It’s All His
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Psalm 24
1 The earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof,
the world and those who dwell therein
I’ve been meditating on this passage of scripture last night and this morning. If we don’t meditate on the scripture, we can lose a lot of meaning from God’s Word.
We say “Yeah, the Earth is the Lord’s. That’s kind of a given isn’t it”? Not really.
If we start looking at our lives in relation to the Gospel, we don’t live like the Earth is the Lord’s. If we are honest, we live like our lives our ours to choose to live how we want, we spend our money like it is ours and we can do what we want, and we pick scripture that we choose to follow and others we choose to “not listen to”.
That phrase “and the fullness thereof ” accentuates the fact that everything truly belongs to Him and Him alone. From the oxygen you breath, your family, to the things that you worship and give a greater place to than Him. It is all His!
Do we (includes me) act like our lives are truly His? Do our actions reflect a life submitted to Christ? I’m sure everyone can say there is something they are struggling to trust and give God control of. This is why we need His grace so terribly. Our need reflects our inadequacy. Our struggle for control reveals our powerlessness.
Jesus does allow us to experience failure, loss, hunger, frustration, poverty. It is not out of anger that God does this because has already paid the full penalty for our sins and transgressions. He took the consequenses for disobedience, the shame of our failures, and the punishment for our transgressions. What didn’t God do that allows me to go through these things? Why do we suffer? We suffer to bring Him glory, that in these weak, disobedient, wicked shells that will one day pass away, His glory can be made manifest. I am no longer being punished for my sin. I may be disciplined, but I am never rejected. We are His children, and the Father disciplines those He loves. I may go through difficult times but the Father will never leave or forsake us. EVER. We experience suffering because our hearts wander, we lack trust in Him, or we try to find our needs met outside of Christ.
Why do we struggle financially? It is because we do not trust God to provide so we strive, stress, and look for any other way under the sun to find security and sustenance. He will allow us to continue to struggle financially not as a punishment, but that we may through that suffering come to the understanding that He is our provider. Why do people struggle to find peace and turn to drugs and alcohol? It is because they do not find peace in the cross of Christ and do not allow God to bear the weight of our cares. God allows us to experience this lack of peace till we understand where we are to find true peace.
The Lord contends for our hearts. His Spirit works in our lives to make us aware of our need for Him, and reminds us that everything belongs to Him.
Kevin
The Power of a Wastebasket
Image by London Permaculture via Flickr
I order supplies for my department at work. This time when I made my order, I ordered new wastebaskets for everyone. The ones everyone had were so bad that the garbage bag in the wastebasket was holding the wastebasket together! We got the wastebaskets in today and as I passing them out and taking the old one out, everyone is talking about wastebaskets and you could sense an air of excitement and happiness as a result of getting the new wastebasket.
It seems like such a simple thing, and most of the people didn’t think about the fact that their wastebasket falling apart, but were so happy to have the new one which only helped to show the dilapidated shape of the ones they had. It also gave people some hope, because we have had quite a few people laid off in our department and seeing that the company is still investing in our area gave some people hope that there is a future for them.
It’s kinda like what the gospel does. God takes the old life that we have made a mess of, that is falling apart, and barely holding together, and seems useless, and replaces it with something so much greater, and new and gives us focus and purpose for our lives. We don’t even realize how out of control and a mess we are until we get a grasp of the gospel and realize how lost we truly were without Him.
We carry that power of hope within us by His Holy Spirit, and we have the opportunity to share that with others. If giving someone a wastebasket can bring some joy, imagine the joy of a person who hears the gospel and believes!
The power is yours, what will you do with it?
Kevin
True Abundance
Ephesians 3 (English Standard Version)
20) Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21) to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
I think sometimes that this is a tough pill to swallow. You look at your checkbook and it’s empty. You look at the calendar and there’s way too much time between now and the next paycheck. You look at the state of your marriage and there seems to be no hope. You see your kids acting as if they were spawned from Satan himself. The car is broken and you have no idea how you are going to get it fixed.
It’s times like these that make it hard to have faith. It’s times like these that make you throw up your hands in surrender. Your done. You quit. It’s over. Finished. “Take me home God, I’m of no use to You here!”
I know, I’ve said and done all these at one point or another, and on more than one occasion. There are times I am still tempted. I would be a liar if I said otherwise, but at some point something has to change on the inside of us. Something on the inside of us has to say “enough”!
Let me give you an example. I have seen zero in my checking more than once in my lifetime. One day, I was school shopping, cause kids need clothes for school. I knew that it was going to put us close to zero. Well, I saw this shirt that I liked and God told me he wanted me to get the shirt and give it to someone else! My first thought, naturally, is that if I’m going to spend my last few bucks getting a shirt I liked, it was going to be for me! My second was that I need to hold on to that money cause I was going to need it. God wanted to teach me a principle. This was a test, a test of the “are you going to be obedient and trust God system.” I decided to obey God. I felt like something changed inside of me. I felt defiant. I felt like I just walked up to the bully on the playground and spit in his face, and knocked his lights out! I felt like I gave the spirit of lack a superman punch to the temple. It felt good.
Let me just say it didn’t change the fact that I was broke, but it did change my mind-set, and that was worth more than it’s weight in gold! The freedom I felt didn’t fill my tummy much the rest of the week, but something very powerful happened that day. I’m sure some of you thought I was going to say that someone gave me money, or someone handed me the keys to a Rolls Royce or something. (Haha) I got something far more important; abundantly above what I would have thought to ask for! If I would have had a choice, I would have asked for money. What was imparted was better!
according to the power at work within us
God is trying to do a deeper work in us than money, or wealth, or cars could ever do. He is imparting His very nature inside of us. Things that neither moth, or rust, or decay could ever destroy. Things that are eternal, incorruptable, and immovable.
Romans 8:20-22
20) For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21) that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22) For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.
God is trying to birth something in you greater than anything you can measure by weights and rulers. He is transforming our corrupted ways and thinking into the likeness of His Son Jesus. He wants to pour out His gifts of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control in you and through you. Let His Spirit lead you into true abundance that only comes from an obedient and willing heart.
Kevin
