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“Thus says the Lord who made it, the Lord who formed it to establish it (the Lord is His name); Call to me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.” Jeremiah 33:2-3

Generally, when we see a verse like the one above, we are excited that as we ask God to show us great and mighty things, He is willing to open our spiritual eyes and give us the things we are looking for.

However, verse 2 is critical to meditate on before we move into verse 3. The Lord reminds us of His name. When the Lord spoke to His prophets such as Moses, He didn’t come with His resume` and a list of qualifications, to prove His idea would work. When God told Moses to go to Pharaoh, Moses asked God a question. Let’s take a look at Exodus 3:13-14.

“Then Moses said to God, “Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they say to me, ‘What is His name?’ what shall I say to them?”  And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”

Instead of the Lord trying to prove to Moses and the Israelites who He was, He declared Himself as the “I AM”. This is the all encompassment of who God is, which is so much more profound and deeper than any man can comprehend. All truth, all knowledge, all power, & all insight belong to Him. He is the God who has formed all things, and the past, present, and the future belong to Him; man only continues to learn and discover what the Lord put in place thousands of years ago.

When we look at the book of Genesis, we find that Adam walked with God in the cool of the day. His knowledge came from his intimacy with God. He knew God and Adam had knowledge of how to live right because he was in relationship with the Lord of the universe. His knowledge was relational. The sin in the Garden of Eden brought about a curse. The curse was that we lost the privilege of fully knowing the Lord and being in relationship with Him. The curse also caused us to know things which we didn’t need to know.

We were born to know God and walk with Him, but when sin entered the world, doubt and unbelief entered the heart of man. As a result we entertained thoughts and actions apart from the will of God. Our eyes were opened to various possibilities of evil which defiled us and caused us to walk in sin. When sin entered our hearts, it caused us to become survival oriented and self focused rather than God focused. As a result we had a breakdown in our relationship with the God. Man became insecure. Sin also became a slave master that we had to either live under or try to overcome.

The majority of the years we walk with God has one of two characteristics. We are either asking Him to intervene in our lives and our circumstances, or we are asking Him to show us how to be useful in His kingdom.  As a result, if we allow ourselves, we can have a tendency to focus on what our natural eyes see, and our prayers become shallow prayers for God to save us in a situation.

As Jeremiah 33 reminds us, the essence of our relationship with God is to call out to Him and He will show us great and mighty things. Those great and might things could be; a) God’s wisdom and counsel for a tough situation at work, b) His protective power over you, c) a new understanding for a person who has been difficult to love,  d)His acceptance of you in the midst of opposition, and a whole host of other revelations that He desires for you. We come to Him calling out to Him inviting Him to reveal Himself.

The more we have a revelation of the “I AM”, the more settled we are with the circumstances of our lives. Unless the issue of knowing the “I AM” is continually part of our prayers, we will be addicted to a lifestyle of looking at what He can do for us, and using Him as our butler and missing out on knowing Him as our LORD. When we continue to seek Him for the” I AM” He is, He will show us great and mighty things because that is part of His nature. If we ask the right question, He will gladly reveal and expose what He desires so much to give us. How does your prayer life look? Do the majority of your prayers revolve around seeking His hand in your life? Or are you seeking His face and to know the “I AM”?

Would you rather be a follower or a leader?

In our American culture being a follower is looked down upon. We usually associate followers with those who can’t think for themselves or they just want to fit it. On the other hand, we greatly esteem being a leader and encourage our children and others to strive to be a leader. Even the church culture values gifted, capable, articulate people and thinks of them as future leaders.

I wonder if that is why a lot of churches struggle with having people serve in various ministries, because people are looking for a leadership position!! Interesting!! Unfortunately, this is not Christianity according to Jesus but it’s American Christianity.

Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. Matthew 16:24

According to the above scripture, the true believers should be known as followers. We follow and we serve all the days of our lives. The tasks, capacities, or positions we hold will vary over the years, but in whatever capacity we are, we are called to follow Christ and serve the people. Christians don’t follow because they are weak or can’t think for themselves. They follow because they have relinquished their own pride, understanding, charisma, and they have surrendered it all to the cross. When the world looks at a believer, they should see a man or a woman of God who is following the Lord. These individuals don’t speak for themselves, they’re not proud, and they don’t lord it over the people. They only speak, act, or do, because they are representing their King.

