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But since I was worse than anyone else, God had mercy on me and let me be an example of the endless patience of Christ Jesus. He did this so that others would put their faith in Christ and have eternal life. 1 Timothy 1:16 (CEV)
To the Judge your value is determined by your ability to follow the rules. To the educator your value is determined by your grades and your performance in the classroom. To your spouse your value may be determined by your ability to perform according to their expectations. To your friends your value could be determined by your willingness to go along with their crowd. To the businessman determines your value by the amount of profit you generate. Bottom line is the motivator. The politician determines your value by the strength of your vote and the depth of your pocket. The religious zealot determines your worthiness for the heavenly gates by the number of ‘spiritual hoops’ you need to jump through.
With all these demands on us, it’s no wonder that we find ourselves asking the question ‘Am I good enough?’ We look around and see other people who seem to have arrived and wonder what is wrong with us. We try and fail. We pick ourselves up and try again…and fail again. Sometimes we decide it’s easier just to give up. We are misunderstood, abandoned by lovers, used by friends. Finances don’t work out and our health gives out.
In the midst of the gloom and doom, when we find ourselves in the midst of despair and disappointment; when the anger and bitterness and frustration seem to be too much it’s important to remember that our Heavenly Father, the creator-God of the universe tells us a different story. While others look at our failure and dismiss us, God looks at our failure and uses us.
Our best work for the kingdom comes because we have failed and been forgiven; because we are weak in ourselves but strong in our faith; because we have used our own shortcomings to prove to those around us that while the world may say you won’t amount to anything, in God’s eyes you are his everything.
Don’t listen to the lies of those around you. It’s your inability to get things right that gives God an opportunity to use you in mighty ways.
PRAYER: Father God, I’ve been living far too long under the scrutiny and judgment of the world around me. I’ve believed the lies that my worth comes from my ability and not my faith in you. Thank you that in Jesus, no matter what, I have great value. Empower me with your Spirit to live according to the value you’ve placed in me to do your work. In Jesus name, Amen.
I pray that the Lord will guide you to be as loving as God and as patient as Christ. 2 Thessalonians 3:5 (CEV)
It was far from my finest moment. There certainly was no compassion, no grace or no acceptance in my actions. I was totally out of line. It was several years ago now, but the memory is still fresh in my mind. The neighbors were having marital issues and the husband came over to talk to me and try to get information that he could use against his wife.
To be honest I don’t remember much of the conversation even though it went on for close to two hours. What I do remember is that at some point he made a comment about how his (soon-to-be) ex-wife could never be forgiven for what she’d done to the marriage. I wasn’t thinking. I intended to put a hand on his shoulder and reassure him that his statement wasn’t true. What I did instead was more of a grasp and push. He looked scared. I was embarrassed. I apologized of course and later we laughed about the scene.
While the physical parts of my actions are most likely not practiced by many, each of us has been on one end or the other of a good ‘holy shove’. You have a loved one that you see self-destructing. The most frustrating part of it is that ‘they should know better’ but they just keep going down the same road. So, you shake them up. Not physically of course (I hope), but with your words, your attitude, your ‘sharing the gospel with them’ and ‘setting them straight’.
In his letter to the Thessalonians Paul lays the foundation for how we treat others. Our actions towards each other are to be marked with love and unity. That is the key for our evangelism. That is the key for discipleship and discipline.
We were called as Christ-followers to make disciples, not converts. Disciples take time. Disciples grow due to relationship. Disciples follow our Godly example not our theological knowledge. Discipleship takes patience. Not any patience by the way, but the patience of Christ.
The patience of Christ is seen in the story of the prodigal son. Daily the father watched the road leading home. Daily he heard stories of his son’s antics and failures. Daily he prayed for his safe return. On that glorious day when a familiar shape walked down the road towards him he didn’t have an ‘I told you so’ speech ready. There was no list of the young man’s failures and a ‘how could you do this to us’ tongue-lashing. There was only love and celebration.
Patience with ourselves and others isn’t possible without the patience of Christ in us. It’s easier to be patient with the jerks in life when I fully realize what Jesus went through for me. It’s by his patience that I seek to treat others. But that still isn’t easy. I want change now. Change in your life. Change in mine. Change comes slowly in God’s world. We serve a ‘crock-pot’ God and live in a microwave world.
Attitude is the key to life change. If those who are struggling see us as patient, loving and caring people who truly seek their good they will respond as God works in their lives. Ours is not to change lives. Ours is to provide the direction and atmosphere for change.
If you are dealing with someone who you’d like to give a good shoulder shake, remember to act according to the love of God and patience of Christ. If you’ve been on the other end of the emotional ‘shoulder-shake’ realize that Gods way is a way of firm gentle calling, not shaking. Like the father in the prodigal son, he’s daily calling you home and searching the path for your approach. He loves you no matter where you’ve been or what you’ve done.
PRAYER: Father God, help me to exhibit your love and Christ’s patience in my life as I travel this journey. Forgive me for the emotional ‘shoulder shakes’ I’ve had a part in. Heal my wounds from the shoulder-shakes I’ve endured. Thank you for being patient with me. In Jesus name, Amen.
For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building. 1 Corinthians 3:9
I had an uncle who lived the American Dream. After the sixth grade school seemed meaningless to him so he quit school to help on the family farm. When he was about 16 he headed west from the northern Minnesota farm he’d called home all his life. Back in that day, such an event wasn’t unheard of. He landed in Seattle and took work at a ship building yard. Slowly, over the years his hard work and leadership abilities were noticed. When he passed away at the age of 70 he was owner of that shipyard and a very wealthy man!
