This morning, our pastor shared from 1 John 3:4-10. He spoke how our lives should give evidence to the reality that we are children of God. While he did hit on the hard truth that habitual sin should have no place in our hearts or minds, or any aspect of our lives for that matter, a personal story he told stuck out to me the most. I almost felt as if God was speaking directly to me through Bil and his experience as a high schooler back in the day.
Apparently, Bil and his friends thought it would be fun to destroy some work zone barrels on the road to the mall. Bil's role was to hang out the side of the car window and bash the barrels with a baseball bat while his friend drove past. They were having a grand time until they came to the bottom of the hill and saw the cop car parked behind some trees. Bil quickly jumped inside and threw the bat to the floor of the car. The boys hoped and prayed the cop hadn't seen their mischief. No such luck. He pulled out, turned on the lights, and the boys parked on the side of the road. Acting innocent and non-chalant, they calmly asked the cop what they had done. Long story short, Bil and his friends didn't fool the cop and landed themselves in jail. After his dad and brother came to get him, Bil sat in the backseat of his dad's car trying to answer a long list of questions that could all basically be summed up with, "What in the world were you thinking? Were you thinking?!" Bil doesn't remember everything that was said in the car that night, though he did recall he was grounded from quite a few things. One thing his dad told him on that long car ride has stuck with him all these years:
Being a part of this family means something.
There is a certain standard to live up to.
And you aren't doing it.
You are not being who you are meant to be.
Of course, I immediately thought of the Casting Crown's song THRIVE. How many of us are settling for ordinary lives? How many of us are just surviving? How many of us aren't thriving? How many of us don't believe we are MADE FOR MORE? How many of us aren't living up to our potential? How many of us are falling short of what it means to be part of God's family? How many of us aren't being who we are meant to be?
This isn't meant to make you feel awful or terrible. I don't want you slouching or burying your head in shame. I'm not trying to single anyone out. I'm right there with you!!! I myself am learning and growing in this area. I have known Jesus almost my entire life, but it's taken me nearly 30 years to even start to figure out how DEEP God's love is for me, how He DELIGHTS in blessing me, how He LONGS to do good things in my life so He can showcase His character and bring massive amounts of glory to His name, how He YEARNS to spend time with me, and how He DESIRES to use me to bring countless others into this same understanding and thus experience a relationship with Him like none of us could ever begin to imagine.
Rather than pointing my finger, I hope you see me with arms wide open and waving feverishly. I'm jumping up and down, shouting at the top of my lungs, BEGGING you to join me on this crazy adventure God has for us. Even if you're not a reader, I highly recommend you make the time to at least browse through Your God Is Too Safe by Mark Buchann. Once we realize how BIG God is and let Him out of our box, we can put aside all our pre-convinced ideas of who He is and how He works. Only then can we experience His power and presence in us and moving through us. Only then will we believe Ephesians 3:20 and pray for God to do infinitely more than we could ever dare to ask in a normal situation. Only then will we see ourselves as God's masterpiece and be open to do the good works He has prepared for us and created us to carry out, all for HIS glory (Ephesians 2:10). Only then will we ACT IN FAITH as God prompts us to do these good things, things that are far outside our comfort zone, things that seem far-fetched and ridiculous and silly and weird and even impossible, but things we KNOW beyond a shadow of doubt our God can do (2 Thessalonians 1:11-12). Only then will we be FILLED with peace and joy and hope that surpasses all comprehension (Philippians 4:6-7). Only then can we do more than just survive. Only then can we THRIVE. And only then can we be who we are meant to be!
But how do we get to that point?
One step at a time.
But where do we begin?
At the beginning, of course.
We must recognize we are made in God's image (Genesis 1:27)
We must appreciate that God took His time designing and shaping and forming us (Psalm 139:13-16).
We must accept that He does NOT make mistakes and has a purpose and reason in everything, and that He uses ALL things for our good and His glory (Romans 8:28).
We must realize that God has given each one of us specific gifts and abilities to use to help others, to strengthen the body of believers, to showcase His glory (1 Corinthians 12:12-31; Romans 12:3-8; 1 Peter 4:10-11).
We must then ACTIVELY USE those gifts.
We must LIVE OUT OUR FAITH every day.
We have to take what we KNOW in our head and put it into PRACTICE. Every day. (James 1:22; 2:14-26). As we do this, we step out of the realm of ordinary. We stop surviving. We begin to THRIVE!!! We BECOME WHO WE ARE MEANT TO BE!!!
And who are we?
Children of God.
Children of the King.
Called. CHOSEN. Dearly loved.
We are part of God's family. And that holds a certain standard. One NONE of us can attain on our own. One we will certainly fall short of, every single day. And that's okay. It's GOOD. Why? Because it forces us to rely not on ourselves but on our Savior, Messiah, and Friend Jesus Christ. We have no choice but to rest in Him, to hold fast to Him, to hide under the shelter of His wings, to stand firm in Him. He is our Rock, our Fortress. And He will never let us go.
So, instead of beating ourselves up, we remember God is our champion and fighting for us, with us, through us. Rather than giving up, we LOOK UP and fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith (Hebrews 12:1-13). We keep on keeping on. We fight the good fight and FINISH THE RACE (1 Timothy 6:12; 2 Timothy 4:7). We push everything aside and press on with the goal of KNOWING God as fully as possible and making Him known all along the way (Philippians 3:7-14).
As we run this race, we become who God intended us to be. And that is a glorious thing!!!
Will it be easy? NO. Not even close.
But, will it be worth it? Yes!!! ABSOLUTELY!!!
Once more, then, I invite you to run with me. Let's do this TOGETHER.
Let's stop selling ourselves short.
Let's recognize who we are. Who GOD is.
Let's stop making excuses.
Let's acknowledge the God we serve, and give Him free reign in our lives.
Let's watch His power and presence flow though us, flooding us with joy and hope and peace and faith.
Let's allow Him to transform us.
LET'S BECOME WHO
WE ARE MEANT TO BE!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment