In Isaiah 7:18, a vivid description is given of the arrival of the Assyrian and Egyptian armies.
The metaphorical comparison is made to flies and bees that would invade the land. These swarms of insects can be seen and understood as a plague that was going to invade the land of Judah.
Also what stood out from this link was Everyday, we are confronted with news about the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic and the threatful consequences it holds in disrupting the equilibrium of our lives. This constant salvo can result in increased anxiety which has an immediate effect on our physical and mental well-being. The relentless feeling of threat and anxiety may have insidious effects on psychological, existential and communal trauma.
So it made me think that we need The Hope Of God in these times. So here what I found to help me
Bible Verses and Quotes about Hope - How is your hope? Does it bounce back after being hit? Does it cause you to doubt when you lose hope in a situation? God knows that we all struggle with finding and holding onto hope. When you are facing tests of faith, even the strongest Christians can find it a challenge to find hope.
When you need encouragement and refreshment for your soul, turn to these Scriptures from the Old and New Testaments that offer hope and encouragement. Everyone needs to be reminded from time to time of the hope that God, Jesus and the Bible offer to us in our daily lives.
A Prayer for Hope: Lord, I maintain my hope in You and I hold onto the assurance that what I am praying for is already accomplished in the name of Jesus. Your Word promises “no good thing does He withhold from those that walk uprightly” (Psalm 84:11). I wait upon You for Your definition of the “good thing” You will not withhold from me.
As David prayed in Psalm 18:1: “I love you, Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.”
Joshua 10:25...Joshua said to them, “Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Be strong and courageous. This is what the LORD will do to all the enemies you are going to fight.”
1 Peter 1:13...Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming.
1Peter 5:10 ...And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.
1 Thessalonians 1:3 ...We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Philippians 3:13-14...Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Proverbs 13:12...Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.
Jeremiah 29:11...For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
Then in tonight's meditation from my Abide Bible App the same scripture was mentioned.
And now, dear brothers and sisters, we want you to know what will happen to the believers who have died so you will not grieve like people who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with him the believers who have died.1 Thessalonians 4:13-14 NLT
POINT TO PONDER: Living with purpose is the only way to really live.
VERSE TO REMEMBER: “For David … served the purpose of God in his own generation.” ACTS 13:36 (NASB)
QUESTION TO CONSIDER: When will I take the time to write down my answers to life’s five great questions? When will I put my purpose on paper?
What Is a Life Purpose Statement?
*It’s a statement that expresses your shape. It reflects the unique ways God made you to serve him. Take your time writing out your life purpose statement. Don’t try to complete it in a single sitting, and don’t aim for perfection in your first draft; just write down your thoughts as fast as they come to you. It is always easier to edit than to create. Here are five questions you should consider as you prepare your statement:
Life’s Five Greatest Questions
What will be the center of my life?This is the question of worship. Who are you going to live for? What are you going to build your life around? You can center your life around your career, your family, a sport or hobby, money, having fun, or many other activities. These are all good things, but they don’t belong at the center of your life.
*How do you know when God is at the center of your life? When God is at the center, you worship. When he’s not, you worry. Worry is the warning light that God has been shoved to the sideline.
*The moment you put him back at the center, you will have peace again. The Bible says, “A sense of God’s wholeness … will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.”
What will be the character of my life?This is the question of discipleship. What kind of person will you be? God is far more interested in what you are than what you do.
*Make a list of the character qualities you want to work on and develop in your life. You might begin with the fruit of the Spirit or the Beatitudes.
What will be the contribution of my life? This is the question of service.What will be your ministry in the Body of Christ? Knowing your combination of spiritual gifts, heart, abilities, personality, and experiences (SHAPE), what would be your best role in the family of God?
*While you are shaped to serve others, even Jesus didn’t meet the needs of everyone while on earth. You have to choose whom you can best help, based on your shape. You need to ask, “Who do I have a desire to help most?” Jesus said, “I commissioned you to go out and to bear fruit, fruit that will last.”Each of us bears different fruit.
What will be the communication of my life? This is the question of your mission to unbelievers.Your mission statement is a part of your life purpose statement. It should include your commitment to share your testimony and the Good News with others. You should also list the life lessons and godly passions you feel God has given you to share with the world.
*As you grow in Christ, God may give you a special target group of people to focus on reaching. Be sure to add this to your statement.
*If you are a parent, part of your mission is to raise your children to know Christ, to help them understand his purposes for their lives, and to send them out on their mission in the world. You might include Joshua’s statement in yours: “As for me and my family, we will serve the LORD.”
*Of course, our lives must support and validate the message we communicate. Before most unbelievers accept the Bible as credible they want to know that we are credible. That is why the Bible says, “Be sure that you live in a way that brings honor to the Good News of Christ.”
What will be the community of my life? This is the question of fellowship.How will you demonstrate your commitment to other believers and connection to the family of God?
*To which church family will you be joined as a functioning member?
*The more you mature, the more you will love the Body of Christ and want to sacrifice for it. The Bible says, “Christ loved the church and gave his life for it.”17 You should include an expression of your love for God’s church in your statement.
As you consider your answers to these questions, include any Scriptures that speak to you about each of these purposes. There are many in this book. It may take you weeks or months to craft your life purpose statement just the way you want it.
In addition to writing a detailed life purpose statement, it is also helpful to have a shorter statement or slogan that summarizes the five purposes for your life in a way that’s memorable and inspires you. Then you can remind yourself daily.
Solomon advised, “It will be good to keep these things in mind so that you are ready to repeat them."
Here are a few examples:
“My life purpose is to worship Christ with my heart, serve him with my shape, fellowship with his family, grow like him in character, and fulfill his mission in the world so he receives glory.”
“My life purpose is to be a member of Christ’s family, a model of his character, a minister of his grace, a messenger of his word, and a magnifier of his glory.”
“My life purpose is to love Christ, grow in Christ, share Christ, and serve Christ through his church, and to lead my family and others to do the same.”
“My life purpose is to make a great commitment to the Great Commandment and the Great Commission.”
“My goal is Christlikeness; my family is the church; my ministry is________; my mission is________; my motive is the glory of God.”
The Bible says, “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the LORD’S purpose that prevails.”Focus on God’s purposes for your life, not your plans, since that’s what will last forever.
One day God will review your answers to these life questions. Did you put Jesus at the center of your life? Did you develop his character? Did you devote your life to serving others? Did you communicate his message and fulfill his mission? Did you love and participate in his family? These are the only issues that will count. As Paul said, “Our goal is to measure up to God’s plan for us.”
There is no greater epitaph than that statement! Imagine it chiseled on your tombstone: That you served God’s purpose in your generation. My prayer is that people will be able to say that about me when I die. It is also my prayer that people will say it about you, too. That is why I wrote this book for you.
That is what the purpose-driven life is all about. Neither past nor future generations can serve God’s purpose in this generation. Only we can. Like Esther, God created you “for such a time as this.”
Paul lived a purpose-driven life. He said, “I run straight to the goal with purpose in every step.” His only reason for living was to fulfill the purposes God had for him. He said, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” Paul was not afraid of either living or dying. Either way, he would fulfill God’s purposes. He couldn’t lose!
