Who are you becoming?

We just took a couple of days off after a long, strenuous run of events. When we got to the hotel here was this iguana, just outside our window, a perfect picture of how we all felt. We decided to do what he was doing, and just rest awhile.

I used to have one long-term goal in life, to hear God say, “Well done good and faithful servant” at the end of time.

I realize I now have a mid-term goal as well. I want to become the kind of person when I am old that exudes godliness. Maybe this is what Paul is referring to in 1 Cor 4:15, “Even if you had ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel.” Maybe guardians have all the right answers, and they know how to tell others how to keep the rules. Fathers, on the other hand, are just the right people.

Jesus and Paul explain how we are leaky vessels. What is in us will leak out.

Last night at Alpha we talked about evil. “Do you believe in witchcraft, and spells, and black magic, etc.” “Well, I have seen it work, but I don’t believe in it.” And the stories start spilling out. Why is it that people have seen so much evil, and even though they don’t want to, it is hard not to believe in evil more than in good?

I think that as evil caters to selfishness, people who have been selfish their whole lives leak out all kinds of powerful things as they try to manipulate their circumstances without God. In a greater way, people who live sacrificially and selflessly can leak out even more powerful things. Is it possible that the closer we get to God relationally, the more God blesses people around us? From my experience, I don’t think this happens by us trying harder, at least not in the traditional sense of working harder to “be good.” I think it happens by spending daily time alone with God praying the Psalms, sitting quietly with Him, listening for His lessons while reading the Bible, asking for His help and telling God of our dreams and hurts and by learning to use the spiritual authority God has given us.

I realize that when I am anxious, something has become bigger to me than God. This is me breaking the first commandment, and I am helpless to stop it in my own strength. Then I realize that King David was anxious a lot too. And somehow He became a man after God’s own heart, and he had a great influence for good. How did he do it? Continually, though all of life’s circumstances, David took his stuff to God, and committed to making God “Plan A”, and he had no “Plan B”. The anxieties eventually melt, and God takes first place again in our hearts.

Psalm 61:1-3

Hear my cry, O God; Give heed to my prayer.

From the end of the earth I call to You when my heart is faint; Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

For You have been a refuge for me, A tower of strength against the enemy.

In summary,

1. Submit everything to God.

2. Sit quietly with God daily.

3. Be thankful.

4. Expect God to bless people around you.

5. Expect this all to happen in increasing measures.

Your thoughts?

Rick.