Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go. ~John 21:18 (NIV)
When we come to know and love the Lord, He shows us that we are saved for a purpose. God is in the loving and taking care of people business and that is the same business He calls His children to be in. But just like we let things slip in every other area of life, we tend to let that understanding slip as well. Our human nature makes us prone to fear and doubt and those will cause us to retreat back to a mindset that we cannot trust the Lord. When we allow that to happen, we start to believe we have to figure out how we are going to take care of ourselves. Having ourselves on our mind too much is never a good thing. It’s not what we have been assigned to do. Our assignment until we find ourselves in the full presence of God is to have Him and others on our mind as we walk in love. Too often we feel like we don’t have anything to give but God says He provides seed for the sower. We cannot let the enemy talk us into believing we are our own providers, or we are going to go down fast. God did not equip us to live under that kind of pressure. Having the mindset that we are our own provider eliminates God from our life equation and that is definitely a tool the enemy likes to use. God has a wonderful plan for our lives, but we need to daily trust Him with everything if we are ever going to live in that plan.
The Lord doesn’t unveil His purpose for our lives all at one time. He gives us time to mature as He prepares us to be a blessing to others. When we come to the Lord we are walking in our own plans and doing things our own way, but as we grow, we come to want God’s will more than our own. We come to understand there is a bigger picture and we are only privy to a small portion of it. The Lord allows us to look back and see where He worked things out for our good and it enables us to trust Him more and more as we learn to walk with Him. Have you ever looked back and saw how God worked a situation out for your best? He doesn’t usually do it the way we think it should be done, but when we have the ability to look back, we see the way that we would have done things probably wouldn’t have produced the best possible outcome. Just as God prepared Peter for what He would do for the early church, God prepares us for what we are to accomplish in our generation. As baby Christians, we did what we wanted to do. But as we mature, we are to stretch out our hands and surrender ourselves to God. We must be willing to follow Him wherever He calls us to go and in whatever He calls us to do. It could be as simple as forgiving your spouse or a co-worker and it could be as complex as starting a ministry. Either way all of our actions should be motivated by love and Jesus said there is no greater love than to lay your life (your desires and your will) down for others. Whatever it is God is calling you to do “in love” today you need say “yes” to Him and “no” to your stubborn self. Surrender is our only acceptable response.
Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done. ~Luke 22:42 (NIV)
What fearful, doubtful mindset do you keep retreating back to?
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