VERSE TO REMEMBER: “Unless you are faithful in small matters, you won’t be faithful in large ones.” LUKE 16:10A (NLT)
QUESTION TO CONSIDER: What has happened to me recently that I now realize was a test from God? What are the greatest matters God has entrusted to me?
After watching todays message from Rick. I realised it is important in what I believe!!!!
You cant change your behaviour without changing your beliefs
I liked what he said in the notes with the message.
He showed me God made me for His purpose......(Theism)
"For everything, absolutely everything,above and below, visible and invisible...everything got started in Him and finds its purpose in Him." Colossians 1:16 (MSG)
So it does matter what you believe...it shapes your worldview.
Be careful how you think; your life is shaped by your thoughts." Proverbs 4:23 (TEV)
"If people can't see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves; but when they attend to what He reveals, they are most blessed." Proverbs 29:18
"Always be ready to give a logical defense to anyone who asks you to account for the hope that is in you, but do it courteously and respectfully." 1Peter 3:15 (AMP)
So to strengthen my worldview I need to
*Learn What Is True.
*Discern What Is False.
*Turn From The World To The Word.
*Concern Yourself With God's Agenda.
"God will give you all you need from day to day if you make the Kingdom of God your primary Concern." Luke 12:31 (NLT)
Rick mentioned a guy called Chuck Colson. So i went onto amazon and i noticed a book called Walk Your Talk and the picture on the front cover was a guy walking on water...
Just something my Pastor said to me...lol
Rick Warren, Charles Colson, and Gerard Long are wise, Biblical critical thinkers. In 8 Video sessions, this trio of cultural scholars gently guide new believers across deep waters. They explore key issues such as life and death, good and evil, pain and suffering, truth, sin, reconciliation, history and the future - introducing new Christians to a different world view - one that views things the way God does.
VERSE TO REMEMBER: “Live life with a due sense of responsibility, not as those who do not know the meaning of life but as those who do.” EPHESIANS 5:15 (PH)
QUESTION TO CONSIDER: Which of the four activities will I begin in order to stay on track and balance God’s five purposes for my life?
Your life is a pentathlon of five purposes, which you must keep in balance. These purposes were practiced by the first Christians in Acts 2, explained by Paul in Ephesians 4, and modeled by Jesus in John 17, but they are summarized in the Great Commandment and the Great Commission of Jesus. These two statements sum up what this book is all about — God’s five purposes for your life:
1. “Love God with all your heart”:You were planned for God’s pleasure, so your purpose is to love God through worship.
2. “Love your neighbor as yourself”: You were shaped for serving, so your purpose is to show love for others through ministry.
3. “Go and make disciples”: You were made for a mission, so your purpose is to share God’s message through evangelism.
4. “baptize them into …”: You were formed for God’s family, so your purpose is to identify with his church through fellowship.
5. “teach them to do all things …”: You were created to become like Christ, so your purpose is to grow to maturity through discipleship.
*A great commitment to the Great Commandment and the Great Commission will make you a great Christian.
*Keeping these five purposes in balance is not easy. We all tend to overemphasize the purposes we feel most passionate about and neglect the others.
*But you can keep your life balanced and on track by joining a small group for accountability, by regularly evaluating your spiritual health, by recording your progress in a personal journal, and by passing on what you learn to others. These are four important activities for purpose-driven living. If you are serious about staying on track, you will need to develop these habits.
*Talk it through with a spiritual partner or small group.
*Give yourself a regular spiritual checkup.
Write down your progress in a journal.(Dawson Trotman used to say, “Thoughts disentangle themselves when they pass through your fingertips.”)
*I hope you will write about the stages of your spiritual journey in living a purpose-driven life.
*record your doubts, fears, and struggles with God. Our greatest lessons come out of pain, and the Bible says God keeps a record of our tears.
*In the middle of a painful experience, the psalmist wrote, “Write down for the coming generation what the LORD has done, so that people not yet born will praise him.” You owe it to future generations to preserve the testimony of how God helped you fulfill his purposes on earth. It is a witness that will continue to speak long after you’re in heaven.
Pass on what you know to others.
It’s All for God’s Glory.
Jesus told his Father what he had been doing for the last three years: preparing his disciples to live for God’s purposes. He helped them to know and love God (worship), taught them to love each other (fellowship), gave them the Word so they could grow to maturity (discipleship), showed them how to serve (ministry), and sent them out to tell others (mission). Jesus modeled a purpose-driven life, and he taught others how to live it, too. That was the “work” that brought glory to God.
*Today God calls each of us to the same work. Not only does he want us to live out his purposes, he also wants us to help others do the same.
*This is what purpose-driven living is all about. Regardless of your age, the rest of your life can be the best of your life, and you can start living on purpose today.
POINT TO PONDER: The Great Commission is my commission.
VERSE TO REMEMBER: “Send us around the world with the news of your saving power and your eternal plan for all mankind.” PSALM 67:2 (LB)
QUESTION TO CONSIDER: What steps can I take to prepare to go on a short-term missions experience in the next year?
THE GREAT COMMISSION IS YOUR COMMISSION.
*You have a choice to make. You will be either a world-class Christian or a worldly Christian.
*Worldly Christians look to God primarily for personal fulfillment. They are saved, but self-centered. They love to attend concerts and enrichment seminars, but you would never find them at a missions conference because they aren’t interested. Their prayers focus on their own needs, blessings, and happiness. It’s a “me-first” faith: How can God make my life more comfortable? They want to use God for their purposes instead of being used for his purposes.
*In contrast, World-class Christians know they were saved to serve and made for a mission. They are eager to receive a personal assignment and excited about the privilege of being used by God. World-class Christians are the only fully alive people on the planet. Their joy, confidence, and enthusiasm are contagious because they know they’re making a difference. They wake up each morning expecting God to work through them in fresh ways.
*Which type of Christian do you want to be?
*God invites you to participate in the greatest, largest, most diverse, and most significant cause in history — his kingdom. History is his story.
*He’s building his family for eternity. Nothing matters more, and nothing will last as long. From the book of Revelation we know that God’s global mission will be accomplished.
*Someday the Great Commission will be the Great Completion. In heaven an enormous crowd of people from “every race, tribe, nation, and language”2 will one day stand before Jesus Christ to worship him.
*Getting involved as a world-class Christian will allow you to experience a little of what heaven will be like in advance.
*It has never been easier in history to fulfill your commission to go to the whole world.
*The great barriers are no longer distance, cost, or transportation.
*The only barrier is the way we think. To be a world-class Christian you must make some mental shifts. Your perspective and attitudes must change.
How to Think Like a World-Class Christian
*Shift from self-centered thinking to other-centered thinking. The Bible says, “My friends, stop thinking like children. Think like mature people.”
*This is the first step to becoming a world-class Christian. Children only think of themselves; grown-ups think of others. God commands, “Don’t think only about your own affairs, but be interested in others, too.”
*Of course, this is a difficult mental shift because we’re naturally self-absorbed and almost all advertising encourages us to think of ourselves.
*The only way we can make this paradigm switch is by a moment-by-moment dependence on God. Fortunately he doesn’t leave us to struggle on our own. “God has given us his Spirit. That’s why we don’t think the same way that the people of this world think.”
