“So we keep on praying for you, asking our God to enable you to live a life worthy of His call. May He give you the power to accomplish all the good things your faith prompts you to do. Then the name of our Lord Jesus will be honored because of the way you live, and you will be honored along with Him. This is all made possible because of the grace of our God and Lord, Jesus Christ.” (2 Thessalonians 1:11-12 NLT)
Have you come to understand that God has a plan for your life? Your life specifically? Yes, of course, God has a general plan for everyone of us collectively to be His visible Body on earth, but of what value is a blurred picture of humanity apart from “snapshots” of individual believers? The Lord didn’t assign His whole Body to reach the people in my spheres of influence, He chose me.
Similarly, there are people only you can reach for the Lord. Yes, very likely the people in your assigned area know others who are following Jesus, but they might not. And even if they do that doesn’t mean that another believer will be as sensitive to God’s Spirit as you are when it comes to reaching family and friends for Jesus.
As I understand it, God’s plan is for each of us to become His eyes, ears, feet, and voice to those with whom we have contact – family, friends, co-workers, classmates, neighbors, those we “hang out with,” or those with whom we enjoy recreation. In short, everyone in our spheres of influence, which very likely includes far more people than we realize.
So, what is our assignment? In short, it’s to be Jesus to each one with whom we have influence. But how? Craig Groeschel summed it up this way: “Our assignment isn’t to show others how good we are. Our assignment is to show others how good God is.”
Have you ever considered how good God is? What makes God so good? There aren’t enough pages available in the world to fully describe the goodness of God, but for starters think about His grace, mercy, kindness, thoughtfulness, power, majesty, creativity, and, very likely at the top of our list will be His undeserved, unearned, and too often unappreciated LOVE!
Behind every act of God is love. Think of the two brothers in Luke 15 – the one who left home and the one who stayed. One voluntarily chose to give up his access to his father in exchange for what his father’s money could buy for him. As long as the money flowed, he was at the top of his game, but when the money “well” went dry he quickly learned he was never the object of his “friends” affection anyway.
On the other hand, the son who chose to stay close to his father was as far from “home” in his heart as his wayward brother. Proximity doesn’t guarantee closeness, only love and devotion can do that. The younger son wanted with all his heart to be a “winner.” He wanted acceptance, freedom to run his own life, believing he knew far better than his father what that should look like.
But when he failed, he finally learned the truth: winners aren’t the ones who cross the proverbial “finish line” first, they’re winners because they finish the race. We may fail more than we “win,” but the prize goes to those who keep kicking, scratching, and crawling until the day finally comes when they cross the finish line, not to win an earthly prize or treasure, but to finally fall into the waiting arms of their heavenly Father.
Therein lies the motivation for us to fulfil God’s plan for each of us.
Food for thought.
Blessings, Ed 😊
Walking With Jesus 