Through Jesus' Love

God calls us first and foremost to be obedient in the small things.  He promises that He will reward us with larger responsibilities and larger blessings, but only after we have been obedient in our day-to-day lives.  

God is watching to see if we serve Him by calling or helping friends in need, putting the concerns of others before our own and loving others as we love ourselves – even when we don’t feel like it.  In the process, we prove that we are rightly related to Our Heavenly Father and we consequently grow in our relationship with Him.  

God is totally responsible for the salvation of His beloved children.    
It is His desire that all will accept the saving grace offered through His Son.  His plan for salvation was completed when His Son shed His Blood, died on the Cross and resurrected into Heaven.

He will never ask us to “save” a single person.  He will, however, ask us to allow His Son to be presented to the world through the lives that we lead.  While He will not ask us to save anyone, He will ask us to help Him by living a life that will induce everyone that we come into contact with to seek the Lord that dwells within us.

Think how liberating it would be if your boss told you to do something, but added, “Do what I ask of you.  Do not worry about the results.  I will join you in your work and I will be responsible for delivering the outcome that I desire.  You will be richly rewarded for your perseverance in the task no matter what happens.”  

This, in essence, is where God wants us.  He wants us to serve Him without any concern of the outcome.  He wants us to express our faith in Him, knowing that He will fulfill what He asks us to do for Him.  He wants us to express our devotion to Him as our co-worker.  He wants us to give Him the honor and the glory in the end.

At some point, all men and women will fail one another.  Humans simply are not capable of standing with each other through all circumstances.  Our precious Lord Jesus, however, never fails us under even the direst of circumstances, not even the ones that we have created ourselves.  

We must learn to lead our lives with our focus steadfastly placed on Jesus.  He is the only standard bearer that is capable of supporting us through all tribulation.

It is very easy to say, “I give up.  I cannot do it.”  To do so is even acceptable if it is in reference to some earthly pursuit.  But if what we are pursuing is of God, then giving up is denying the promises of God Himself.

We are to be anxious in nothing for God promises to take care of our every need and He promises to finish anything that He has called us to do.  The victory is in fact complete before we are even aware of our calling to its pursuit.

We should never feel as if we are good enough or strong enough to withstand the temptations of Satan without the assistance of the Holy Spirit.  If we begin to feel like we are strong enough to defend ourselves against the enemy through our own righteous behavior, we are setting ourselves up for a downfall.

Satan has thousands of years of experience in deceiving mankind.  He delights in bringing down those who believe that they can stand alone against him.  He is an expert in finding and exploiting our areas of vulnerability.  Our only defense against Satan, our only certainty in victory is by taking on of the full armor of God at all times through prayer, reading of the Word and obedience to Our Heavenly Father.

Once we have submitted ourselves totally to God, we no longer try to get the Lord to bless what we want to do for Him.  Instead, we seek His guidance in directing our lives in such a way that He can do His work through us.  We become ready vessels of His perfect love and eager instruments to do His good work.  The how, when, what and where of our service become unimportant.

The real intimate relationship that Jesus Christ seeks to have with each of us can begin to flourish only when we have fully submitted our lives to Him.  To be in full submission, we must come to the place where we are willing to give up anything and everything.  We must come to a moment in time when nothing is more important to us than our relationship with Our King.  

Jesus must know that it is the desire of our hearts to give Him all that we have, all that we are, all that we will every have and all that we will ever be.   He must see us rejoicing in the knowledge that we will be serving Him for all eternity.   When He knows that that we have released everything to Him for His eternal glory, there is nothing that Our Master will withhold from us.   

When we are abiding in the will of God for our lives, we are constantly moving closer to Him.  We are continuously being prepared for a greater work.  During this time of growth, we may at times feel like we do not know where we are going.  At these times, we must call on our faith to continue to move us forward.  We must recognize that although we may feel that we have no direction that God is guiding us according to His perfect light.

Once the Holy Spirit dwells within us, there will be no rest if we try to keep something in our lives that is offensive to God.  Whether it be an act of commission or omission, the Holy Spirit will not allow it.

To try to keep one foot in the kingdom and one foot on earth is an exercise in pure torment.  It may even seem less painful to side with the devil than to try to serve two masters.  Of course, siding with the devil leads to an eternity of torment.