Wow....Why Didn't I Think Of This?

Romans 6:16

Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness.

I have really been hit hard with how selfish I am. Even as a believer, I somehow have this incredibly twisted notion that God was suppose to focus himself on me. Now there is some truth in this statement. When I am saved, I begin a relationship with God that involves communication between us. He speaks to me through Spirit and Word and I return the conversation through prayer and my actions. But even in all of this, somehow deep deep down inside....I mean way down inside, I had the mistaken notion that God existed to make my life one of comfort. That blessings should follow me around like rain clouds as God poured out on me the "goodies" of the day.

I mean, I was whacked by the Holy Spirit with a heavenly "Wake Up!"

Once saved, my focus should turn outward to God. Not to God for what He can do for me, but for what I can do for him. As a pastor, many feel that I have a greater responsibility than they do. After all, I am a pastor. Teaching, preaching, witnessing, counseling, praying, doing the stuff of Jesus. That all falls under the "pastor" category. Well, truth is....if you are a believer, then you are brought under the same list. We have all been called to "make disciples".  Not to catch people and collect 'em into a church where we tell them all to sit down, fill out the tithe card, sing the songs, maybe join the choir. These are not bad and in fact are all part of the church culture. But what about our personal life? What are we to do with that?

We have given our lives to God.
We have accepted Jesus and the work He did on the cross and the tomb.
Because of this He now owns our very life.

It is His to do with as He pleases. With that in mind, then I bring to bear everything in me to allow myself to used by Jesus for his purposes and the Kingdom rule.

So, my call is to make myself available to Jesus every minute of every day.

"That sounds like hard work, " you may be saying.

It is.
But then again so is sin and hell.

Leonard Ravenhill said that God cares not one wit about our comfort. He cares about our heart and the call that He has given to each believer to take care of their little part of His Kingdom.

Do you not realize that for years, you have prayed the most powerful prayer ever written in Scripture. I dare say that there are many who have never spoken these words.

Matthew 6:10

Thy Kingdom come ....They will be done....on earth as it is in heaven."

These words are coming from our mouth directed to God.

"Hey God....Let your rule and reign come down here to earth......And let your will be done here in Attalla, Alabama as it is being carried out in heaven."  Cool! How does God get His will done here on good ol' planet Earth? By working through us. By calling us and equipping us to carry it out. We are the hands, feet, arms, fingers, eyes, ears, heart and voice that carry the work and will of God Almighty. As it says in I Corinthians 1:27 - "But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong."

Did you catch that?
I am the foolish thing God has chosen. And you know what? I am perfectly aware of how foolish I am. I do not possess any credential at all that would vindicated and qualify my ability to pastor here at Rapha.
Oh I have a certificate that shows my ordination, but that is all. What that really says is, "Michael Bynum has a call to minister and preach the Gospel of Christ." It was God that laid hold of me and said, "I need you to go to Rapha and I want you to restore broken vessels so they can hold and contain the living water that I am going to offer."

I have to remain focused on God.
Especially now that the days around us are growing darker spiritually.
I don't stand in fear because of this, but I turn my focus even more to God.
The more I focus on Him, the more everything else seems to grow faint and disappear around me.

It's time we quit navel-gazing...
It's time we focus on Jesus......

God on you.....

mb