How
many times have you come to God asking for His direction with the
back thought of “what's in it for me?” when He gives you that
direction?
Or
when you are given a task to accomplish; do you wonder why you
should be the one to do it when you are not capable, trained enough,
or knowledgeable enough to lead a class, gather a group or put for
the words He gave you to share?
Do
you know what the tasks He brings gives us?
A
task that takes:
Time--
will bring exhaustion! Yes it will but with that exhaustion God will
bring you strength to endure to the end.
Money--it may make you feel penniless! Perhaps for a moment but as we know
money is flighty. The love of it is at the root of all evil so we
need to be able to allow God to use what He gives us for His glory,
including our finances. If He should choose to multiply it back to
us, so be it, but if not we need to be okay with that because He will
bring us through what He puts us into. What He puts us into, not what
we think we should spend money on so we can say we did it. Remember
that part.
Strength--
A task that God gives us will no doubt often take our strength for
the moment; but He will restore that and be our strength! For when we
are weak He is strong! Using up our strength for His glory will give
Him a chance to work through us and show us just how close He really
is to us!
Faith--
to complete the task He has given us it sometimes takes a lot of
faith because we do always see the end of the task while in the
middle of it. Often things happen which will cause us to wonder why
we took it on in the first place but God tells us to have faith! And
He will give us hope to finish the task!
Obedience--
the big O' is the hardest thing to give up to God it seems. We in our
carnality, our flesh wants to do what will preserve our livelihood,
not do something that will make us go out of our way, or beyond what
we think we can do. When we choose to be obedient to God's task for
us we will find God's purpose for our lives; we will receive God's
praise, and most of all we will give all the Glory to God and we will
like it that way!
When
we are obedient to the task God gives us we will have peace knowing
it was God, not man asking us to do it in the first place.
Something
to remember when we step out into the task He has given us is that it
is not about what is in it for us, it's for whats in it for Him.
So
if we are doing this great thing for God, and it is a great thing if
it is for God even if its just bringing someone a cake, or sharing a
life story with a friend that encourages them to have hope for
tomorrow knowing God will bring her through what they are walking in
at this time.
We
are human, but we don't wage war as humans do. We use God's mighty
weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human
reasoning and to destroy false arguments. We destroy every proud
obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture their
rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ. And after you have
become fully obedient, we will punish everyone who remains
disobedient. 2 Corinthians 10:3-6
A
few important things to remember when God gives you a task are;
Anything
worth doing is worth doing right, no slacking and being lazy, do it
right the first time.
Why?
If we do not do it right the first time, we will have to try again.
Now think for a moment. If God told you to do something and you were
lazy about it or lackadaisical and put it off until the last minute,
then ran through it like water over clay; it could be likened to a
child being told to clean his room and he puts it off until the
deadline and runs through stuffing things in closets and drawers and
under the bed, but its not really clean. The job is not done until it
is done right.
Do
it for the glory of God, not the glory of men. Why? If we are praised
by men here on earth, there is our glory and praise, but would you
not rather have the praise and glory of God over men? It would be so
much more praise, so much more blessing coming from God.
Do it for God's approval, not just mans. Again, man is fallible, God infallible. Personally if man thinks I am stupid for following Christ I will not stop following Him; so why would I care what man thinks of me? Only for the glory of God, if we do things for God He will get the glory when He gives us the approval to accomplish the task.
And
a person with a changed heart seeks praise from God, not from people.
Romans 2:9b.
God's
provision or mans? Which one are you looking for? God will provide
all my needs according to His riches in glory. Man may give a little
provision as they see fit. Hmm... I think that speaks for itself!
Do
you look at things according to the outward appearance? 2 Corinthians
10:7
Man's
approval is temporal, God's approval is eternal.
Man's
approval is self seeking, God's approval is uplifting.
Man's
praise is shallow; God's praise is deep.
This
is why we follow after God, not man.
When
people commend themselves, it doesn't count for much. The important
thing is for the Lord to commend them. 2 Corinthians 10:18
Dear
Heavenly father, help us to stay focused on the task at hand;
fulfilling your purpose in our lives. Help us to see that the
problems in this world are limited but your answers are unlimited.
Bless us today with direction, guidance and the faith to follow the
walk you place before us, in Jesus name, amen.
Suggested
reading: 2 Corinthians 10:1-18 , Romans 2:1-28, Psalm 22:1-29, Psalm
8:1-9,