Trust and Success

Faith is not just a thought or an emotion, but a constant effort that must be worked towards. Trusting God, really honestly, sincerely trusting God, means an entire release of those things that you feel lift you up and bring you down. It is effortless to trust God with the things that we see as easy and will solve themselves. One of the tests of faith is trusting God with the things that don’t seem so clear or easy to us.

What success is to us and what success is to God can be two very different things. I am a point in my life where I am seeking what God wants for me and my family. As God reveals those things to me, I find my plans conformed to God’s heart. As I seek His heart, I am committing my plans to Him in the process. Seeking my King’s heart is success. Asking God to use me is success. My love for my King is success. A degree is the desire of my heart, and so I know that it is also important to God.

We are told in James 2:14-18 that faith without works is dead. Where do we draw the line between trusting God to provide versus seeking out that provision?

Less is More

Last night was the last meeting for our youth group until Pastor Steve officially starts. It was bitter-sweet really because on one side I am really looking forward to the time off. The last few months since Pastor Eric left have really drained a lot of us. On the other hand I will definitely be missing the students. I am looking forward to meeting with them individually over the next couple of weeks, but I will miss seeing them all together and worshipping together.
We have spent the last few weeks talking about people in the bible. It has totally been a challenge for me to dig into who these people were and I learned a lot about what role they played in the big picture…expanding the kingdom of God. Last night, I talked about John the Baptist. I am pretty much convinced that he was the first missionary. He lived a radical life, challenging authority, living only on what God provided him, and fulfilling the Great Commission before it was the Great Commission.
The start of Jesus’ ministry was a huge turning point for John. He went from being the man, having his own disciples, calling out the Pharisees, and leading a radical life to stepping aside for Jesus. His humility in accepting his role in Jesus’ ministry was awesome. John 3:30 says (quoting John the Baptist) “He must become greater; I must become less.” What a shining example of how we all should be in regards to Jesus!!!
The position that we have been put in is about God’s kingdom becoming greater, not ours. I know over the past 7 months there have been times when I have forgotten that. It was a hard lesson to learn when I started seeing the affects of my own pride and arrogance come before God’s kingdom, and I now pray that I never need that lesson again…the cost is too high. John’s role was that of a messenger and he embraced it 110%!!!! That is our role too, as professing believers of Christ to let everyone know who Jesus is, what He did, and what He is going to do.
I hope you are having a good week, and I am praying that God will put you and me in a position to be that messenger.