is crying out to my Abba Father for help. I want my total focus and dependence on Him.
This world has two dangers that my Pastor talked about and really rang true with me. 1) Getting too comfortable in this world. If we get too comfortable and place our focus on fitting into this world, achieving our goals of this world and being successful in this world then we risk buying into the easy lies of the enemy that we don't need God right now we are doing just fine on our own. 2) Always wanting more of the things of this world. It is so easy to think that if we had more money, a better job, a nicer house, or (fill in the blank) that we would be better off and content. If we are not careful this is where the enemy will come in and steal our joy, he will lie to us that our struggles are because we are not good enough or that God is punishing us. It is so important to remember that nothing of this world will last once Jesus returns...NOTHING! The only thing we have that will last is our salvation and personal relationship with our Eternal Father.
All of these things continue to help me see why the Lord is taking our family off the beaten path. I see how the enemy has been trying to steal my joy and contentment. I can see how the enemy has been lying to me that it is my job to fix our problems and I just need to work a little harder. All these things are lies and the Lord has shown me that it is time to step back, turn off the noise of this world and allow my focus and total dependence to be on him. You see I don't want Jesus to just be apart of my life...I want him to be my life! I love my family. I love where the Lord has brought me in my life but I don't just want to survive this life, I want people to look back on my life and the first words out of their mouths be "She loved Jesus."
No comments:
Post a Comment