How can I serve God best today? It’s a question each of us should ask at the beginning of each day. The way we frame our days determines how we live our lives. If we wait for life to just happen to us, we will constantly be in a reactionary mode, and this is not the optimal way to live. Reacting results in circumstances dictating our own actions. A better way to live is to proactively and intentionally influence what circumstances will actually occur in our life. Remember the old saying that the best defense is a good offense? That sports analogy works well in life. We want to make our lives happen rather than wait for things to happen to us. As followers of Jesus, the absolute best way we can do this is to determine ahead of time how we will impact our world for Christ each day.
Luke
Come and See
What is it God wants to do in your life? God says, “This is what I have for you; come and see!” But we respond, “Oh no Lord; not me!” Why is our faith so weak that we cannot believe that God can do whatever He wants to accomplish in our lives? Why is our vision so small that we can only dream of what is possible through our own strength? Paul said in Philippians 4:13 that he could do all things through the strength of Christ. All things! He didn’t say some things or easy things, but all things.
Worth It All
It seems the longer we know Christ, the easier it is to become anesthetized to what He actually did on our behalf. We know the story of Jesus, how he became one of us only to die in our place. It’s a tragic but beautiful story. Too often that’s all it is to us. Whatever emotion and power we once took from the story has long since been replaced with nostalgia and boredom. How else do we explain the way we live? God gave His only Son to come and die for the wrongs we have done, yet we live our lives in casual indifference to that fact.
Safe Prayers
Reading through Jefferson Bethke’s book, “Jesus>Religion”, I was struck by his comment that too many Christians say “safe” prayers. Let me give you a couple of examples of what I mean by “safe” prayers. When we pray for missionaries or those facing persecution, we tend to pray for their safety. Pastors pray for the safety of those with them before doing an outreach event in some more dangerous parts of town. The problem is I never see Jesus, His disciples, or anyone in the early church praying for safety. Where did we get this model? I propose we start praying different prayers, prayers that are more aligned to what Jesus taught, and prayers that are far more relevant and powerful.
We Could Feed the World
Every now and then you hear a statistic that nearly knocks you off your feet. This week my pastor mentioned in his sermon that $450 billion dollars will be spent on Christmas shopping this year. That’s mind-numbing enough, but he had one more statistic to add. We could feed the entire world for $15 billion. Quick math shows we could feed everyone who is hungry 30 times over, just on what we will spend on Christmas this year alone. We’ve gotten things upside down in the Kingdom. We love to say, “Jesus first”, but our spending habits dictate otherwise.