If we are going to follow Jesus we must take up our cross. So many of us want to follow Jesus but instead of taking up our cross we take up our past experiences, past career, education, and notoriety as to ensure people know we were somebody before I knew Jesus!!! Well, if you were somebody before you knew Jesus why didn’t you stay the way you were? The sheer fact that you chose to follow Jesus should be an indication that you being somebody wasn’t good enough to keep even yourself impressed! This does not mean that having a title, or position is bad, but  it is a problem if it is your identity. So if you chose to follow Jesus then why aren’t you laying down all the worldly recognitions? Do you want to ensure that if you are not recognized as somebody in His kingdom you have something to fall back on? Isn’t that called double-mindedness? We esteem people with worldly success, and so when they accept Jesus we treat them as if they have done Jesus a favor!

We are leaders when we submit to Jesus and lead a life that sets the proper example first for our families and then for others. However, when being a leader becomes an issue of title or identity, then it’s time to slow down and re-evaluate our priorities. There is a great chance that we have developed a false sense of security and identity. Jesus called us to be His disciples and follow Him while taking up our cross which means die to our own ideas of self significance and identity. Follow Him!!! Being a great follower of Jesus allows us the privilege to set the right example for others but because we are carrying our cross while following Jesus we are in a great place of humility and surrender. The focus is not on us; it is on Him.

Let’s instill this in our children that they are called to be followers of Christ. If they pursue this, the Lord will develop them to be good leaders in their sphere of influence.

It is amazing and very freeing when we get Jesus’ Perspective on our lives.  As I was listening to the Lord and asking Him to speak to me, I just suddenly had a revelation. Almost everyday,  at some point during the day, I think about fulfilling my purpose. Unfortunately, many times, I walk away thinking that I am not utilizing my time or my life well. But this morning, I started thinking, is Jesus worried about my life? Is he concerned about my purpose in life? If He is not, and I don’t think that He is then why am I worried?

This is what Jesus says about worry in the following scriptures:

Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Matthew 6:25

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day [is] its own trouble. Matthew 6:34

The word “worry” in this context means: to be anxious, to be troubled with cares, to seek to promote one’s interests.

First of all, Jesus has it all under control. I trust Him with my life. Secondly, the Lord is the one who has given me this life anyway. He is the one who has called me to Himself, so He must have a plan. I don’t need to be concerned or remind the Lord about my life or my purpose. He is the one who has His interests and mine in mind. Even if I decided to worry, can I even add a day to my life ?

Will it not just steal the joy and the peace of the day to think about something that I have no control over? Isn’t it a counterfeit to think that by worrying we can change things in our lives? When we trust Him, that is when the real change occurs and we stop worrying. The most important and sure change is that we settle down from striving. It makes us humble to trust Him and not know the future!!

In Matthew 11:29-30, Jesus said, “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Jesus is telling us that we should learn from Him. It means the world system has taught us something that is not of Him, but if we are going to walk with Him, we need to learn from Him. We cannot pour His truth and His spirit in the old wineskins. There is a huge conflict between the world system and the Lord’s system. We cannot reason with the world system, but then trust the Lord’s system.

If we are going to be genuine Christians who are experiencing the benefits of the kingdom, we must let go of the old ways of reasoning. We cannot hold on to our perspective and then plead with Jesus to enter our perspective. He wants us to get His perspective on our lives and our situations. Chances are the majority of our thoughts are not His thoughts.

We need to let go of our thoughts, our opinions, and the culture’s voice and start asking the Lord to put his thoughts in our minds. For example, if you are a stay at home Mom, the culture does not promote the importance of being home and raising your children, but you have to remind yourself that you are building your house and you are building generationally. That takes time and sacrifice, and you will not always see the significance of it in your daily routines or get a pat on the back.  You are raising oaks of righteousness that takes years of building, nurturing, hoping, believing and praying!!!

The scripture says that His thoughts for us outnumber the grains of sand. We need His thoughts for our lives. So if Jesus is not worried about our lives then why are we worried? Can we add a day or an hour to our lives? Can we manufacture purpose? Purpose is not man-made!! If we follow a man-made purpose, it will produce man-made results. We only want the purpose that is heaven-made. We want a purpose that has a touch of Jesus on it. A purpose that is eternal and when it goes through water or fire, it stands!!! It does not fade away. It does not diminish. It just shines brighter. That’s the kind of purpose we want to follow.

When the three Hebrew boys (Shadrach, Meshach, Abed-Nego) as described in Daniel 3 were in the furnace, they did not burn not because they were anything special but because they were in God’s purpose for that time. They did not even smell like smoke. They weren’t worried about perishing because they weren’t looking for their own interests. They just wanted to do what was right. The kind of person who has been touched by eternity’s purpose is immovable, impenetrable, and imperishable because he is carrying the seed of life that does not fade or die but it produces a tree of life with the fruit of righteousness.

Worry is a negative emotion which can cause us to do somethings in the flesh. There are things that the Lord has given us to do, which we should obey and not procrastinate, but worry is not one of them!! Worry makes you think you are doing something when in fact it does nothing except to produce anxiety, or create stress in relationships. Worry can also motivate us to do things that aren’t ours to do or are done prematurely because we have allowed this emotion to have a driving force in our lives!!!

Let’s surrender our days, our purpose and our lives to the Lord and ask Him to guide us in fulfilling His purpose in our lives.

Do you value and treasure meeting with the Lord? Jacob finally came to that point in his life. Let’s look at the steps he took to prepare to meet the Lord.

Then God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there; and make an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you fled from the face of Esau your brother.”

And Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods that are among you, purify yourselves, and change your garments.  Then let us arise and go up to Bethel; and I will make an altar there to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and has been with me in the way which I have gone.” So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods which were in their hands and the earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the terebinth tree which was by Shechem. Genesis 35:1-4

God met Jacob for the first time at Bethel when he was running away from Esau having deceived his father and stolen his brother’s inheritance through lying. (Genesis 28:15)

In Genesis 35, after years of being away from parents, marrying two women and having twelve children, Jacob is finally coming back to Bethel. In all the years that transpired Jacob was a schemer and self-preserver, but now things are finally different.

Jacob instructed his household to do the following:

Put away foreign gods: Jacob instructed his entire household to put away foreign gods. When we get comfortable in our spiritual walk, it’s easier to take on the ways of our culture, follow its path, and making it our standard. For example, we can pay a lot of attention to sports, entertainment, lofty college goals for our children, making them the focus of our prayers instead of praying for character, faithfulness, integrity, or their choice of future mate. There is nothing wrong with any of those activities as long as they have proper place in our lives and don’t become a distraction. The distractions of this age are not what we should spend “all” of our effort pursuing, but we must teach ourselves and our children to navigate in the midst of all the good stuff and choose the best of what God has for us. This means learning how to hear God and prioritize.

Purify yourselves: Jacob knew putting away foreign gods is just the beginning. Jesus said, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence”. Matthew 23:25 While it is important to put away the foreign gods, it is more important to allow the Lord to purify our hearts of any wrong motives, selfish ambition, deceit, lying, jealousy, envy, ungodly desires, and competition. Those things are obstacles to faith, obedience, and impede a person from truly trusting God.

Change your garments: Taking a bath wasn’t a daily activity in the ancient Middle East because water was not easily accessible. As a result people changed clothes after they had a bath which could be several days apart from each other. They also changed garments when there was a special occasion and were ready to celebrate something or attend a special event such as a bride and groom wearing their special garments to prepare for their special day!! In this case, Jacob was preparing himself to meet with the Lord, and he wanted to have everything right!!!

It takes effort to stay close to the Lord and meet with him. Just like a relationship with another person, it takes two to make the relationship strong and vibrant; both people have a part to play. For many years, God was merciful to Jacob in spite of Jacob, but there came a time that Jacob understood he needed and desired this relationship too, and it required him to put his sinful & immature ways aside and start living the life that honored the Lord.

Immaturity and sinfulness were not enjoyable to Jacob and they can’t be enjoyable to us either. There is a distaste for the things of the past because the Lord has changed our heart.  They must not bring the satisfaction they brought to us years ago. God changed Jacob’s name to Israel which means “God prevails”!! Jacob is a changed man who has been prevailed by God and now God could trust!!

We can’t afford to be stuck in immature or sinful ways!! Are we willing to do what it takes to have a strong and vibrant relationship with the Lord?

Then Jacob built an altar: Jacob reminds himself and his family that the God who met him there years ago when he was a single man, running away from his brother is the God who has been with Jacob, and has protected and provided for him all these years. This is a huge change for many of us including Jacob. If you are a talented, and a hard working person, it is easy to think that you have accomplished everything through your hard work. The Lord has changed Jacob’s heart. He has come to the end of his scheming years and settling into trusting God. Having done all of the above, Jacob came prepared to have a meeting with the Lord of the universe!!!

I am so thankful that the Lord did not give up on Jacob, and he doesn’t give up on us either. Every day we have a new invitation to walk closer with Him because His mercies are new every morning. Thank you Lord for your mercies towards us, and for being long suffering with us. We value your presence and you meeting with us. We love you and we desire to love you more!!!

“When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.  For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.  And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” 1Corinthians 13: 11-13

Isn’t it interesting that the scripture tells us that we should become like little children to see the kingdom of heaven, but when it comes to loving people, it tells us that we need to put childish ways away?

If you have raised children or have been around young people, you know how selfish they can be; generally, they are driven by what they want and when they want it!! It is the responsibility of their parents to teach them respect, love, sharing with others, and learning to wait for what they want so badly. Most children don’t come with that propensity, so they can easily throw a fit if things don’t go their way!!!

The above scripture tells us that we start out as children speaking childishly, with little understanding, and thinking immaturely. In our continual growth and maturity in the Lord, these three need to change.

Our speech needs to be more seasoned with salt. We can’t just speak things that cause hurt and destruction. This is easily seen in children fighting with their siblings. It is not pretty! They can say mean and hurtful things to each other. While many times they’ll get over their hurt, those words and attitudes can stay with someone into adulthood. I know it did for me.

We are also called to a mature understanding. Children generally see the world through their own eyes which makes them think the world revolves around them!! We as adults can do the same thing. It takes work to have a mature understanding of a situation especially if it involves conflict of some sort. This means I have to put my own feelings and opinions aside to have the chance to see the situation from the other person’s point of view. Seeing something from another’s point of view does not mean you agree, or their position is correct. It just allows you to see the situation from more than just your own perspective.  If we put this extra effort and time into it, we could alleviate unnecessary offense and tension. Many issues that seem huge at the moment can become smaller or eliminated if we tried to put ourselves in other people’s shoes.

Finally, we need to think right!! The scripture in Romans 12:1-2 tells us not to conform to the patterns of this world but be transformed by renewing of our minds. Sometimes the patterns of the world are the old ways of thinking that keep us immature and don’t allow us to grow up and mature. We don’t want arrested development in our walk with the Lord. We must want to grow up and change our thinking or we will stay immature regardless of all the reasons it may be difficult to change.

Can you think of examples of where 1 Corinthians 13:11-13 becomes so critical? I think about so many marriages struggling because people say hurtful things to each other. They get set in their ways, and then they start thinking all the negative thoughts about each other. That’s a recipe for disaster!! A healthy marriage will grow when both people can speak the right words to each other, put themselves in each others’ shoes, and finally, remember the other person was a gift from God and should be treated as such.

The above scripture reminds us that we don’t see or know everything clearly on this side of heaven. There are going to be times we don’t know what God is doing, but that doesn’t give us the freedom to speak, or think childishly. In order to develop maturity it requires faith to speak right, understand well, and think pure thoughts.  If we do those things we are coming out of childish behaviors and becoming the man or the woman of God that He intended for us to be. Then we love better and our love for others and for the Lord matures. We speak properly about others, we have better empathy and understanding, and we think the right thoughts because we trust Him.

I want to mature in these areas, don’t you? Lord, please help us to speak right. Give us understanding for other people, so we can see their point of view, and help us think right thoughts about ourselves, about you and about others. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

We have faith in Him because He has proven to be faithful!!

In the previous devotional, I shared that Psalm 105 is about God’s faithfulness. Verse 1 began with:

“Oh give thanks to the Lord! Call upon His name; Make known His deeds among the peoples! “

This Psalm goes on to recount God’s faithfulness to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God’s promise to Abraham was first made in Genesis 12:1-3.

At this time in history, Abraham lived in Ur. The Bible tells us he was a Chaldean. This group of people were pagans or idol worshipers. Abraham & Sarah were barren at this time.  God gives Abraham a couple of instructions:

1. Leave your country.

2. Leave your father’s house.

God’s promises several blessings to Abraham:

1. I will show you a new land. 2. I will make you a great nation. 3.  I will bless you.

4. I will make your name great.  5. You will be a blessing. 6. I will bless those who bless you.

7. I will curse him who curses you. 8. In you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

In this covenant, the Lord asks Abraham to do two things, but He promises him eight things.  Abraham is expected to let go of his surroundings, his natural family that has defined him for all his life, & the comfort of a known and established place. All this took trust on Abraham’s part. He had to believe God that what God had for him was far better than what he had, and it was worth letting go of it all and looking to His Lord to fill his empty hands.

