Tag: instruments of His good work

Our Life Tapestry

1 Peter 4:13
But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.

If we are to be used by God, He will allow us to go through a multitude of experiences that are meant to transform us into instruments of His good work. Some of the experiences will be easy, but some of the experiences will certainly be difficult. All will be meticulously worked into the fabric of our lives with the final product in mind.

We need to understand that the sufferings that we go through are not those of ordinary men and women. We are being prepared for greater things to come. While we view our lives in the fabric of time, God views our lives in the fabric of eternity. While all we see is the weaving of one single thread at a time, God sees the final finished product all woven together in accordance with His will and plan for our lives.

Because God is who He is, the final product will be much more beautiful and useful than anything that we could ever even imagine or hope for. We will get to realize it when we stand before the Father in glory and the whole tapestry is revealed to us.

Let us be joyful as every single thread of our lives is being stitched into place by Almighty God. Let us rejoice and be glad in anticipation of the final tapestry that God has prepared for us as we share in the glory of His Son.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for allowing us to experience life through many different trials. We rejoice in knowing that when we are struggling in the tribulations that the world brings to our door that Your Holy Spirit is always there strengthening us and guiding us to the next experience that You have set aside for us. Father, we pray for the patient perseverance to endure through all that You have prepared for us. May we be transformed according to Your will and plan for our lives. We ask all these things in the name of our Spiritual Rock, Jesus Christ.

Our Path of Service is Secure

Luke 9:61
Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.”

In the final passage in Luke 9, there are a number of verses which point out the costs of following Jesus. In essence, each cost mentioned really applies to the type of excuses we will come up with to delay following what the Lord is calling us to do.

One of the most common excuses for many of us is “I am not capable or I am not ready to take on such a task.” There is a faith gap that prevents us from believing that we can do what the Lord is asking of us. We question the calling because it goes against our natural instincts.

Other common excuses seem to come from our friends and our family. The world is eager to step in and divert us from any calling of the Lord. It is remarkable how quickly those around us can cause us to step away from what God has ordained for us.

When we finally move forward with what God has asked us to do, we find out it never was about our ability nor about our worldly affairs. It was about our faith in God. When God calls us to do anything, large or small, we should leap into action with confidence in the One who called us. It is through Him that the good work is done. We are only instruments of His love.

Let us block out the questioning of those around us. Let us shield ourselves from the attacks of the enemy. Let us step out in faith upon the path of service that the Lord has prepared for us for He has already secured our way.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for choosing us to be instruments of Your good work. We rejoice in knowing that we can share Your love with the world around us in so many different and powerful ways. We pray that You open our eyes and prepare our hearts so that we do not delay any good work that You have set aside for us. We ask all these things in the name of the One that determines our steps, Jesus Christ.

Serving Without Concern for Results

1 Corinthians 3:9
For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.

The first day on any job is generally very exciting and also somewhat stressful. Immediately, we are naturally concerned about the results that we are going to be able to produce in our new job. Consider how liberating it would be if the first thing our new boss told us was, “Just follow my instruction and do not worry about the results. I will be responsible for the results. You will be richly rewarded for following my instruction no matter what happens.”

If the boss we choose to serve is Our Father in heaven, then we have found the liberating boss that we have always longed for. More importantly, this is where God wants us. He wants us to serve Him without any concern about the outcome other than to have the faith that He will fulfill what He asks us to do for Him. He simply wants us to be instruments of His work, living vessels of His perfect love and forgiveness.

It may be entirely possible that we are taking on work for which no man is sufficient. Yet in submission to the Father, we are only asked to be diligent and faithful in carrying out our calling. We are certain to find that we have a co-laborer in Christ. Our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, will look over us, direct us and strengthen us as we do our part in bringing in His harvest.