*Begin asking the Holy Spirit to help you to think of the spiritual need of unbelievers whenever you talk to them. With practice you can develop the habit of praying silent “breath prayers” for those you encounter. Say, “Father, help me to understand what is keeping this person from knowing you.”
*Your goal is to figure out where others are in their spiritual journey and then do whatever will bring them a step closer to knowing Christ. You can learn how to do this by adopting the mind-set of Paul, who said, “I don’t think about what would be good for me but about what would be good for many people so that they might be saved.”
Shift from local thinking to global thinking.
*God is a global God. He has always cared about the entire world. “God so loved the world….”
*Prayer is the most important tool for your mission in the world.
*People may refuse our love or reject our message, but they are defenseless against our prayers.
*Like an intercontinental missile, you can aim a prayer at a person’s heart whether you are ten feet or 10,000 miles away.
*What should you pray for? The Bible tells us to pray for opportunities to witness, for courage to speak up, for those who will believe, for the rapid spread of the message, and for more workers.
*Prayer makes you a partner with others around the world. You should also pray for missionaries and everyone else involved in the global harvest. Paul told his prayer partners, “You are also joining to help us when you pray for us.”
*Another way to develop global thinking is to read and watch the news with “Great Commission eyes.”
*Wherever there is change or conflict, you can be sure that God will use it to bring people to him.
*People are most receptive to God when they are under tension or in transition.
*Because the rate of change is increasing in our world, more people are open to hearing the Good News now than ever before.
*The best way to switch to global thinking is to just get up and go on a short-term mission project to another country!
*While not everyone has the missionary gift, every Christian is called to be on a mission to all four groups in some way. Are you an Acts 1:8 Christian?
Shift from “here and now” thinking to eternal thinking.
*To make the most of your time on earth, you must maintain an eternal perspective. This will keep you from majoring on minor issues and help you distinguish between what’s urgent and what’s ultimate.
*Paul said, “We fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
*So much of what we waste our energy on will not matter even a year from now, much less for eternity.
*Don’t trade your life for temporary things. Jesus said, “Anyone who lets himself be distracted from the work I plan for him is not fit for the Kingdom of God.”
*Paul warned, “Deal as sparingly as possible with the things the world thrusts on you. This world as you see it is on its way out.”
*What are you allowing to stand in the way of your mission? What’s keeping you from being a world-class Christian? Whatever it is, let it go. “Let us strip off anything that slows us down or holds us back.”
*Whether it was Sarah claiming she was too old to be used by God or Jeremiah claiming he was too young, God rejected their excuses. “ ‘Don’t say that,’ the LORD replied, ‘for you must go wherever I send you and say whatever I tell you. And don’t be afraid of the people, for I will be with you and take care of you.’”
*Maybe you have believed that you needed a special “call” from God, and you have been waiting for some supernatural feeling or experience. But God has already stated his call repeatedly.
*We are all called to fulfill God’s five purposes for our lives: to worship, to fellowship, to grow like Christ, to serve, and to be on mission with God in the world.
*God doesn’t want to use just some of his people; he wants to use all of his people. We are all called to be on-mission for God. He wants his whole church to take the whole gospel to the whole world.
*Many Christians have missed God’s plan for their lives because they have never even asked God if he wanted them to serve as a missionary somewhere.
*Whether out of fear or ignorance, they have automatically closed their minds to the possibility of serving as a resident missionary in a cross-cultural location.
*If you are tempted to say no, you ought to check out all the different ways and possibilities that are now available (this will surprise you), and you ought to seriously pray and ask God what he wants from you in the years ahead.
*Untold thousands of resident missionaries are desperately needed at this critical point in history, when so many doors are opening wide like never before.
*If you want to be like Jesus, you must have a heart for the whole world. You can’t be satisfied with just your family and friends coming to Christ.
*There are over 6 billion people on earth, and Jesus wants all his lost children found. Jesus said, “Only those who throw away their lives for my sake and for the sake of the Good News will ever know what it means to really live!”
The Great Commission is your commission, and doing your part is the secret to living a life of significance.
"For the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any double-edged sword, penetrating as far as the separation of soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart." Hebrews 4:12 (CSB)
God's Powerful Word
This meditation from Hebrews 4 will help you appreciate the manual you seek is in your hands and heart. It is the piercing power of God’s word.
Receive this closing benediction and blessing for you to remember that the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any double-edged sword. It penetrates as far as the separation of your soul and spirit, joints and marrow. And it is able to judge your thoughts and intentions of your heart. So may you encounter the peaceful rest of Christ, the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and the piercing words of God now and forever, Amen.
POINT TO PONDER: God wants to say something to the world through me.
VERSE TO REMEMBER: “Be ready at all times to answer anyone who asks you to explain the hope you have in you, but do it with gentleness and respect.” 1 PETER 3:15B–16 (TEV)
QUESTION TO CONSIDER: As I reflect on my personal story, who does God want me to share it with?
Your Life Message includes your testimony.
*Your testimony is the story of how Christ has made a difference in your life.
*Jesus said, “You will be my witnesses,”4 not “You will be my attorney.”
*He wants you to share your story with others. Sharing your testimony is an essential part of your mission on earth because it is unique.
*Actually, your personal testimony is more effective than a sermon, because unbelievers see pastors as professional salesmen, but see you as a “satisfied customer,” so they give you more credibility.
*Personal stories are also easier to relate to than principles, and people love to hear them. They capture our attention, and we remember them longer. Unbelievers would probably lose interest if you started quoting theologians, but they have a natural curiosity about experiences they’ve never had. Shared stories build a relational bridge that Jesus can walk across from your heart to theirs.*Another value of your testimony is that it bypasses intellectual defenses. Many people who won’t accept the authority of the Bible will listen to a humble, personal story. That is why on six different occasions Paul used his testimony to share the gospel instead of quoting Scripture.
*The Bible says, “Be ready at all times to answer anyone who asks you to explain the hope you have in you, but do it with gentleness and respect.”
* The best way to “be ready” is to write out your testimony and then memorize the main points. Divide it into four parts: 1. What my life was like before I met Jesus 2. How I realized I needed Jesus 3. How I committed my life to Jesus 4. The difference Jesus has made in my life
*You should make a list of all the problems, circumstances, and crises that God has brought you through.
Your Life Message includes your life lessons.
*The second part of your life message is the truths that God has taught you from experiences with him.
*Sadly, we never learn from a lot that happens to us. Of the Israelites, the Bible says, “Over and over God rescued them, but they never learned — until finally their sins destroyed them.”8 You have probably met people like that.
*While it is wise to learn from experience, it is wiser to learn from the experiences of others.
*There isn’t enough time to learn everything in life by trial and error. We must learn from the life lessons of one another.
*Write down the major life lessons you have learned so you can share them with others.
*We should be grateful Solomon did this, because it gave us the books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, which are filled with practical lessons on living.
*Imagine how much needless frustration could be avoided if we learned from each other’s life lessons.
*Mature people develop the habit of extracting lessons from everyday experiences. I urge you to make a list of your life lessons.
* You haven’t really thought about them unless you have written them down.
Here are a few questions to jog your memory and get you started:
*What has God taught me from failure?
