Wednesday, April 24, 2013

How Do You Spell Success?

My Utmost For His Highest
 
‘Do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you . . . —Luke 10:20
 
Worldliness is not the trap that most endangers us as Christian workers; nor is it sin. The trap we fall into is extravagantly desiring spiritual success; that is, success measured by, and patterned after, the form set by this religious age in which we now live. Never seek after anything other than the approval of God, and always be willing to go “outside the camp, bearing His reproach” (Hebrews 13:13). In Luke 10:20  , Jesus told the disciples not to rejoice in successful service, and yet this seems to be the one thing in which most of us do rejoice. We have a commercialized view— we count how many souls have been saved and sanctified, we thank God, and then we think everything is all right. Yet our work only begins where God’s grace has laid the foundation. Our work is not to save souls, but to disciple them. Salvation and sanctification are the work of God’s sovereign grace, and our work as His disciples is to disciple others’ lives until they are totally yielded to God.’ CHAMBERS
 
Spiritual Success
 
I have seen and experienced some amazing things during the past two years in Haiti and the previous 5 years in Mississippi.  God moving in a powerful way .. doing incredible things in the lives of people ... Americans and Haitians.  We have rejoiced and praised God in all of those experiences.  We were quick to give God the credit, yet many times we felt that those things that God had done somehow validated our service.  We did this and God did that and something cool happened.
 
Chambers causes me to think .. what if nothing happened .. what if we toiled in the fields and never saw fruit from our labor .. is there some point where we would give up ... thinking that we had failed in our calling.. or had missed what God had "really" shaped us for?
 
It is easy to shift focus off of God and on to the world.  To use the world's standards to measure the effectiveness of ministry.  Numbers are important in our culture.  King David thought that .. counted the people .. God was not happy. (2 Samuel 24, 1 Chronicles 21)  The truth is that anything that God accomplishes through us is still God's accomplishment.  We should not take personal pleasure or find affirmation in God's mighty acts.  But we should stand in awe of God.  And what if there are no apparent supernatural interventions in our spiritual service?  Well, we should still stand in awe of God ... He is not bound to our calendar or this world's chronology ...  He is eternal ... He causes all things to work together for good (Romans 8:28).  And that is good enough for me to serve Him to the end of my days ....
 
Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)

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