Devotional 120510

Dear brothers and sisters,
Good morning. Thank God for another beautiful day. Even though I had a lot to catch up in ministry and study, I found time to enjoy the Nature that God has prepared for us. It is indeed a free gift from our Creator God. I reminded myself that busyness is an illness of spirit, a rush form one thing to another because there is no weight of vocational integrity and no confidence in the primacy of grace. Busyness imposes on us the functional, technological, and dehumanizing definitions about life. If we allow busyness to dictate our daily encountering in life, we become corrupted in all kinds of meaningful relationship that God intended for us to enjoy. In busyness we have no time to explore who we are, what we have and why we exist in this time and culture. We feel like we are constantly under the threat of a Goliath from whom we try to flee.

The image of the stones, waiting to be selected from the brook by David as he prepares for his meeting with Goliath, holds my attention. David has just discarded King Saul?s armor as ill-fitting. The offer of bronze helmet and coat of mail was well intentioned. But accept it would have been disastrous. David needed what was authentic to him. This is equally true to my own situation. Even though the weaponry urged upon me by my culture in the form of science and knowledge is formidable, I cannot work effectively with what is imposed from the outside. Metallic forms hung on my frame will give me, perhaps, an imposing aspect but will not help me do my proper work.

And so I kneel at the brook of scripture, selecting there what God has long been preparing for the work at hand, and I find a few smooth stones. The rough edges have been knocked off. The soft parts have been eroded away. They are bare and hard. Nothing is superfluous. Nothing is decorative. They are clean and spare. Scripture has that quality for me?of essentiality, of the necessary. I feel that I am, again, traveling light, delivered from an immense clutter. Every part of Scripture is God-breathed and useful one way or another?showing us truth, exposing our rebellion, correcting our mistakes, training us to live God's way Through the Word we are put together and shaped up for the tasks God has for us (2 Tim 3:16-17 The Message).

David was driven by a passion to become an instrument of God. He did not concern of what did not have. He was aware of what he had. Others may not see the power of his weapons ? a few smooth stones. They imposed on him the weaponry that he was not used to. He went to fight the giant not by self confidence but by his faith in the Almighty God. It is by this simple faith (other may see it as naive) that David removed the most fearful enemy of his time. Are you aware of what God has gifted you? Have you been using those spiritual gifts to serve God? Even though God had gifted David was the skill, it would not help if he did not practice or apply it before. The more you exercise your spiritual gifts, the more you are ready for God to use you for a greater purpose.

Love you by His grace,
Lawrence