* What has God taught me from a lack of money?
*What has God taught me from pain or sorrow or depression? *What has God taught me through waiting?
*What has God taught me through illness?
*What has God taught me from disappointment?
*What have I learned from my family, my church, my relationships, my small group, and my critics?
Your Life Message includes sharing your godly passions.
*You cannot keep yourself from talking about what you care about most. Jesus said, “A man’s heart determines his speech.”
*Two examples are David, who said, “My zeal for God and his work burns hot within me,” and Jeremiah, who said, “Your message burns in my heart and bones, and I cannot keep silent.”
*God gives some people a godly passion to champion a cause. It’s often a problem they personally experienced such as abuse, addiction, infertility, depression, a disease, or some other difficulty.
*Sometimes God gives people a passion to speak up for a group of others who can’t speak for themselves: the unborn, the persecuted, the poor, the imprisoned, the mistreated, the disadvantaged, and those who are denied justice. The Bible is filled with commands to defend the defenseless.
*God uses passionate people to further his kingdom. He may give you a godly passion for strengthening families.
*You may be given a godly passion for reaching a particular group of people with the gospel: businessmen, teenagers, foreign exchange students, young mothers, or those with a particular hobby or sport.
Your Life Message includes the Good News.
*What is the Good News? “The Good News shows how God makes people right with himself — that it begins and ends with faith.”
*The Good News is that when we trust God’s grace to save us through what Jesus did, our sins are forgiven, we get a purpose for living, and we are promised a future home in heaven.
*Whenever you feel apathetic about your mission in the world, spend some time thinking about what Jesus did for you on the cross.
*We must care about unbelievers because God does. Love leaves no choice. The Bible says, “There is no fear in love; perfect love drives out all fear.”
*A parent will run into a burning building to save a child because their love for that child is greater than their fear.
*If you’ve been afraid to share the Good News with those around you, ask God to fill your heart with his love for them. The Bible says, “[God] does not want anyone to be lost, but he wants all people to change their hearts and lives.” As long as you know one person who doesn’t know Christ, you must keep praying for them, serving them in love, and sharing the Good News. And as long as there is one person in your community who isn’t in the family of God, your church must keep reaching out.
*The church that doesn’t want to grow is saying to the world, “You can go to hell.” What are you willing to do so that the people you know will go to heaven? Invite them to church? Share your story? Give them this book? Take them a meal? Pray for them every day until they are saved?
*Your mission field is all around you. Don’t miss the opportunities God is giving you.
*The Bible says, “Make the most of your chances to tell others the Good News. Be wise in all your contacts with them.”
*In this book you have learned God’s five purposes for your life on earth:
1.He made you to be a member of his family,
2. A model of his character,
3. A magnifier of his glory,
4. A minister of his grace, and a
5. A messenger of his Good News to others.
*Of these five purposes, the fifth can only be done on earth. The other four you will keep doing in eternity in some way.
That’s why spreading the Good News is so important; you only have a short time to share your life message and fulfill your mission.
Step one: We admitted we were powerless over or addictions and compulsive behaviours, that our lives had become unmanageable.
"For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out (Romans 7:18)
VERSE TO REMEMBER: “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” MATTHEW 28:19–20 (NIV)
QUESTION TO CONSIDER: What fears have kept me from fulfilling the mission God made me to accomplish? What keeps me from telling others the Good News?
Our English word mission comes from the Latin word for “sending.” Being a Christian includes being sent into the world as a representative of Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”
* Your mission is a continuation of Jesus’ mission on earth. As his followers, we are to continue what Jesus started. Jesus calls us not only to come to him, but to go for him. Your mission is so significant that Jesus repeated it five times, in five different ways, in five different books of the Bible.7 It is as if he was saying, “I really want you to get this!” Study these five commissions of Jesus and you will learn the details of your mission on earth — the when, where, why, and how.
*In the Great Commission Jesus said, “Go to the people of all nations and make them my disciples. Baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teach them to do everything I have told you.”8 This commission was given to every follower of Jesus, not to pastors and missionaries alone.
*This is your commission from Jesus, and it is not optional. These words of Jesus are not the Great Suggestion. If you are a part of God’s family, your mission is mandatory. To ignore it would be disobedience.
*You may have been unaware that God holds you responsible for the unbelievers who live around you. The Bible says, “You must warn them so they may live. If you don’t speak out to warn the wicked to stop their evil ways, they will die in their sin. But I will hold you responsible for their death.”9 You are the only Christian some people will ever know, and your mission is to share Jesus with them.
*Your mission is a wonderful privilege. Although it is a big responsibility, it is also an incredible honor to be used by God. Paul said, “God has given us the privilege of urging everyone to come into his favor and be reconciled to him.”
*God wants you to share the Good News where you are. As a student, mother, preschool teacher, salesman, or manager or whatever you do, you should continually look for people God places in your path with whom you can share the gospel.
*Your mission gives your life meaning.
*If you fail to fulfill your God-given mission on earth, you will have wasted the life God gave you. Paul said, “My life is worth nothing unless I use it for doing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus — the work of telling others the Good News about God’s wonderful kindness and love.”
* There are people on this planet whom only you will be able to reach, because of where you live and what God has made you to be.
*If just one person will be in heaven because of you, your life will have made a difference for eternity.
God’s timetable for history’s conclusion is connected to the completion of our commission.
*When the disciples wanted to talk about prophecy, Jesus quickly switched the conversation to evangelism. He wanted them to concentrate on their mission in the world. He said in essence, “The details of my return are none of your business.
*What is your business is the mission I’ve given you. Focus on that!”
*Speculating on the exact timing of Christ’s return is futile, because Jesus said, “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”
*Since Jesus said he didn’t know the day or hour, why should you try to figure it out? What we do know for sure is this: Jesus will not return until everyone God wants to hear the Good News has heard it. Jesus said, “The Good News about God’s kingdom will be preached in all the world, to every nation. Then the end will come.”
*If you want Jesus to come back sooner, focus on fulfilling your mission, not figuring out prophecy.
*It is easy to get distracted and sidetracked from your mission because Satan would rather have you do anything besides sharing your faith. He will let you do all kinds of good things as long as you don’t take anyone to heaven with you.
*But the moment you become serious about your mission, expect the Devil to throw all kinds of diversions at you. When that happens, remember the words of Jesus: “Anyone who lets himself be distracted from the work I plan for him is not fit for the Kingdom of God.”
*To fulfill your mission will require that you abandon your agenda and accept God’s agenda for your life. You can’t just “tack it on” to all the other things you’d like to do with your life. You must say, like Jesus, “Father, … I want your will, not mine.”
*You yield your rights, expectations, dreams, plans, and ambitions to him. You stop praying selfish prayers like “God bless what I want to do.” Instead you pray, “God help me to do what you’re blessing!”
*If you will commit to fulfilling your mission in life no matter what it costs, you will experience the blessing of God in ways that few people ever experience. There is almost nothing God won’t do for the man or woman who is committed to serving the kingdom of God. Jesus has promised, “[God] will give you all you need from day to day if you live for him and make the Kingdom of God your primary concern.”
*“Save one more for Jesus! Save one more for Jesus!”
*If you want to be used by God, you must care about what God cares about; what he cares about most is the redemption of the people he made. He wants his lost children found! Nothing matters more to God; the Cross proves that. I pray that you will always be on the lookout to reach “one more for Jesus” so that when you stand before God one day, you can say, “Mission accomplished!”
POINT TO PONDER: God works best when I admit my weakness.
VERSE TO REMEMBER: “My grace is sufficient for you, my power is made perfect in weakness.” 2 CORINTHIANS 12:9A (NIV)
QUESTION TO CONSIDER: Am I limiting God’s power in my life by trying to hide my weaknesses? What do I need to be honest about in order to help others?
HIGHLIGHTS FROM BOOK :
*Everyone has weaknesses.
*You may also have uncontrollable circumstances that weaken you.
*The more important issue is what you do with these.
*Usually we deny our weaknesses, defend them, excuse them, hide them, and resent them. This prevents God from using them the way he desires.
*God has a different perspective on your weaknesses. He says, “My thoughts and my ways are higher than yours,”
*He often acts in ways that are the exact opposite of what we expect. We think that God only wants to use our strengths, but he also wants to use our weaknesses for his glory.
*The Bible says, “God purposely chose … what the world considers weak in order to shame the powerful.”2 Your weaknesses are not an accident. God deliberately allowed them in your life for the purpose of demonstrating his power through you.
*God has never been impressed with strength or self-sufficiency. In fact, he is drawn to people who are weak and admit it. Jesus regarded this recognition of our need as being “poor in spirit.” It’s the number one attitude he blesses.3
*A weakness, or “thorn” as Paul called it,4 is not a sin or a vice or a character defect that you can change,
Admit your weaknesses.
*Own up to your imperfections. Stop pretending to have it all together, and be honest about yourself. Instead of living in denial or making excuses, take the time to identify your personal weaknesses.
*If you want God to use you, you must know who God is and know who you are. Many Christians, especially leaders, forget the second truth: We’re only human! If it takes a crisis to get you to admit this, God won’t hesitate to allow it, because he loves you.
Be content with your weaknesses.
*Paul said, “I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may work through me. Since I know it is all for Christ’s good, I am quite content with my weaknesses.”
*At first this doesn’t make sense. We want to be freed from our weaknesses, not be content with them! But contentment is an expression of faith in the goodness of God. It says, “God, I believe you love me and know what’s best for me.”
*Paul gives us several reasons to be content with our inborn weaknesses. First, they cause us to depend on God. Referring to his own weakness, which God refused to take away, Paul said, “I am quite happy about ‘the thorn,’ … for when I am weak, then I am strong — the less I have, the more I depend on him.” Whenever you feel weak, God is reminding you to depend on him.
*Our weaknesses also prevent arrogance. They keep us humble. Paul said, “So I wouldn’t get a big head, I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations.”
*While strength breeds an independent spirit (“I don’t need anyone else”), our limitations show how much we need each other.
*Evangelist Vance Havner quipped, “Christians, like snowflakes, are frail, but when they stick together they can stop traffic.”
*God wants you to have a Christlike ministry on earth. That means other people are going to find healing in your wounds.
*Your greatest life messages and your most effective ministry will come out of your deepest hurts. The things you’re most embarrassed about, most ashamed of, and most reluctant to share are the very tools God can use most powerfully to heal others.
*Moses’ weakness was his temper. It caused him to murder an Egyptian, strike the rock he was supposed to speak to, and break the tablets of the Ten Commandments. Yet God transformed Moses into “the humblest man on earth.”
1. Gideon’s weakness was low self-esteem and deep insecurities, but God transformed him into a “mighty man of valor.”12
2. Abraham’s weakness was fear. Not once, but twice, he claimed his wife was his sister to protect himself. But God transformed Abraham into “the father of those who have faith.”
3. Impulsive, weak-willed Peter became “a rock,”
4. The adulterer David became “a man after my own heart,”
5. John, one of the arrogant “Sons of Thunder,” became the “Apostle of Love.”
*The list could go on and on. “It would take too long to recount the stories of the faith of … Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and all the prophets…. their weakness was turned to strength.”
Honestly share your weaknesses.
*Ministry begins with vulnerability. The more you let down your guard, take off your mask, and share your struggles, the more God will be able to use you in serving others.
*Paul modeled vulnerability in all his letters.
*Of course, vulnerability is risky. It can be scary to lower your defenses and open up your life to others. When you reveal your failures, feelings, frustrations, and fears, you risk rejection. But the benefits are worth the risk. Vulnerability is emotionally liberating. Opening up relieves stress, defuses your fears, and is the first step to freedom.
*We have already seen that God “gives grace to the humble,” but many misunderstand humility. Humility is not putting yourself down or denying your strengths; rather, it is being honest about your weaknesses.
*The more honest you are, the more of God’s grace you get. You will also receive grace from others.
*Vulnerability is an endearing quality; we are naturally drawn to humble people. Pretentiousness repels but authenticity attracts, and vulnerability is the pathway to intimacy.
*This is why God wants to use your weaknesses, not just your strengths. If all people see are your strengths, they get discouraged and think, “Well, good for her, but I’ll never be able to do that.” But when they see God using you in spite of your weaknesses, it encourages them to think, “Maybe God can use me!”
*Our strengths create competition, but our weaknesses create community.
Glory in your weaknesses.
*Paul said, “I am going to boast only about how weak I am and how great God is to use such weakness for his glory.”
*Instead of posing as self-confident and invincible, see yourself as a trophy of grace.
*When Satan points out your weaknesses, agree with him and fill your heart with praise for Jesus, who “understands every weakness of ours,”22 and for the Holy Spirit, who “helps us in our weakness.”
*God turns a strength into a weakness in order to use us even more. Jacob was a manipulator who spent his life scheming and then running from the consequences. One night he wrestled with God and said, “I’m not letting go until you bless me.” God said, “All right,” but then he grabbed Jacob’s thigh and dislocated his hip. What is the significance of that? God touched Jacob’s strength (the thigh muscle is the strongest in the body) and turned it into a weakness. From that day forward, Jacob walked with a limp so he could never run away again. It forced him to lean on God whether he liked it or not. If you want God to bless you and use you greatly, you must be willing to walk with a limp the rest of your life, because God uses weak people.
POINT TO PONDER: To be a servant I must think like a servant.
VERSE TO REMEMBER: “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus.” PHILIPPIANS 2:5 (NIV)
QUESTION TO CONSIDER: Am I usually more concerned about being served or finding ways to serve others?
HIGHLIGHTS FROM BOOK :
* SERVICE STARTS IN YOUR MIND.
*To be a servant requires a mental shift, a change in your attitudes. God is always more interested in why we do something than in what we do. Attitudes count more than achievements.
*Real servants serve God with a mind-set of five attitudes.
1. Servants think more about others than about themselves.
* “Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.”2 This is what it means to “lose your life” — forgetting yourself in service to others. When we stop focusing on our own needs, we become aware of the needs around us.
*Jesus “emptied himself by taking on the form of a servant.” When was the last time you emptied yourself for someone else’s benefit?
*You can’t be a servant if you’re full of yourself. It’s only when we forget ourselves that we do the things that deserve to be remembered.