Let us humbly sit at the feet of Our Master, Jesus Christ. Let us join Him in the work that He does for His Father in heaven. Let us rejoice in the service that we are called to do.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for allowing us to join You in Your work. We rejoice in knowing that You receive great honor and glory when Your children surrender to the rule and reign of Jesus Christ in their lives. Open our eyes so that we may see what You are calling us to do in Your kingdom. Release in us all the power and authority that is ours through Jesus Christ. Shield us from taking on destructive personal pride as we see success when doing Your work. We ask all these things in the name of the One who saved us and called us to join Him in serving His Father in heaven, Jesus Christ.

Christ Revealed by Our Lives

1 Corinthians 9:22
To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.

Paul shared with the Corinthians his passion to carry out the good work of delivering the message of salvation to all men. He emphasized that this required him to be a servant to all men, regardless of their stature or their spiritual state. In doing so, he was also teaching them that carrying the gospel to all men was their calling also.

God calls people to all walks of life to insure that His gospel message is spread to the world. He calls some to full time ministry, but most are not. Most of us are called to traditional occupations and lifestyles where the Lord wants us to let Christ be revealed by the way we live and by the way we treat others.

God wishes for our messages of love, compassion and forgiveness to be the same whether we are in a boardroom or in a maintenance shop, whether we are in a health club or in a hospital, whether we are at a church function or in the visiting room of a prison. He wants our messaging system to be on non-stop.

Let us surrender our lives to Our Savior. Let us allow the gentle urgings of the Holy Spirit to draw spiritual production from us within the structure of our natural lives. Let us strive to have our living testimonies become pathways to salvation for others.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the perfect love, compassion and forgiveness that You pour out onto each of us. We praise the name of Jesus who made it possible for us to become vessels of Your grace. We pray that the Holy Spirit will enlighten us and invigorate us to carry the salvation message with us as we walk through our daily lives. May we bear fruit for Your kingdom wherever our paths on earth lead us. We ask all these things in the name of the Tower of Salvation, Jesus Christ.

Co-Laborers With Christ

1 Corinthians 3:9
For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.

The first day on any job is generally very exciting and also somewhat stressful. Immediately, we are naturally concerned about the results that we are going to be able to produce in our new job. Consider how liberating it would be if the first thing our new boss told us was, “Just follow my instruction and do not worry about the results. I will be responsible for the results. You will be richly rewarded for following my instruction no matter what happens.”

If the boss we choose to serve is Our Father in heaven, then we have found the liberating boss that we have always longed for. More importantly, this is where God wants us. He wants us to serve Him without any concern about the outcome other than to have the faith that He will fulfill what He asks us to do for Him. He simply wants us to be instruments of His work, living vessels of His perfect love and forgiveness.

It may be entirely possible that we are taking on work for which no man is sufficient. Yet in submission to the Father, we are only asked to be diligent and faithful in carrying out our calling. We are certain to find that we have a co-laborer in Christ. Our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, will look over us, direct us and strengthen us as we do our part in bringing in His harvest.

Let us humbly sit at the feet of Our Master, Jesus Christ. Let us join Him in the work that He does for His Father in heaven. Let us rejoice in the service that we are called to do.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for allowing us to join You in Your work. We rejoice in knowing that You receive great honor and glory when Your children surrender to the rule and reign of Jesus Christ in their lives. Open our eyes so that we may see what You are calling us to do in Your kingdom. Release in us all the power and authority that is ours through Jesus Christ. Shield us from taking on destructive personal pride as we see success when doing Your work. We ask all these things in the name of the One who saved us and called us to join Him in serving His Father in heaven, Jesus Christ.

Finding Comfort in Our Tangled Mess

2 Thessalonians 2:16-17
Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal comfort and a wonderful hope, comfort you and strengthen you in every good thing you do and say.

When we are in full submission to Jesus Christ, we have prepared ourselves to allow the bountiful power of the Holy Spirit to be released in our lives and through us to the world around us. At this juncture, we are capable of doing all that God has created and willed for our lives. In this process, we have to learn that God is using us from His personal standpoint. All that He asks is that we trust in Him.

