Devotional 101108

Dear brothers and sisters,
Good morning. I enjoyed this cool sunny weather as a fresh start of aother new week, especially knowing that God has a great plan for my life each day. Isn’t it wonderful to be the children of God? Amen. We know because of His faithfulness that He will be with us till the end of the world. Our Lord Jesus has promised us, “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you” (John 14:18-20). I wish we were all ready and excited for the second coming of Christ, just as Beijing had been excited and fully prepared for the Olympic just couples of months ago. If we were so excited for this temporal glory that came and gone in history, imagine how much joy we should have in preparing for the eternal glory of the New Heaven and the New Earth to come. The more I dwell on that picture of our eternal glory, the more I can identify with Paul’s conviction, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us” (Rom 8:18). Through this promise of God, I hope and you and I can find strength to deal with all kinds of challenges in lives and at work today.
"We sent Timothy, who is our brother and God's fellow worker in spreading the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you in your faith, so that no one would be unsettled by these trials. You know quite well that we were destined for them (difficulties and persecutions because of our faith)" (1 Thessalonians 3:2-3). As a matter of fact, after sanctification it is difficult to state what your goal in life is anymore, because God has taken you up into His purpose by the Holy Spirit; He is using you now for His purposes throughout the world as He used His Son for the purpose of our salvation. If you seek great things for yourself – ‘God has called me for this and that;’ you are putting a barrier to God's use of you. As long as you have a personal interest in your own character, or any set ambition for your life, you cannot get through into identification with God's interests. You can only get there by losing for ever any idea of yourself and by letting God take you right out into His purpose for the world, and because your goings are of the Lord, you can never understand your ways.
I have to learn that the goal in life is God's, not mine. God is using me from His great personal standpoint, and all He asks of me is that I trust Him, and never say – ‘Lord, this gives me such heartache.’ To talk in that way makes me a clog in God’s plan. When I stop telling God what I want, He can catch me up for what He wants without any hindrance. He can crumple me up or exalt me; He can do anything He chooses. He simply asks me to have complete faith in Himself and in His goodness. Self-pity or inferiority complex is from the devil, if I continue to dwell on that mindset I cannot be used by God for His purpose in the world. If I dwell in a ‘small world’ within the world in which I live, God will never be able to get me outside it because I am afraid of being frostbitten; therefore, I continue to stay within the 'warmth' of my comfort zone. By doing so, I waste the wonderful gift of life that God has given to me; I have not truly lived.
I hope you will surrender your life to your Master’s hand, knowing that He has a great plan for your life in fulfilling His glorious purpose. I do not know what lies ahead of my life tomorrow, I only want to make sure that I allow Him to take control of my life today.
Love you in according to Christ’ passion,
Lawrence