*Unfortunately, a lot of our service is often self-serving. We serve to get others to like us, to be admired, or to achieve our own goals. That is manipulation, not ministry.
*Some people try to use service as a bargaining tool with God: “I’ll do this for you God, if you’ll do something for me.” Real servants don’t try to use God for their purposes. They let God use them for his purposes.
*Thinking like a servant is difficult because it challenges the basic problem of my life: I am, by nature, selfish. I think most about me. That’s why humility is a daily struggle, a lesson I must relearn over and over.
2. Servants think like stewards, not owners.
*Servants remember that God owns it all.
*Money has the greatest potential to replace God in your life. More people are sidetracked from serving by materialism than by anything else.
*When Jesus is your Master, money serves you, but if money is your master, you become its slave.
3. Servants think about their work, not what others are doing.
*They don’t compare, criticize, or compete with other servants or ministries. They’re too busy doing the work God has given them.
*We are all on the same team; our goal is to make God look good, not ourselves; we have been given different assignments; and we are all uniquely shaped. Paul said, “We will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better and another worse. We have far more interesting things to do with our lives. Each of us is an original.”
*There’s no place for petty jealousy between servants. When you’re busy serving, you don’t have time to be critical. Any time spent criticizing others is time that could be spent ministering.
*When Martha complained to Jesus that Mary was not helping with the work, she lost her servant’s heart. Real servants don’t complain of unfairness, don’t have pity-parties, and don’t resent those not serving. They just trust God and keep serving.
*It is not our job to evaluate the Master’s other servants. The Bible says, “Who are you to criticize someone else’s servant? The Lord will determine whether his servant has been successful.”
*It is also not our job to defend ourselves against criticism. Let your Master handle it."
4. Servants base their identity in Christ.
*Because they remember they are loved and accepted by grace, servants don’t have to prove their worth.
*They willingly accept jobs that insecure people would consider “beneath” them.
*If you’re going to be a servant, you must settle your identity in Christ. Only secure people can serve. Insecure people are always worrying about how they appear to others.
*The more insecure you are, the more you will want people to serve you, and the more you will need their approval.
*If anyone had the chance of a lifetime to flaunt his connections and “name-drop,” it was James, the half-brother of Jesus. He had the credentials of growing up with Jesus as his brother. Yet, in introducing his letter, he simply referred to himself as “a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
5. Servants think of ministry as an opportunity, not an obligation.
*They “serve the LORD with gladness.”
*Why do they serve with gladness? Because they love the Lord, they’re grateful for his grace, they know serving is the highest use of life, and they know God has promised a reward. Jesus promised, “The Father will honor and reward anyone who serves me.”
*It doesn’t matter what your age is, God will use you if you will begin to act and think like a servant.
*Albert Schweitzer said, “The only really happy people are those who have learned how to serve.”
VERSE TO REMEMBER: “If you give even a cup of cold water to one of the least of my followers, you will surely be rewarded.” MATTHEW 10:42 (NLT)
QUESTION TO CONSIDER: Which of the six characteristics of real servants offers the greatest challenge to me?
HIGHLIGHTS FROM BOOK :
*Real servants make themselves available to serve.
*Servants don’t fill up their time with other pursuits that could limit their availability. They want to be ready to jump into service when called on.
*Much like a soldier, a servant must always be standing by for duty: “No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him.”
* If you only serve when it’s convenient for you, you’re not a real servant. Real servants do what’s needed, even when it’s inconvenient.
*Are you available to God anytime? Can he mess up your plans without you becoming resentful?
*Being a servant means giving up the right to control your schedule and allowing God to interrupt it whenever he needs to.
*If you will remind yourself at the start of every day that you are God’s servant, interruptions won’t frustrate you as much, because your agenda will be whatever God wants to bring into your life.
*Servants see interruptions as divine appointments for ministry and are happy for the opportunity to practice serving.
*Real servants pay attention to needs. Servants are always on the lookout for ways to help others. When they see a need, they seize the moment to meet it, just as the Bible commands us: “Whenever we have the opportunity, we have to do what is good for everyone, especially for the family of believers.”
*We miss many occasions for serving because we lack sensitivity and spontaneity. Great opportunities to serve never last long. They pass quickly, sometimes never to return again. You may only get one chance to serve that person, so take advantage of the moment. “Never tell your neighbors to wait until tomorrow if you can help them now.”
*Real servants do their best with what they have.
*Servants don’t make excuses, procrastinate, or wait for better circumstances.
*Servants never say, “One of these days” or “When the time is right.” They just do what needs to be done.
*The Bible says, “If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never get anything done.”
*God expects you to do what you can, with what you have, wherever you are.
*Less-than-perfect service is always better than the best intention.
*One reason many people never serve is that they fear they are not good enough to serve.
*They have believed the lie that serving God is only for superstars.
*Some churches have fostered this myth by making “excellence” an idol, which makes people of average talent hesitant to get involved.
*You may have heard it said, “If it can’t be done with excellence, don’t do it.” Well, Jesus never said that!
*The truth is, almost everything we do is done poorly when we first start doing it — that’s how we learn.
*At Saddleback Church, we practice the “good enough” principle: It doesn’t have to be perfect for God to use and bless it.
*We would rather involve thousands of regular folks in ministry than have a perfect church run by a few elites.
*Real servants do every task with equal dedication. Whatever they do, servants “do it with all their heart.”The size of the task is irrelevant. The only issue is, does it need to be done?
*The Bible says, “If you think you are too important to help someone in need, you are only fooling yourself. You are really a nobody.”7 It is in these small services that we grow like Christ.
*Jesus specialized in menial tasks that everyone else tried to avoid: washing feet, helping children, fixing breakfast, and serving lepers. Nothing was beneath him, because he came to serve. It wasn’t in spite of his greatness that he did these things, but because of it, and he expects us to follow his example.
*Small tasks often show a big heart. Your servant’s heart is revealed in little acts that others don’t think of doing,
*you develop a servant’s heart when you’re willing to do anything needed.
*Real servants are faithful to their ministry. Servants finish their tasks, fulfill their responsibilities, keep their promises, and complete their commitments. They don’t leave a job half undone, and they don’t quit when they get discouraged. They are trustworthy and dependable.
*Faithfulness has always been a rare quality. Most people don’t know the meaning of commitment.
*They make commitments casually, then break them for the slightest reason without any hesitation, remorse, or regret.
*Can you be counted on by others? Are there promises you need to keep, vows you need to fulfill, or commitments you need to honor?
*Imagine what it will feel like one day to have God say to you, “Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together!”12
*By the way, faithful servants never retire. They serve faithfully as long as they’re alive. You can retire from your career, but you will never retire from serving God
*Real servants maintain a low profile. Servants don’t promote or call attention to themselves. Instead of acting to impress and dressing for success, they “put on the apron of humility, to serve one another.”
*Paul exposed a kind of service that appears to be spiritual but is really just a put-on, a show, an act to get attention. He called it “eyeservice”14 — serving in order to impress people with how spiritual we are. This was a sin of the Pharisees. They turned helping others, giving, and even prayer into a performance for others.
*Jesus hated this attitude and warned, “When you do good deeds, don’t try to show off. If you do, you won’t get a reward from your Father in heaven.”15
*As Paul said, “If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.”