On the other hand, The Lord’s promises were gigantic. They were not the kind that if God changed His mind or possibly forgot, Abraham could muster up zeal, will-power, or energy to make them happen. Those promises are divine promises accomplished only by the one who made them. They are custom-made by God!!! How do you find a new land when you are not a warrior? How do you become a great nation when all you have is an old wife, and a nephew?  How does your name become great when you started out as nobody and now you will even become a bigger nobody since you are moving into a new land where no one knows you?

What does it mean to be a blessing since this whole time Abraham has lived a pagan life which would be a life centered on self? The Lord will bless those that bless Abraham. Why would anyone want to bless a stranger? Wow! If they dare to curse him, he has the Lord on his side to curse them since he would be a powerless stranger in a new land. Then the largest promise of all is made by the Lord of the universe. All the families of the earth will be blessed. Is that humanly possible? What does it really even mean to bless all the families on the earth? Those were prophetic words that only on God’s timetable would have been revealed.

The Lord made some God-size promises and it would have taken the faithfulness of God to accomplish them.

In verses 8-9, the scripture says: “He remembers His covenant forever, the word which He commanded, for a thousand generations, the covenant which He made with Abraham and His oath to Isaac.”

Then towards the end of this Psalm in verse 42 it says, “For He remembered His holy promise, And Abraham His servant.”

In between verses 8 and 42, the Psalmist recounts God’s faithfulness to the seed of Abraham, then Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. Then it describes bringing out the Israelites out of Egypt by sending plagues, so Pharaoh would release them. He fed them in the dessert with Manna and quail and provided water out of the rocks like a river.

From the time God promised Abraham to become a great nation until he gave him a son by Sarah, it took 25 years!! I would have been embarrassed to have mentioned God’s promise to anyone. While everybody is having grandchildren, Abraham is still waiting for the one child!!! The recount of God’s faithfulness just in the examples provided happened over the centuries!! God uses time as one of his tools, but He is not limited to time to fulfill what He has spoken. What God spoke, He was faithful to accomplish it, and He is still accomplishing them in the lives of His children. The promises made to Abraham are still getting fulfilled through our lives because of our covenant relationship with Jesus through His blood sacrificed for us.

God’s faithfulness is much larger, deeper, and profound than us getting our daily needs and desires met. Sometimes,  our vision gets small in what God’s faithfulness looks like. We’re just happy with the front parking spot, a nice discount at Macy’s, or a good deal on a recently purchased car. While all those are nice and show a glimpse of God’s faithfulness, there is a much larger picture that He is working on.

God’s vision is far wider, longer, and higher than what we can envision today. He is building an eternal Kingdom while He is building our lives!! When we are disappointed with an outcome, He is still faithful! In those times, we must remind ourselves that He is faithful to His promise, to His purpose, and to His plan for His kingdom as well our lives!!

Remind youself of God’s faithfulness in your own life, and you’ll see that faith will be stirred up. He is worthy to be trusted because He is faithful!!!

We would not be able to exist without God’s faithfulness!! On any normal day we need Him to just wake up and get out of bed and it continues to go on through the rest of our day. In addition to His daily provision, and protection, we hope and pray for His faithfulness in other areas of our lives. It could be relationships, marriage, finances, career, education, health, salvation for loved ones and a whole host of other things that are on our hearts.

The entire Psalm 105 speaks on God’s faithfulness. It recounts God’s hand in the lives of His people starting with Abraham. Before it goes into the details of how God has come through for His people, this Psalm starts with:

“Oh give thanks to the Lord! Call upon His name; Make known His deeds among the peoples! “ Psalm 105:1

The words “give thanks” are the Hebrew word “Yada”. When you look at this word in other scriptures you find it many times talking about public acknowledgment of God!!

There are many people who don’t believe in God or have a very limited understanding of who He is. When we testify about what the Lord has done in our lives, we are painting a picture of God’s love and faithfulness that helps other people see Him better. The scripture calls us “ambassadors for Christ”. When we are out in the world telling someone about His faithfulness in our lives, it is like being in a foreign country representing our government and speaking on behalf our Chief!! That’s powerful!!

