Scripture is clear, however, that the role of a believer is to consider the interest of others, even before we consider our own. Paul writes, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.” (Philippians 2:3…emphasis mine)
It’s hard to lead others when you are getting your butt kicked. (Excuse the word, but I think it is needed here if that is how you are feeling.) When your world is crashing in around you, you’ll be less prepared to lead well.
Nate asked me an important question this weekend. He asked, “When and how did you become disciplined in spiritual growth?” That’s a great question. I wish I could say I was most excellently disciplined, but I’m not…just disciplined. I wonder though if some of you may be equal curious as to the answers to this question.
Our discussion centered with the fact that we need to see our closeness to God as more of a relationship than a religion. In religion, we have a list to check and complete, but in a relationship, we wrestle through the highs and lows of various degrees of intimacy. When we treat the relationship as something of value, we are more likely to intentionally work to protect and develop the relationship.
If you are a Christian, why not quit the pretense, drop the costumes, and get in on the life that God intended for you? Start acting like whom you really are; a child of God, bought with a price, born again for a purpose of glorifying God. Start being like Jesus!
The best you and I can do when going through difficult times is to cling closer and stronger to God during the hard times. Trusting Him through the hardest times of life is called faith. Without faith, it’s impossible to please God. When faith is displayed…God must surely smile!
I know that is confusing, so let me illustrate it like this. If you were to leave my house in Tennessee and head to my mother’s family in Kansas, there are several routes you could take to get there. Ultimately one route is probably best, but you could get there from several directions. In accomplishing God’s end goal for our life, God sometimes allows different courses of reaching that end goal. God will even allow us to take turns that are not really His best plan for us. In that way, God has allowed His plan to be altered, but the overall end plan remains the same.
I’m not going to ask today if you agree with what God is allowing or doing in your life right now, but I do want to ask this question, will you give Him permission to do it? A better question might be, does He have the right to do it?
This verse reminds me of countless others in the Bible where men obeyed the command of God, simply because He is God. “Noah did just as the Lord commanded” (Genesis 6:22) for example. We can read similar verses about Moses, Abraham, Joseph and Mary, Paul and others. God is still looking for people like Jeremiah who will obey God and do what He commands. I have always suspected that God knew the hearts of the people He spoke to enough to know what their response to His command would be prior to asking them to obey.
God wanted to speak to Jeremiah and He was going to use pottery as a part of His discussion. Sometimes God will use situations in our life to gain our attention and illustrate for us His agenda. You and I, if we want to hear from God, must continually rid our lives of distractions, strive to walk in obedience with Him daily, free our life of unneeded clutter, slow down long enough to listen for the voice of God, and watch and listen for God’s voice in the midst of the normal routine and places of life.
