God is holding Himself back

Romans 11:26
Psalm 29

How much the Lord holds back His power to give us free will! With His voice alone, powerful enough to break cedars into pieces, He gives a command and nothing becomes a very big something (Gen 1:3). He could easily bring us all into submission to His will, yet He chooses not to. He chooses to hold Himself back to allow us to make our own decisions, including the decision to love and serve Him or not. Yet eventually His full glory will be revealed and everyone, even those who have rejected Him, will know Him for Who He Is, and will bow before Him (Phil 2:10).
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Until that day comes you have a choice. Will you decide to submit to Him or will you decide to live for yourself? God is holding back His power, to not force you to serve Him as a slave, but to allow you to love Him as His child.

Lent: Simon Peter

Luke 5:1-11

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Simon Peter surely didn't know when he agreed to follow Jesus where his decision would lead him. He didn't know that his name would be changed from Simon to Peter. He didn't know he would spend the next few years as a spokesman for the twelve disciples. He didn't know he would play such an important role in a new Church after the death, resurrection, and ascension of his Teacher. He didn't know that he would one day die as a martyr in a distant land. He'd been told by his brother that this man was the Messiah (Jn 1:41) and he'd seen a miracle take place on his own boat, yet I wonder if he would have agreed so quickly to become a disciple of Jesus if he knew more about how significantly his decision would transform the rest of his life.
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I look to the future and wonder. I'm tempted to fear; I'm tempted to anxiety. What does the future hold for me and my family? How will the decisions I make today impact the road ahead of me which I cannot see? Yet these questions don't come from a deep faith in the Lord, who calls me to trust Him and not be anxious (Php 4:6). He holds the present and the future in His hands, and He is completely trustworthy. If I knew the future today I might be even more afraid of it, yet by the time it becomes the present I know that the Lord will have given me the grace and the gifts I will need to live through it. Simon wasn't ready when he met Jesus to play any significant role in a new Church, yet Jesus taught him what he needed to know and gave him the grace to lead by the time his leadership was actually needed. In the same way I know that if the Lord calls me to serve Him in a particular way then He will train me in that and give me the grace I will need by the time I actually need it.

Selfishness

Romans 9:23
Philippians 1:14-18

The depth of my own selfishness never ceases to astonish me. Every time I am confronted by it I wonder again at how immature I still am in certain areas of my life. Even though I know I am not alone, the selfishness is unacceptable, a vice I will need to fight against throughout the rest of my life.
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We were made to focus on God and give Him glory in all that we do. Instead we choose time and again to focus on ourselves and our own selfish desires. How often, as just one small example, do we evaluate the time we spend in prayer by how richly we feel blessed by the end of it? The whole purpose of prayer is to give honor to God, yet we judge whether it was a "good" prayer time or not by whether we have received encouragement from Him. Could we possibly be more selfish?? And yet out of His mercy God chooses to bless us anyways during the time we set aside to honor Him. He manages to bring glory to Himself despite our selfishness working against Him, even transforming our actions motivated so wrongly into fruitful opportunities to communicate His Word to others. Paul must have recognized this, to rejoice in the spread of the Gospel while acknowledging the poor motivation of some of those spreading it.
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Praise God that He is glorified despite my selfishness. May He continue to work in me to remove that selfishness and replace it with love: love for Him, love for His name, and love for His people.

Contentment Whatever Our Circumstances May Be

Romans 9:13
Philippians 4:11-14

My best reminder to be content

Do you ever want a different life from the one you have? Do you wish some of the challenges you have were given to someone else instead? Or on the contrary, do you ever feel guilty for what you have that others do not? Do you ever feel obligated to eat more beans and rice and make do with old items so that someone in a third-world country might be able to actually eat a meal and own a shirt?
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Sometimes it's good to indulge and sometimes it's good to sacrifice. But both should be done out of our own calling from the Lord, not out of guilt or dissatisfaction over where He has placed us. Why has He chosen me to live in privileged United States, not wealthy compared to many around me yet certainly far better off than so many in the world? Why has He protected me from real persecution for my faith when so many others have died to defend His name? And yet, why have I always been forced to budget carefully, knowing my finances might prevent me from good things, when so many others seem ready to spend incredible (in my eyes) quantities of money on whatever they like? We spend too much of our time comparing ourselves and our lives with others out of dissatisfaction for what God has given us. What we have been given and where we have been placed is where we can most effectively serve the Lord.

Let Your Joy Be Visible

Romans 8:22
Philippians 1:3-6

joy in the little things

The Lord has given us a rich heritage; do we express our appreciation for His blessings in our everyday lives? Are we glad, are we rejoicing in the gift of being children of the King? All around us we see suffering and brokenness. We have experienced it ourselves. We know very well how little joy there is outside of Christ. Yet since we do have the joy of the Lord and every reason in heaven to rejoice, we need to express that so those we encounter can see the difference and ask us the reason for our joy and thus the reason for our hope (1 Peter 3:15). Take joy in the little things; choose to focus on the blessings; rejoice in the Lord and let that joy be visible as you go about your day today. Let the difference in your life be visible to everyone around you so they will wonder what causes the difference and choose for the Lord also.

Romans 6:10, Who Do You Live For?

Romans 6:10
Philippians 2:5-11

Who do you live for? It's easy enough to live for God when I'm receiving His blessings; it's much more difficult when I have to struggle with something He's asked me to do, such as forgiving someone who's hurt me, loving someone who's unlovable, or acting gracious toward someone who's rude and difficult to please. Then the choice to live for God becomes an act of the will and a plea for His help. Jesus Christ endured it all and much more besides. In the process He chose humility even though He rightfully could have asserted His Kingship. I don't have that right, so it's unreasonable for me to respond with significantly less humility than my Lord Jesus. I need to choose for humility because Jesus did and He is the One I am trying to imitate. He chose in both the easy times and the difficult times to live for God. How can I choose for less?

Contentment

Philippians 4:11-13

My husband and I are trying to live simply. It's not easy to do: I look around our home and I can recognize that we are quite wealthy. I have to put it back into perspective, acknowledging that we live in a wealthy nation and would not be able to relate with the people around us without owning many of the things that we do own. We need two cars, for instance, not because we "need" them but because my husband wouldn't be able to do his job without one and I wouldn't be able to get together with other people during his work hours without a second vehicle. We originally signed up for facebook because people we felt it was important to interact with were using fb and said it was really the best way by far for us to interact with them. Other things we've chosen not to buy at this time, such as a large tv, because they don't fit into the mission and lifestyle we feel God has called us to live.


I think the core of simplicity lies in recognizing what God has called you to and getting rid of everything that distracts you from that. I could feel uncomfortable with our wealth if I compared it to what someone in a third world country has or if I used our position as an excuse to completely ignore the plight of those who really don't have enough. I also could feel discontent if I compared our poverty with the wealth of those who own large homes, lots of land, plenty of everything, and the biggest and best of everything. But neither attitude glorifies God. He has put us in this particular position so we can reach out to a particular set of people and part of being good stewards of the things He has blessed us with is being content exactly where He has placed us.