today. I desired to bless a group of ladies who have committed their time to serve the Lord in Christian leadership. I worked hard on things to get ready for the day, and sacrificed personal time to meet deadlines and finish preparation. At least these were my inner mental claims.
And the tables were completely turned on me. In setting my heart to bless these ladies, God instead greatly blessed me through these ladies. They were gracious, committed, grateful, giving, hard working and trustworthy in their words and actions of displayed integrity. They praised the Lord for all that He has done in their lives both in difficulties and blessings. They demonstrated today a dying to self to follow Jesus.
Every single one of them had a busy schedule, other family needs and demands, other places to be, errands to run and tasks to finish. But they gave to the Lord first and with humble hearts--leaving me humbled to think that I could out-bless what is in God's storehouse to give.
In Matthew 10 when Jesus sends out His twelve disciples to do His work, He gives them a list of instructions as to what they are to do. Jesus tells them to preach the message of His kingdom and apply its message in healing the sick, raising the dead, cleansing the leprous, and driving out evil. The exhortation for such service is, "Freely you have received, freely give." (10:8b)
That's the truth of it. He has freely given to His people over and over and over again. And the tired old hobby horse of all I've done for the Lord should be rightly beaten to death AND buried to a depth of irrecoverable proportions. I have done nothing for the Lord that He did not one, move my heart to do by the conviction of His Word and Spirit; two, enable and equip me to do by His power; and three, require me to do in obedient faith, the very faith He gave to me in the first place.
I can do nothing apart from Him. And it must be really offensive to a Holy God for anyone to act or think as though they are doing great and wonderful things for Him without a proper perspective as to what He gives, He requires, and He does.
I stand corrected. I am truly and humbly grateful. May His Name alone be praised!
"I can do nothing apart from Him. And it must be really offensive to a Holy God for anyone to act or think as though they are doing great and wonderful things for Him without a proper perspective as to what He gives, He requires, and He does."
ReplyDeleteSuch are my thoughts whenever I see the prolific buttons on blogs proclaiming that the author is kind or nice.