Thursday, January 29, 2009

Devotional 290109

Dear brothers and sisters,
Good morning. Time went by so fast this morning in just running errands. But errands are part of lives and ministry, through which God may use to shape our humility and faithfulness. We prefer someone run the errands so that we can focus on the ‘great’ and ‘important’ things in ministry. As servant or deacon (slave) of Christ, we are called to run errands for His Kingdom, and there is no distinction of which is big or small. We learn to do whatever it is necessary out of our love for Christ.

"Who are You, Lord?" (Acts 26:15) "The Lord spoke thus to me with a strong hand." There is no escape when Our Lord speaks; He always comes with an arrestment of the understanding. Has the voice of God come to you directly? If it has, you cannot mistake the intimate insistence with which it has spoken to you in the language you know best, not through your ears, but through your circumstances.

God has to destroy our determined confidence in our own convictions. "I know this is what I should do" - and suddenly the voice of God speak in a way that overwhelms us by revealing the depths of our ignorance. We have shown our ignorance of Him in the very way we determined to serve Him. We serve Jesus in a spirit that is not His, we hurt Him by our advocacy for Him; we push His claims in the spirit of the devil. Our words sound all right, but our spirit is that of an enemy. "He rebuked them, and said, you know not what manner of spirit you are of." The spirit of our Lord in an advocate of His is described in 1 Corinthians 13.

Have I been persecuting Jesus by a zealous determination to serve Him in my own way? If I feel I have done my duty and yet have hurt Him in doing it, I may be sure it was not my duty, because it has not fostered the meek and quiet spirit, but the spirit of self-satisfaction. We imagine that whatever is unpleasant is our duty! Is that anything like the spirit of our Lord - "I delight to do your will, O My God."

Your work in the office or at home is your vocation or calling of God at this point of time. He puts you there for a purpose. Therefore do it wholeheartedly and cheerfully for Him.

Love you in Him,Lawrence

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