*don’t be discouraged when your service is unnoticed or taken for granted. Keep on serving God! “Throw yourselves into the work of the Master, confident that nothing you do for him is a waste of time or effort.”Even the smallest service is noticed by God and will be rewarded.
*Remember the words of Jesus: “If, as my representatives, you give even a cup of cold water to a little child, you will surely be rewarded.”
it says Living by the law.. not by Christ is a false gospel. I believe this is what Stevie meant about false religion. The meditation was about Galatians 2:20
"I have been crucified with Christ and no longer live, but Christ lives in me."
So I opened my Bible at the book of Galatians to see what truth comes up
*Not acting in line with the truth of the gospel!
I am trying to do, in my own strength what Christ alone can do.
Because I am trusting in myself I have failed on the good.
If I trust in Christ, He could not have failed
Come and confess every failure of temper, every failure of the tongue however small, every failure owing to the absence of the Holy Spink and. presence of the power of self.
I am believing in the law instead of "CHRIST".
The just shall live by faith, yet the law is not a faith
When I read below what Joyce Meyer had written, it pointed out why I was Restless, Irritable, and Discounted. My spirit was at dis-ease with my flesh. So this is why it is important for me to write things in my journal. It might not make sense at first but it will.
My favourite quote I learned at Celebrate Recovery was "Thought unravel when they pass through the lips and fingertips".
Do your part
Before we can enjoy any real victory over sin and experience change in our behavior, we must learn that only God can change us (see Galatians 3:2-5). We cannot perfect ourselves and when we try to do so we only become very frustrated.
God has called us to perfection and has given us perfect hearts, but the working out of it is a process that takes faith, patience, and time.
As we face the truth, admit our faults, and place our faith in God to change us we will see results but we must trust His timing. Things do not always happen when we think they should.
We are partners with God and we do have a part to play. Our part is to believe and obey any specific instruction God might give us; His part is to work the good thing He has placed inside of us to the outside of us where it can be seen and enjoyed by others and ourselves. When we get into "works of the flesh" (our energy trying to do God's job) we get frustrated.
God Himself frustrates, opposes, and defeats us until we humble ourselves and lean entirely on Him (see I Peter 5:5).
It took a long time, but I finally learned that every time I felt frustrated I had stopped trusting God and started trusting myself to accomplish whatever needed to be done at the time.
We received Christ totally by faith and that is the same way we must live our lives. We realize that we need to change and frequently become very disappointed with ourselves-even feel condemned-when we do not.
We are much better off to put all the energy we use trying to change ourselves into prayer and trust God to do what needs to be done.
By faith God is working in you and you will see wonderful changes, but you must turn the project of your perfection over to Him entirely. Let God be God in your life!
Instead of saying, "I'll never change," say, "God is working in me as I trust Him, and I believe I am getting better and better every day. God is strengthening me in my weaknesses and helping me overcome bad habits."
VERSE TO REMEMBER: “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.” 2 TIMOTHY 2:15 (NIV)
QUESTION TO CONSIDER: How can I make the best use of what God has given me?
HIGHLIGHTS FROM BOOK:
Discover Your Shape
*Examine your experiences and extract the lessons you have learned. Review your life and think about how it has shaped you.
*Moses told the Israelites, “Remember today what you have learned about the LORD through your experiences with him.” Forgotten experiences are worthless; that’s a good reason to keep a spiritual journal. Paul worried that the believers in Galatia would waste the pain they had been through. He said, “Were all your experiences wasted? I hope not!”
*We rarely see God’s good purpose in pain or failure or embarrassment while it is happening. When Jesus washed Peter’s feet, he said, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”6 Only in hindsight do we understand how God intended a problem for good.
*Extracting the lessons from your experiences takes time. I recommend that you take an entire weekend for a life review retreat, where you pause to see how God has worked in the various defining moments of your life and consider how he wants to use those lessons to help others. There are resources that can help you do this.
Accept and Enjoy Your Shape
*Since God knows what’s best for you, you should gratefully accept the way he has fashioned you. The Bible says, “What right have you, a human being, to cross-examine God? The pot has no right to say to the potter: ‘Why did you make me this shape?’ Surely a potter can do what he likes with the clay!”
*Your shape was sovereignly determined by God for his purpose, so you shouldn’t resent it or reject it. Instead of trying to reshape yourself to be like someone else, you should celebrate the shape God has given only to you. “Christ has given each of us special abilities — whatever he wants us to have out of his rich storehouse of gifts.”
*Part of accepting your shape is recognizing your limitations. Nobody is good at everything, and no one is called to be everything. We all have defined roles.
*Paul understood that his calling was not to accomplish everything or please everyone but to focus only on the particular ministry God had shaped him for. He said, “Our goal is to stay within the boundaries of God’s plan for us.”
*Your shape determines your specialty. When we try to overextend our ministry reach beyond what God shaped us for, we experience stress.
*Just as each runner in a race is given a different lane to run in, we must individually “run with patience the particular race that God has set before us.” Don’t be envious of the runner in the lane next to you; just focus on finishing your race.
*God wants you to enjoy using the shape he has given you. The Bible says, “Be sure to do what you should, for then you will enjoy the personal satisfaction of having done your work well, and you won’t need to compare yourself to anyone else.”
*Satan will try to steal the joy of service from you in a couple of ways: by tempting you to compare your ministry with others, and by tempting you to conform your ministry to the expectations of others. *Both are deadly traps that will distract you from serving in the ways God intended.
*Whenever you lose your joy in ministry, start by considering if either one of these temptations is the cause.
*The Bible warns us never to compare ourselves with others: “Do your own work well, and then you will have something to be proud of. But don’t compare yourself with others.”
*There are two reasons why you should never compare your shape, ministry, or the results of your ministry with anyone else.
*First, you will always be able to find someone who seems to be doing a better job than you and you will become discouraged. Or you will always be able to find someone who doesn’t seem as effective as you and you will get full of pride. Either attitude will take you out of service and rob you of your joy.
*You will find that people who do not understand your shape for ministry will criticize you and try to get you to conform to what they think you should be doing. Ignore them.
*Avoid comparisons, resist exaggerations, and seek only God’s commendation.
*One of the reasons Paul was used so greatly by God was that he refused to be distracted by criticism or by comparing his ministry with others or by being drawn into fruitless debates about his ministry.
*As John Bunyan said, “If my life is fruitless, it doesn’t matter who praises me, and if my life is fruitful, it doesn’t matter who criticizes me.”
Keep Developing your Shape
*Jesus’ parable of the talents illustrates that God expects us to make the most of what he gives us. We are to cultivate our gifts and abilities, keep our hearts aflame, grow our character and personality, and broaden our experiences so we will be increasingly more effective in our service.
*Paul told the Philippians to “keep on growing in your knowledge and understanding,” and he reminded Timothy, “Kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you.
*If you don’t exercise your muscles, they weaken and atrophy. In the same way, if you don’t utilize the abilities and skills God has given you, you will lose them.
*Jesus taught the parable of the talents to emphasize this truth. Referring to the servant who failed to use his one talent, the master said, “Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents.” Fail to use what you’ve been given and you’ll lose it. Use the ability you’ve got and God will increase it. Paul told Timothy, “Be sure to use the abilities God has given you…. Put these abilities to work.”
