He…said to them, "Behold, we are going up to
Jerusalem…" —Luke 18:31
“Jerusalem, in the life of our Lord, represents the place
where He reached the culmination of His Father’s will. Jesus said, “I do not
seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me” (John 5:30). Seeking
to do “the will of the Father” was the one dominating concern throughout our
Lord’s life. And whatever He encountered along the way, whether joy or sorrow,
success or failure, He was never deterred from that purpose. […] We are not
taken into a conscious agreement with God’s purpose— we are taken into God’s
purpose with no awareness of it at all. We have no idea what God’s goal may be;
as we continue, His purpose becomes even more and more vague. God’s aim appears
to have missed the mark, because we are too nearsighted to see the target at
which He is aiming. At the beginning of the Christian life, we have our own
ideas as to what God’s purpose is. We say, “God means for me to go over there,”
and, “God has called me to do this special work. […]The work we do is of no
account when compared with the compelling purpose of God. It is simply the
scaffolding surrounding His work and His plan.”
CHAMBERS
Where is God leading you or where has He led you? We can except that He would lead us to do
some great thing to accomplish His purpose, and He might well. But can we
accept that He would lead us to some mundane place? One of my challenges since returning from
Haiti is being content in the place where God has led us. Oh, we are still involved in ministry in
Haiti. I continue to write these
devotions .. I will soon be teaching Sunday School. But being in Mississippi or Haiti was such a grand and glorious calling. It was as if this square peg (me) was finally
put into a square hole. Perfect fit. And
then the Lord brings us back into what I consider to be a spiritual
valley. The thing is, this valley is no
less important to God than the mountain.
My problem is that I am considering a spiritual condition with a natural
understanding. It is self-serving. It is what I want and not what God has purposed
that I have focused on.
Assuming that you are not living in disobedience, meaning
that God has said, “Go” and you have
said “No”, God will use you for His glory right where you are. I am not at peace with where I am today, nor
should I be. Just like Haiti, there are
hardships, but here in the U.S., they have taken a different form. God does not want me to be content but to be
light in the darkness. God wants you to
shine right where you are. Maybe you
have become content … perhaps you are starting to blend in (Romans 12:2) … your light is not quite
so bright … you have begun to lose your saltiness. (Matthew
5:13) Like me, perhaps you need to
be reminded that no matter where God has you, this world is not your home. Your purpose and mission is not dependent
upon geography or economics but on the sovereignty of God. Fulfilling your purpose begins with a proper
understanding of your new life, God’s authority in your life, and what it means
to live by faith and not by sight. (2
Corinthians 5:7) CHARLEY
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