A Faith That Rests

 It's not about me.

 "I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service,   ¹³even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor. Yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief;   ¹⁴and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus.    ¹⁵It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all.    ¹⁶Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life."    1 Timothy 1:12-16

I was driving in my car one day when I pulled up behind somebody at a stop and I couldn't help but notice their bumper sticker.  It said "It's all about me!"  That sure seems to be the attitude in this world we live in today. 

Let me say this and make this perfectly clear; "It's not about me."  Oh sure, sometimes I forget that but it still doesn't change the fact.  It has never been nor will it ever be about anything that I have done.  I like to think of myself as a good person but I know that because of the precious blood of Christ I'm saved.  He came into this world to die for our sins.  So actually, it's all about Him.

C. H. Spurgeon said, "My faith rests not in what I am, or shall be, or feel, or know, but in what Christ is, in what He has done, and in what He is now doing for me."

I love that word "rests."  That is a place of peace; free from all worries or cares.  He extended His grace to me and I received it.  He reached down to me in mercy and I have been set free.  No matter how hard I might have tried there is never anything I could have done to earn it.  It's God's gift.

Surely, it is my faith (and He gave me that too by the way) but it's value is found in Whom it is resting.  The answer is Jesus Christ.

 

 

Who Will You Serve?

Choice of Service

Joshua 24:15; “If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”

Life is full of choices.  We make them each and every day.  It is said the  * "average adult makes 35,000 decisions every day."  You can argue that number but the fact is we make a lot of choices each and every day.  That is mind-boggling; as if life weren't already complicated enough.  Stop, go; turn left, turn right, go straight; etc.  What am I going to wear, what am I going to eat, whom shall I marry?  We don't give much thought to most of our decisions. Many of these choices affect us and other people in so many ways.  

My Dad taught me something really important among many other things and that was when I consider the choices I should weigh all things through a Kingdom purpose.  Too many of us make our decisions based upon what we think rather than on what God says.  Joshua says his choices all hinged on serving the LORD.  Do we use the same standard?  Even in the church we can have the tendency to circumvent God because, after all, we know so much better than He does.

Each and every day we live is a blessing.  We seldom give thought to the idea that each moment could be our last.  If you knew today would be your last, would it change what you do?  Would you make it count for God?  

We make choices based upon who it is that we serve.  For people who only think of themselves will base their decisions on a world-view of things.  If my heart is on serving God then what happens to me doesn't matter.  I can know that I will always make the right choices.  In a world that would have us think and do things differently we would always have remorse.  "If I would have only done things differently."  Of course then, it is too late.  I must also say that you can be doing things for your church and still not be doing Kingdom-purpose work.

Whatever you do, you must make a choice.  Will you choose to serve the gods of this world or will you serve God?



*http://reitmeier.blogspot.com/2006/04/how-many-decisions-do-you-make-each.html