*Whatever gifts you have been given can be enlarged and developed through practice.
*Don’t settle for a half-developed gift. Stretch yourself and learn all you can.
*Concentrate on doing your best for God, work you won’t be ashamed of.
*Take advantage of every training opportunity to develop your shape and sharpen your serving skills.
VERSE TO REMEMBER: “God has given each of you some special abilities; be sure to use them to help each other, passing on to others God’s many kinds of blessings.” 1 PETER 4:10 (LB)
QUESTION TO CONSIDER: What God-given ability or personal experience can I offer to my church?
HIGHLIGHTS FROM BOOK :
*Woodworkers know that it’s easier to work with the grain rather than against it. In the same way, when you are forced to minister in a manner that is “out of character” for your temperament, it creates tension and discomfort, requires extra effort and energy, and produces less than the best results.
*This is why mimicking someone else’s ministry never works. You don’t have their personality. Besides, God made you to be you!
*You can learn from the examples of others, but you must filter what you learn through your own shape.
*Like stained glass, our different personalities reflect God’s light in many colors and patterns. This blesses the family of God with depth and variety. It also blesses us personally. It feels good to do what God made you to do. When you minister in a manner consistent with the personality God gave you, you experience fulfillment, satisfaction, and fruitfulness.
*You have been shaped by your experiences in life, most of which were beyond your control. God allowed them for his purpose of molding you.11 In determining your shape for serving God, you should examine at least six kinds of experiences from your past:
* Family experiences: What did you learn growing up in your family?
Educational experiences: What were your favorite subjects in school?
Vocational experiences: What jobs have you been most effective in and enjoyed most?
Spiritual experiences: What have been your most meaningful times with God?
Ministry experiences: How have you served God in the past?
Painful experiences: What problems, hurts, thorns, and trials have you learned from?
*It is this last category, painful experiences, that God uses the most to prepare you for ministry. God never wastes a hurt! In fact, your greatest ministry will most likely come out of your greatest hurt.
*God intentionally allows you to go through painful experiences to equip you for ministry to others. The Bible says, “He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When others are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.”
*If you really desire to be used by God, you must understand a powerful truth: The very experiences that you have resented or regretted most in life — the ones you’ve wanted to hide and forget — are the experiences God wants to use to help others. They are your ministry!
*For God to use your painful experiences, you must be willing to share them. You have to stop covering them up, and you must honestly admit your faults, failures, and fears. Doing this will probably be your most effective ministry. People are always more encouraged when we share how God’s grace helped us in weakness than when we brag about our strengths.
*Paul understood this truth, so he was honest about his bouts with depression. He admitted, “I think you ought to know, dear brothers, about the hard time we went through in Asia. We were really crushed and overwhelmed, and feared we would never live through it. We felt we were doomed to die and saw how powerless we were to help ourselves; but that was good, for then we put everything into the hands of God, who alone could save us, for he can even raise the dead. And he did help us and saved us from a terrible death; yes, and we expect him to do it again and again.”13
*If Paul had kept his experience of doubt and depression a secret, millions of people would never have benefited from it.
*Only shared experiences can help others. Novelist Aldous Huxley said, “Experience is not what happens to you. It is what you do with what happens to you.” What will you do with what you’ve been through? Don’t waste your pain; use it to help others.
“God works through different men in different ways, but it is the same God who achieves his purposes through them all.”
1 CORINTHIANS 12:6 (PH)
QUESTION TO CONSIDER:
In what way can I see myself passionately serving others and loving it?
HIGHLIGHTS FROM BOOK :
You are a custom-designed, one-of-a-kind, original masterpiece.
To help you remember five of these factors, I have created a simple acrostic: SHAPE. In this chapter and the next we will look at these five factors, and following that, I will explain how to discover and use your shape.
You can’t earn your spiritual gifts or deserve them — that’s why they are called gifts! They are an expression of God’s grace to you. “Christ has generously divided out his gifts to us.”
Have you taken the time to discover your spiritual gifts? An unopened gift is worthless.
SHAPE: Listening to Your Heart
The Bible says, “As a face is reflected in water, so the heart reflects the person.”11 Your heart reveals the real you — what you truly are, not what others think you are or what circumstances force you to be. Your heart determines why you say the things you do, why you feel the way you do, and why you act the way you do.
Repeatedly the Bible says to “serve the Lord with all your heart.”
People rarely excel at tasks they don’t enjoy doing or feel passionate about.
VERSE TO REMEMBER: “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” EPHESIANS 2:10 (NIV)
QUESTION TO CONSIDER: What is holding me back from accepting God’s call to serve him?
HIGHLIGHTS FROM BOOK :
Anytime you use your God-given abilities to help others, you are fulfilling your calling.
The Bible says, “All of you together are Christ’s body, and each one of you is a separate and necessary part of it.”
There is no correlation between size and significance. Every ministry matters because we are all dependent on each other to function.
What happens when one part of your body fails to function? You get sick. The rest of your body suffers. Imagine if your liver decided to start living for itself: “I’m tired! I don’t want to serve the body anymore! I want a year off just to be fed. I’ve got to do what’s best for me! Let some other part take over.” What would happen? Your body would die. Today thousands of local churches are dying because of Christians who are unwilling to serve. They sit on the sidelines as spectators, and the Body suffers.
You are commanded to serve God. Jesus was unmistakable: “Your attitude must be like my own, for I, the Messiah, did not come to be served, but to serve and to give my life.”14 For Christians, service is not optional, something to be tacked onto our schedules if we can spare the time. It is the heart of the Christian life. Jesus came “to serve” and “to give” — and those two verbs should define your life on earth, too.
The old comparison between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea is still true. Galilee is a lake full of life because it takes in water but also gives it out. In contrast, nothing lives in the Dead Sea because, with no outflow, the lake has stagnated.
The last thing many believers need today is to go to another Bible study. They already know far more than they are putting into practice. What they need are serving experiences in which they can exercise their spiritual muscles.
Serving and giving sum up God’s fourth purpose for your life. Mother Teresa once said, “Holy living consists in doing God’s work with a smile.”
Most of the time we’re more interested in “serve us” than service. We say, “I’m looking for a church that meets my needs and blesses me,” not “I’m looking for a place to serve and be a blessing.” We expect others to serve us, not vice versa.
The mature follower of Jesus stops asking, “Who’s going to meet my needs?” and starts asking, “Whose needs can I meet?” Do you ever ask that question?
The Bible says, “Each of us will have to give a personal account to God.”15 Think about the implications of that.
God will compare how much time and energy we spent on ourselves compared with what we invested in serving others.
The Bible warns unbelievers, “He will pour out his anger and wrath on those who live for themselves,”
We are only fully alive when we’re helping others. Jesus said, “If you insist on saving your life, you will lose it. Only those who throw away their lives for my sake and for the sake of the Good News will ever know what it means to really live.”17 This truth is so important that it is repeated five times in the Gospels.
God wants to use you to make a difference in his world. He wants to work through you. What matters is not the duration of your life, but the donation of it. Not how long you lived, but how you lived.