The Psalm, from v 6-25, goes onto describe God’s faithfulness with the promised seed of Abraham, His covenant with Isaac and confirming it with Jacob. It’s a beautiful thing to remind ourselves of God’s faithfulness. So many times in life it seems like we need to pray the right prayer, and do the right thing, before we can see the faithfulness of God in our lives. While we certainly have a part to play in living right and doing what God has called us to do, ultimately God is faithful in spite of our shortcomings. He is faithful to His word. He is faithful to His covenant. The Bible tells us that “God is not a man, that He should lie” Numbers 23:19. This Psalm is a reminder of God’s faithfulness to the people of Israel over the years and generations, and it all started with the seed of the covenant that God made with Abraham.

Many times we look at God’s faithfulness in the vernacular of our daily or yearly life, and sometimes we wonder if God is going to come through for us. The Lord sees a picture that expands through centuries and His faithfulness is so much more profound and powerful than we could ever think or imagine.

It’s best to trust Him and not doubt His faithfulness because so many times we don’t know what He is doing, but we can remind ourselves that just as He was faithful to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, & Joseph, He will be faithful in our lives and in the lives of generations coming after us!!!

In the next devotional, I’ll detail His faithfulness as mentioned in the remainder of this Psalm.

When you think about fruitfulness what comes to your mind?

Many times we think about what we do for God. We look at our talents and want to produce something for His kingdom and touch people’s lives. Martha had similar desire; Let’s look at Martha’s situation in the Bible.

Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word.  But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.” Luke 10:38-40

Many of us are like Martha. She thought ministry to Jesus was to go away and be busy in the kitchen and do work for the master. Nowadays, the kitchen is in the main part of the house, so if your guests are sitting in your family room or living room you could still converse with them or hear them while you’re doing your work.

In the old Middle East where I am from, that wasn’t the case. The kitchen wasn’t the main attraction, so generally the kitchen was to the back of the house or even on another level. It was just there for cooking purposes, and it was made very simply just for that purpose. The house I grew up in was a lot like that. My Mom would be at the back of the house cooking and cleaning while the rest of us were in the family room.  As a result if you were in the kitchen you were either by yourself or you had one of your daughters/ sisters helping you in the kitchen.

Martha thought she was doing the important work by taking care of Jesus’ physical needs, making a meal.  However, she felt left out because she couldn’t get much from Jesus’ conversation; she was too far to hear and enjoy His fellowship. This led to her resenting her sister who was sitting at Jesus’ feet.

Isn’t that true of us? We have a certain idea of what fruitfulness looks like and we work hard at it. We may even lose intimacy with Jesus in the name of serving Him. Then, we feel left out and unappreciated which causes us to lose our love, joy, peace and the rest of the fruit of the spirit!!!  When others aren’t doing as much as we do and they seem to be enjoying the Lord, it makes us feel worse. We want to holler at Jesus and bring attention to ourselves! We may even try to make the other person look bad because they haven’t done enough. We feel we are being fruitful and the other person isn’t doing anything. Well, what happened to us? How did we change? Are we really fruitful?

We don’t expect for a seed of an orange tree to produce fruit right away. That seed needs to be planted and nurtured for many years before we expect fruit from the tree. It takes a long time to expect fruitfulness. Why then do we expect fruitfulness from our lives right away? If we are walking with the Lord and listening and obeying Him, then we are bound to produce fruit on His timetable because the seed of life will bring forth fruit!!

It seems to me that developing the fruit of the spirit has much more profound effect in our fruitfulness than any task we do for the Lord. As part of the process of my spiritual growth, the fruit of the spirit will be developed if I respond correctly to the tests and circumstances that come my way!! If what I do doesn’t seem to be fruitful or appreciated, I can still rejoice in growing in the fruit of the spirit. If I’m tested by what I do and I taste bitterness in my mouth, then I wasn’t motivated by the right reasons.

Does this mean we don’t do anything until we develop the fruit of the spirit? Of course not. It is in “doing” that we get tested by the Lord in exposing the maturity of our fruit. Just don’t get discouraged. Keep going to the Lord. Knowing that He accepts you and loves you, but He will relentlessly be working on growing you and ripening your fruit!!!

Did you know you can choose what type of vessel you become in God’s house?

