What God Asks Of Us
It’s morning and as usual I grab my cup of coffee, sit down at our dining room table and begin to read the devotion for the day. I like routine. I look at my collection of Oswald Chambers, Smith Wigglesworth, and Rick Renner, and ask myself, “I wonder which one will inspire me today.”
I reread the title again, to…be…like…Jesus.
A thought rushes my mind of how difficult this is becoming in the world today. I think about my kids, who are all teenagers, and wonder what life will look like for them not in 20 years, but just in 5 short years. Life changes quickly and somehow as mothers we feel we have to complete the manual of parenting before the timer goes off.
Wait. There’s a parent manual?
I dig into the devotion for the day and read Wigglesworth’s words:
“In Christ, we have encountered divine resurrection touches. In the greatest work God ever did on the face of the earth.”
I pause and think about those words “greatest work” and “ever did”. I think about what would life look like during that time having to make a choice to follow a Savior down the Via Dolorosa or would He write words in the sand as I hold a stone in my hand.
Jesus died and rose again for you and for me. Despite how ugly things look around us, we must continue to rejoice in the greatest work He ever did.
I continue reading:
“Christ was raised from the dead by the operation of the power of God. As the resurrection of Christ operates in our hearts, it will dethrone wrong things and will build right things”.
Did you catch that?
We can wonder what our world is becoming, why our kids seem to fall into temptation, or why we feel like giving up in life. It’s not until we get a hold of Christ and exchange what the New Living Translation says, a stubborn heart to a responsive heart.
And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. – Ezekiel 36:26
It’s a heart issue. Until the heart is right, wrong decisions that go against His Word and Resurrection, is what we will have to endure as long as we live in this world.
Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings. – 1 Peter 5:9
He continues:
“Callousness will have to change; hardness will have to disappear; all evil thoughts will have to go. In the place of these will be lowliness of mind”.
When I exchanged my heart almost 35 years ago, I exchanged it for my sin. Now don’t think in all those 35 years I never had to make another exchange. Oh, no, this girl has a story. The key was the final exchange. The moment when I said no to sin and yes to God. When I did that I exchanged it for a place of lowliness of mind.
What’s lowliness of mind?
It’s a humbleness. A humility of mind. Not one that acts as a slave or is miserable because it stays quite amidst the sinful surroundings. To be humble does not mean that one has no abilities or achievements. It’s what the Bible says leads to honor.
The result of humility and the fear of Jehovah is riches and glory and life.” - Proverbs 22:4
Do I like where the world is going? No.
Do I like when the enemy wants to come and tempt my kids? No.
Do I like seeing people still live in their past continuing to make mistake after mistake? No.
But, I still love. I just hate the sin. I hate when we give room for an enemy to steal, kill, and destroy.
I don’t know, is there something wrong when we actually do what the Word says and love one another? (John 13:34)
I think about the women that have come to me in private and have told me horrendous life situations that have happened to them. How they walk into a church and feel as though they are looked down upon. Feel like they are not good enough, not worthy enough of forgiveness. Shame on us.
When we can’t be thankful for them taking the first step and praying that they would allow God to move into their heart condition, something is wrong.
When did we decide to play God and stop being love instead?
That’s all God asked of us – to love one another.
When we submit to love, we become useful to one another. And when we come to a place where we serve for pure love’s sake, we find the Master upon us and find out that we will never fail. Love never fails when it is appointed in us.
[clickToTweet tweet="Human love fails, but God’s love never fails." quote="Human love fails, but God’s love never fails."]
I challenge you to be lowly, be humble.
Be love instead.
You never know who God may bring your way to show love to.
Maybe we should add that to the parent manual.