Even when it seems to us that our lives are a tangled mess, there is always the wonderful hope in the promises of Almighty God. Through His grace and His mercy, we will come through whatever trials that we see ourselves caught in.

Let us find our comfort and our strength by listening for and responding to the urgings of the Holy Spirit. Let us be diligent in listening and responding to the Holy Spirit. Let us give the honor and the glory to Almighty God as our lives become productive and our fruit for the kingdom becomes plentiful.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the free grace and mercy that our hopes are based on. We praise the name of Jesus, who is the fountain of all the good that we have hope for. Father, we pray for the strength to overcome our doubtful minds that make us halting in our duties. May You grant us the unwavering faith that we need to set aside our own self-reliance and to learn to trust in Your promises. May we be comforted in our hearts as we await all the good things that You have already set aside for us and our loved ones. We ask all these things in the name of the One who is the complete fulfillment of all of Your promises, Jesus Christ.

The Endless Journey of Discovering the Power of God

Job 26:14
Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways, and how small a whisper do we hear of him! But the thunder of his power who can understand?”

It is completely breathtaking to realize that we have only seen a mere portion of Almighty God’s power. It is quite inspiring to know that in Heaven we will be on an endless journey of enjoying and discovering all of God’s divine capacity.

Just think that all that has been revealed to us about Our Heavenly Father through the experiences of the ages and through the writings in His Holy Word is only a foretelling of His omnipotence. What we see of Him on earth and what we read of Him in the scriptures are illustrative of His awesome nature, but most of what He does each and every day is invisible to us. To name all the wondrous powers of Almighty God would be as fruitless as trying to count the stars.

God’s never ending works are completely immeasurable. They extend well beyond our ability to conceive of His might. We can be certain that what we see or know of Him is nothing in comparison of what we do not know about Him. Yet, we can be even more certain that all of His mighty wonders were eclipsed when He gave us His Son as the way, the truth and the life. With that gracious act of mercy and that unfathomable expression of His perfect love, He opened the gateways of heaven for all of His children to become heirs to His kingdom for all of eternity.

Let us press on through the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives so that we may grow in our knowledge of the Lord and all His ways. Let us become willing vessels of His power and living testimonies of His love so that others will seek to know Him.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, thank You for drawing us to Yourself through the exhibition of Your divine power throughout the ages. We exalt the name of Jesus as the most wondrous expression of Your perfect love and forgiveness. We ask that the Holy Spirit instruct us in knowing about You and lead us into a personal relationship with You through Your Son, Jesus. We pray that we will become instruments of Your good work and vessels of Your perfect love and forgiveness. May the world know You through our obedience in following Your calling on our lives. We ask all these things in the name of the dunamis power of God, Jesus Christ.

It is Never About Our Ability

Luke 9:61
Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.”

In the final passage in Luke 9, there are a number of verses which point out the costs of following Jesus. In essence, each cost mentioned really applies to the type of excuses we will come up with to delay following what the Lord is calling us to do.

One of the most common excuses for many of us is “I am not capable or I am not ready to take on such a task.” There is a faith gap that prevents us from believing that we can do what the Lord is asking of us. We question the calling because it goes against our natural instincts.

Other common excuses seem to come from our friends and our family. The world is eager to step in and divert us from any calling of the Lord. It is remarkable how quickly those around us can cause us to step away from what God has ordained for us.

When we finally move forward with what God has asked us to do, we find out it never was about our ability nor about our worldly affairs. It was about our faith in God. When God calls us to do anything, large or small, we should leap into action with confidence in the One who called us. It is through Him that the good work is done. We are only instruments of His love.

Let us block out the questioning of those around us. Let us shield ourselves from the attacks of the enemy. Let us step out in faith upon the path of service that the Lord has prepared for us for He has already secured our way.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for choosing us to be instruments of Your good work. We rejoice in knowing that we can share Your love with the world around us in so many different and powerful ways. We pray that You open our eyes and prepare our hearts so that we do not delay any good work that You have set aside for us. We ask all these things in the name of the One that determines our steps, Jesus Christ.