a Christian you say?
So I have been thinking about an interesting passage, Matthew 7:21-23... "Not
everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he
who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day,
'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name,
and done many wonders in Your name?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never
knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!"
So if you're reading this and you call yourself a Christian, I have some things
for you to think about. First of all, do you even call upon God for your needs?
Or do you only do it when it's convenient for you? Is God your personal
attendant in your own mind? A lot of you think this way, and are not even at
the point of truthfully saying that you call out "Lord, Lord" for everything in
your life.
Maybe you do call on God though, maybe you do. How do you live your life
though? A lot of pastors and people who think highly of themselves will preach
out to "allllll you sinners out there" contrasting the difference of the life of
a Christian (supposedly filled with goodness), and the life of a sinner who does
not profess to follow God (supposedly filled with selfish lawlessness). This is
nothing new, is it? We hear people talking about that all the time, how we need
to focus on the good, and be hard working Christians actively promoting what we
believe to be the gospel truth, even along with miraculous signs and wonders
done thanks to God's grace. It's funny though, how often do you, if you call
yourself a Christian, think you're actually doing the will of God? Prophecy,
casting out demons, working many wonders to the benefit of loved ones and even
strangers... in the name of the Lord. These are good things, are they not?
Aren't these the things you seek out as Christians? Yet no matter how hard you
seek after these things, that might not NECESSARILY be God the Father's will for
your life, and when you stand before him on the last day he will say to you "I
never knew you, depart from me", so you'd better think about this...
What Jesus is talking about here is how willing we are to subject ourselves to
the Lordship of God the Father. So where's the conflict come in to play you
wonder? How can a person doing good works fail to do the will of God. "Doesn't
God want us to do good things?" we ask. Of course he wants us to do good
things, but let's not get ahead of train of thought here... Instead, let's take
an arbitrary example of your hard working and zealous Christian woman. She's
married and has a teenage son who is a pretty well behaved kid considering his
age. She works very hard at the church, arranging seminars and coordinating
childcare for the church services. When she's not doing that, she's involved in
other ministries such as feeding the poor, and leading a women's group where
they can encourage each other to be loving to their family and friends in a
practical way. She doesn't have much time to be around with her husband or son,
and understandably so. After all, she's busy doing God's work, right? Then her
son's work ethic drops, and he begins to reject his parents at every turn. She
tries to mend that relationship but it's too late, he won't hear anything about
it. Her husband has accommodated for the lack of time together by committing to a
softball league with other guys at the church. The kid does whatever he wants,
and the family really doesn't have any cohesiveness like a truly loving
Christian family should. The parents get a divorce 5 years down the road after
their kid goes off to college in his own direction to who knows where. HOW DID
THIS HAPPEN? Well I tell ya what, it is not God's will for families to drift
apart and cause emotions scars on the children they brought into this world.
This is what Jesus is talking about. He's talking about when we let a huge
array of "good things" to get in the way of doing God's will for our lives....
Now we can't get confused about a couple of things.
First, God's will definitely has good things alllllll along the way. "I have
plans to prosper you, and not to harm you." "For we are God's workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us
to do." There's a couple examples.
Second, God's will for you IS BETTER THAN ANY WILL YOU COULD POSSIBLY COME UP
WITH BY YOURSELF. Think of it this way. Compared to God, you are a total
idiot. That's just how it is, and there's nothing at all wrong with that. What
IS a problem is acting upon the idea that everything considered "good" that we
put our time into is in God's will for our life. God's will is always good, but
not every good thing is always in God's will for you. Just like squares are always
rectangles, but rectangles are not always squares.
It's a question of priorities and where you feel that God would lead you to do
good works. And I cannot stress enough JUST HOW WIDE OF A FIELD there is of
possibilities for the good works of God. I'm not even gonna give any kind of
list, there's too many good things. So here's what it comes down to, what's
important for YOU...
Is there anything in your life, Mr. or Ms. "Christian", that is preventing you
from doing what you believe is God's will for you? (assuming you have called out
'Lord, Lord' enough to discern that will) EVEN if it's something good, does it
get in the way? Have you over-committed yourself because you want to make sure
you're "doin the good stuff Christians should do"? I confess, I have
over-committed myself on a number of occasions. Over the past couple months I
have been doing my best to back up to the point where I am more focused on God's
will for me. This is a very difficult process, I can promise you that much, but
it's something you need to do just as I need to do. But hey, let's all take a
quick look at a positive example, JESUS!!
Jesus didn't even make it over da' hill! He was in his 30s when he was
crucified, and his ministry of preaching, healing the sick, casting out demons,
and doing many wonderful works was only THREE YEARS LONG!!! And yet, on the
last day of his life, Jesus said "it is finished". How ever did he manage to do
God's will for his life in such a short time? And he sure did a lot didn't
he??? More than i've done, that's for sure. If you want to avoid the ever-so-
common mid-life crisis that everyone seems to go through, I have one word of
advice for you. Don't just go out and pursue whatever you think you feel like
doing. Read the gospel. Find out how Jesus lived his life, and imitate his
relationship with God the Father. Pray like him, follow like him. That's the
only way you will be able to do AND TOTALLY ENJOY, BY THE WAY, God's will for
your life. I will close with what I would personally love to hear from God,
taken out of the passage of the parable of the sower. What could be better?...
