Recently I have been challenged into a role
I am not used to or specifically want to do and I am finding it difficult and
at times want to run, but it is really good for me as I am learning and growing
and learning to draw on Jesus in a whole new way. But there have been times when I have wanted to run away and
just be ‘free’ to do what I believe I am called to be. But then the Lord reminds me that
actually Sarah, this is what I am calling you to right now.
I am continually reminded of a quote that
Heidi Baker says “Lord I don’t do children”, and He replied “you do now”.
But in the process I am seeing around me some people in the Christian church that
this is very much the case that when challenged with something that they don’t
want to do, then they move on instead of sticking with what the Lord has called
them to or the place He has put them in.
And in this process we have to ask ourselves, is this actually about us,
or is it about doing the will of Jesus, the one who calls us and equips us for
every good work that he has put in front of us? Many a time as I look around me, I find a very ‘selfish’
body that really in reality it is all about them and what they can get out of
it, rather than about what they can do and serve or give, in order to see the
Kingdom of God advance and Jesus name be lifted high rather than their own.
I asked someone recently, “if I asked you
to clean the toilets for a month, would you do it?” The answer was interesting. It posed the question of serving one another and of
giving not expecting anything in return.
And is Jesus in me, the person in whom was asking her to help? Poses lots of questions really.
Often I find myself seeing people willingly
giving when they want to give and grudgingly giving, if at all, when it doesn’t
benefit themselves in some way.
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| Lets be a people who rejoice in all things and serve God cheerfully |
I see it is very much a case in society in
general today and I hesitate that it is rubbing off in the Christian
church. This sense of “if it feels
good then I will do it” but if it doesn’t, then they wont. So how does that line up with my
precious Jesus who of course didn’t want to go to the cross and cried out to
the Lord for it to be taken from Him, but submitted himself to the will of His
father and to those persecuting him, as we are called to submit to those around
us and more so to those in authority?
I want to encourage you from my own
experience that when I have submitted to those in authority over me and humbled
myself and cleaned a bathroom for a month, or done what people have asked of me
when I have just wanted to run, then I have found I have always learnt precious
lessons in what Jesus was showing me through those times. I have also found that when my attitude was in alignment to
the will of God, that of rejoicing in all circumstances, then His supernatural
grace has come and given me everything I have needed to help me walk the
journey. But when my attitude has
not been that encouraging, it has been a very difficult journey. And so I have learnt through all
situations and I encourage people to give and serve out of a grateful heart of
everything Jesus has given us, a
heart full of thanksgiving and allowing His grace to come in your time of need
and not to run when it ‘doesn’t feel good’ but rather be a people who
others can rely on, a people who serve one another as if serving the Lord, and
when you do, God will lift you up.
Col 3:24 "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving."
Eph 6:7 "Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free."