That’s the stuff we always dream of. We want to grow wealthy. We want to be rich. We want to attain to the top level of our area of expertise. While there is nothing at all wrong with wanting to succeed in life, our view of success: [richer, more powerful, and higher social standing] isn’t in God’s business plan.
When the Apostle Paul writes his letter to the Corinthians he is writing to a group of people who’d gotten caught up in the deadly game of comparison. Some followed this man. Others followed that man. They began compartmentalizing and grading the work of each person in the church. They weren’t comparing apples and oranges. They were making a decision about which apple was the biggest and best. Paul tells them, basically, to knock it off! In God’s kingdom business as usual isn’t business as usual.
Whether you are a ditch digger or pastor; whether you are a recovering addict or squeaky clean; whether you are a financial planning guru or deep in credit card debt; regardless of your past or where you are now in life, in God’s workplace you never work alone.
In God’s workplace there is: no seniority or tenure; no ‘right hand man’; no organizational chart or chain of command; no ‘working your way up the success ladder; no bonuses (in life, but the retirement benefits are out of this world); no ‘overtime’ and no performance reviews or quotas to reach.
Paul says we are co-workers with God. He’s not the boss. He’s the kind of guy who works right alongside you. And if God is our co-worker then who can be above us in importance?
Jesus said, “I don’t call you slaves. I call you friends. Friends let you vent. Friends don’t order you around or demand that you follow them. They are there to help, to comfort, to encourage and to guide when you need them the most. That’s the kind of God we have a relationship with. A God that wants to come along side you no matter where you are on the journey. That’s grace. That’s love. That’s our God!
PRAYER: Father God. Once again you have amazed me with your love for me. Why would the Creator God of the universe choose to be a co-worker with me? It can only be due to grace. Thank you for loving me so much. In Jesus name, Amen.
“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Messiah.” Mark 8:29
To the educator he is known as a master teacher. To this day many methods of effective teaching can be traced to him.
The leader admires his style. Only eleven men of obscure background and little education yet they turned the world upside down as a result of his plan.
Those in religion see him as a catalyst of controversy. For some he is the bastion of trying new things. To others he’s the personification of conservatism and fundamentalist teaching.
But who is Jesus to you? It doesn’t matter who your parents tell you he is. It’s not important who your teachers tell you he is. Even the opinions of your closest friends don’t matter. What matters most is who YOU think Jesus is.
You can give him lip service and go to church and tell others that you believe he’s the Son of God and that he died on the cross. You can ‘believe’ he is who he says he is and that he did many miracles.
But Jesus’ question to the disciples was much more than a rhetorical question to test his popularity. It was a question of commitment and life-change. It was a question that demanded an answer with their lips, their attitudes and their desires.
If they said, as Peter did, that he was the son of the living God, then their lives demanded that they reflect the love, grace, mercy and faith that Jesus taught them. If their answer didn’t include a change of heart they were none better than the rich young man who walked away; the crowd that screamed crucify him; the Pharisees that refused to accept his personal message from God.
And so it is today, Jesus comes to us each day with the same question he asked the disciples, “Who do you say that I am?”
How will you show those around you the answer to the question? The good news is that his Holy Spirit gives us the power to answer, as Peter did. You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God. You are the Lord of my words, actions and attitudes.
PRAYER: Dear Jesus. I confess to you that it’s far easier to give you lip service than to show your lordship in my life. I testify, as Peter did, that you are the Son of the Living God; God incarnate, the son of the Living God. I ask that the power of your Holy Spirit would so invade my life that others would see you in me. In your name I pray, Amen.
I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:14
Sometimes I think we as Christ-followers have a warped view of our Bible heroes. Take the Apostle Paul for example. We lift him up as a man we all want to emulate. After all, he wrote most of the New Testament, was responsible for starting many, many churches and, among other things had the wisdom and chutzpa to stand up to Peter and get into his face on a couple of occasions. What a guy!
But I appreciate Paul for more than his godly wisdom and spiritual insight. I admire more the many times in Scripture when he speaks candidly about his own failures. I think Paul would scream in horror if he heard and saw how we elevate him sometimes.
Take for example his letter to the Philippians. Three times in the first few verses of chapter three it’s as if Paul is saying, “I haven’t reached perfection yet. I still fail. I struggle with the same old sins. I battle temptation constantly. Sometimes I win. Sometimes I lose. But, I press on to the higher standard God has called me to in Christ Jesus.”
Isn’t that the way each of us feel when we are honest with ourselves? We aren’t called to perfection. We’re called to battle. We aren’t expected to win every battle with temptation, but we are encouraged to fight each battle with determination and will.
Sometimes that means giving up our ‘rights’. Sometimes we’ll be misunderstood or wrongfully accused. Sometimes we’ll just plain fail. Jesus is more interested in the direction you are heading than how many battles you win. He’s more excited about how hard you fight than your win-loss record. He knows you’ll lose some battles. He knows he’s already won the war.
Don’t get discouraged when it seems the old life has too much power over you. You have been called to battle with Jesus at your side. Don’t give up on yourself. Sometimes you’ll win the big battles; sometimes you’ll lose the small ones. Either way, pick yourself up, brush the dirt from your clothes and press on knowing the Jesus is running alongside cheering you on to victory and comforting you in defeat.
PRAYER: Jesus, there are so many times I’ve failed you. I get up in the morning determined to win and climb back in bed hours later battered, bruised and embarrassed by my weakness. Forgive me for my failure. Empower me to press on. In your name, Amen.