But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honor and some for dishonor. Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work. Flee also youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. 2Timothy 2:20-22

The Lord’s house is full of His people. While He has bought us with His precious blood, redeemed us from our former ways of life, we choose how valuable we become in His kingdom based on our obedience. The scripture tells us that in a great house there are vessels of gold and silver, and vessels of wood and clay. The vessels of gold and silver are vessels of honor and the vessels of wood and clay are vessels of dishonor. According to the above scripture, we can choose what type of vessels we become.

What are some of the characteristics of a vessel of honor? 

The word vessel means: a container for holding something b: a person into whom some quality (as grace) is infused.

These individuals are living a sanctified life. That means they know their lives are set apart for God’s purpose. They can’t fulfill their own desires.  The vessels of honor are empty containers used for His glory. They have been emptied of themselves, so the Holy Spirit can have them entirely.  Being emptied is not a fun process!! It’s hard and it’s painful!

The vessels of honor are not a mixture of worldliness and spirituality. The carnality has been purged out of them. They are useful vessels because they can be trusted to represent the kingdom well. They don’t speak for themselves, but they are ambassadors and spokespersons for the kingdom.  They are also individuals that through a season of God working on them are prepared people for His work. They are trained soldiers, and polished arrows capable of accomplishing His tasks successfully.

How do we become a vessel of honor? According to verse 22, we are called to flee youthful lusts. We may not be young in age but youthful lusts can follow us into old age. When you think about your younger years, do you have distaste for your lustful ways or do you think of them as the good old days? Have you outgrown the past passions, ambitions, and desires? The formula for dealing with lust will not change regardless of our age. If you sense you are getting tempted in any area, you must train yourself to resist the temptation and hold every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. James 4:7 & 2Corinthians 10:3-5

We are also called to pursue righteousness, faith, love, & peace and do it with a pure heart. If we do these things and avoid foolish and ignorant disputes we will become vessels of honor. We will be the gold and silver who have been tested over the years by various trials and have become more and more pure over time. We will be a treasure in God’s house, useful for His kingdom, and a showcase of His nature and His glory. Our lives will bring honor to His name. When people think of us, they will think well of a Christian because we represent Him beautifully!!

Praise God for His goodness. He chooses us, calls us to himself, and then desires for us to partner with Him on a journey of life that will change us, mold us, break us, purge us, and make us more like Him. Useful for His purposes!!!!!

As Christians we use a lot of words or statements that are true, but after a while, we have forgotten why those statements are so significant.  A few days ago, I was reading a devotional that was exhorting people to persevere in their faith because perseverance molds us into the image of Jesus. As I continued reading, the thought occurred to me, “Why do I need to look like Jesus?”

Jesus accepted us the way we were, and His blood washed away our sins. This means if the day of your salvation is the last day of your life, you will go to be with Him without ever looking like Him on this side of eternity. This tells us that looking like Jesus doesn’t make us anymore acceptable to God.

For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.” Romans 8:29

Clearly,  the scripture tells us that it is the Lord’s design and desire for us to look like Jesus, but why is this important?

First of all, we need to look like Jesus in order to be freed up from our past behaviors, thoughts, emotions, and start living life from a spiritual perspective. This can also be called sanctification. We come out of the world and worldliness, and we take on more kingdom mindset. This allows us to enjoy the benefit of our salvation by continually being freed up from our soulish desires. This also gives us the strength to not fall prey to the enemy’s temptations because the things that so easily and quickly affected us in the past don’t have that kind of hold on us any longer.

Secondly, we need to look like Jesus, so we can fulfill the great commission. In order for us to effectively reach a lost world, we need to have a heart and mind like Jesus. This is the only way we can reach the lost with His love. The more we look like Jesus, our words and our actions will be in congruence. We don’t get impatient with people who don’t see it our way. Instead of people seeing a hypocrite or someone trying to jam Christianity down their throat, they will see people whose lives speak of God’s love and their words match up with their lifestyle. People will be drawn to us because of Jesus in us. We don’t want people to be drawn to us because of our wealth, success, charm, beauty, or intelligence. We want them to be drawn to Jesus in us because He is the one who can make them whole and give them eternal life. All our great qualities cannot produce eternal life for someone else.

Let’s pray for ourselves and the body of Christ that we are willing to go through the process to look more like Jesus as there are so many lives at stake. When we are willing to be formed in the image of Jesus, we bring hope to a hopeless world!! The world needs us to look more like Jesus!!!