Matt 25:23b
"Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things;
I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness
!"
everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he
who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day,
'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name,
and done many wonders in Your name?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never
knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!"
So if you're reading this and you call yourself a Christian, I have some things
for you to think about. First of all, do you even call upon God for your needs?
Or do you only do it when it's convenient for you? Is God your personal
attendant in your own mind? A lot of you think this way, and are not even at
the point of truthfully saying that you call out "Lord, Lord" for everything in
your life.
Maybe you do call on God though, maybe you do. How do you live your life
though? A lot of pastors and people who think highly of themselves will preach
out to "allllll you sinners out there" contrasting the difference of the life of
a Christian (supposedly filled with goodness), and the life of a sinner who does
not profess to follow God (supposedly filled with selfish lawlessness). This is
nothing new, is it? We hear people talking about that all the time, how we need
to focus on the good, and be hard working Christians actively promoting what we
believe to be the gospel truth, even along with miraculous signs and wonders
done thanks to God's grace. It's funny though, how often do you, if you call
yourself a Christian, think you're actually doing the will of God? Prophecy,
casting out demons, working many wonders to the benefit of loved ones and even
strangers... in the name of the Lord. These are good things, are they not?
Aren't these the things you seek out as Christians? Yet no matter how hard you
seek after these things, that might not NECESSARILY be God the Father's will for
your life, and when you stand before him on the last day he will say to you "I
never knew you, depart from me", so you'd better think about this...
What Jesus is talking about here is how willing we are to subject ourselves to
the Lordship of God the Father. So where's the conflict come in to play you
wonder? How can a person doing good works fail to do the will of God. "Doesn't
God want us to do good things?" we ask. Of course he wants us to do good
things, but let's not get ahead of train of thought here... Instead, let's take
an arbitrary example of your hard working and zealous Christian woman. She's
married and has a teenage son who is a pretty well behaved kid considering his
age. She works very hard at the church, arranging seminars and coordinating
childcare for the church services. When she's not doing that, she's involved in
other ministries such as feeding the poor, and leading a women's group where
they can encourage each other to be loving to their family and friends in a
practical way. She doesn't have much time to be around with her husband or son,
and understandably so. After all, she's busy doing God's work, right? Then her
son's work ethic drops, and he begins to reject his parents at every turn. She
tries to mend that relationship but it's too late, he won't hear anything about
it. Her husband has accommodated for the lack of time together by committing to a
softball league with other guys at the church. The kid does whatever he wants,
and the family really doesn't have any cohesiveness like a truly loving
Christian family should. The parents get a divorce 5 years down the road after
their kid goes off to college in his own direction to who knows where. HOW DID
THIS HAPPEN? Well I tell ya what, it is not God's will for families to drift
apart and cause emotions scars on the children they brought into this world.
This is what Jesus is talking about. He's talking about when we let a huge
array of "good things" to get in the way of doing God's will for our lives....
Now we can't get confused about a couple of things.
First, God's will definitely has good things alllllll along the way. "I have
plans to prosper you, and not to harm you." "For we are God's workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us
to do." There's a couple examples.
Second, God's will for you IS BETTER THAN ANY WILL YOU COULD POSSIBLY COME UP
WITH BY YOURSELF. Think of it this way. Compared to God, you are a total
idiot. That's just how it is, and there's nothing at all wrong with that. What
IS a problem is acting upon the idea that everything considered "good" that we
put our time into is in God's will for our life. God's will is always good, but
not every good thing is always in God's will for you. Just like squares are always
rectangles, but rectangles are not always squares.
It's a question of priorities and where you feel that God would lead you to do
good works. And I cannot stress enough JUST HOW WIDE OF A FIELD there is of
possibilities for the good works of God. I'm not even gonna give any kind of
list, there's too many good things. So here's what it comes down to, what's
important for YOU...
Is there anything in your life, Mr. or Ms. "Christian", that is preventing you
from doing what you believe is God's will for you? (assuming you have called out
'Lord, Lord' enough to discern that will) EVEN if it's something good, does it
get in the way? Have you over-committed yourself because you want to make sure
you're "doin the good stuff Christians should do"? I confess, I have
over-committed myself on a number of occasions. Over the past couple months I
have been doing my best to back up to the point where I am more focused on God's
will for me. This is a very difficult process, I can promise you that much, but
it's something you need to do just as I need to do. But hey, let's all take a
quick look at a positive example, JESUS!!
Jesus didn't even make it over da' hill! He was in his 30s when he was
crucified, and his ministry of preaching, healing the sick, casting out demons,
and doing many wonderful works was only THREE YEARS LONG!!! And yet, on the
last day of his life, Jesus said "it is finished". How ever did he manage to do
God's will for his life in such a short time? And he sure did a lot didn't
he??? More than i've done, that's for sure. If you want to avoid the ever-so-
common mid-life crisis that everyone seems to go through, I have one word of
advice for you. Don't just go out and pursue whatever you think you feel like
doing. Read the gospel. Find out how Jesus lived his life, and imitate his
relationship with God the Father. Pray like him, follow like him. That's the
only way you will be able to do AND TOTALLY ENJOY, BY THE WAY, God's will for
your life. I will close with what I would personally love to hear from God,
taken out of the passage of the parable of the sower. What could be better?...
Matt 25:23b
"Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things;
I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness
!"