gladitudes

The older I get, the more I live, and the more I read God’s word the more I have come to understand that if my life doesn’t count for eternity, it doesn’t count. Everyone that walks the face of this planet shares the same destiny: we will one day pass. In doing so, all of the money we’ve made, the acclaim we’ve won, and the pleasure we have sought will be rendered worthless. Even, a lot of the relationships we’ve invested in and good we’ve done will quickly fade and be forgotten.

This truth along with various other factors have been kindling in my heart an urgent and desperate plea to God that He would use my life and make it amount to something worthwhile for eternity.

I read this verse a few days ago and I haven’t been able to get it off my mind: 2 Timothy 2:20-21 says,

In a wealthy home some utensils are made of gold and silver, and some are made of wood and clay. The expensive utensils are used for special occasions, and the cheap ones are for everyday use. ²¹ If you keep yourself pure, you will be a special utensil for honorable use. Your life will be clean, and you will be ready for the Master to use you for every good work.

Now for clarity’s sake, God does not love us more or accept us more completely when we live better lives, but it’s true that God is more able to use for the advancement of His kingdom and His good if we work hard to live pure, righteous lives. Purity makes us ready for the Master’s work.

To me, this is a great motivator to seek purity and not give up in it. I don’t seek it for righteousness’ sake, but for usability’s sake–which is a very significant difference.

A few other verses come to mind that I think support this notion:

Hebrews 12:14 says,

Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. (ESV)

If we don’t live holy lives, we don’t see God and the people around us won’t see God through us, either.

There are more verses, but these are the ones that have been on my mind.

Really quickly, then, so am I saying start freaking out and work super hard and make yourself a slave to rules so that God will use you? Not really. God is still the one who sanctifies us and changes us. We, however, can help him by having a humble heart and doing our best to please Him.

Check out James 4:6-10:

But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, ”God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” ⁷Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ⁸ Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. ⁹ Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. ¹⁰Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

When we have a humble heart, God gives us grace. So, our path to change is humility, repentance, and by grace moving forward in faith (a.k.a. doing our best and trusting God with our weakness).

1 Corinthians 10:24
“Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor.”

So, I read this this morning and have a few thoughts on it.

As Christians, it is now our charge to live totally for others. First for God, and subsequently, as stated here, for those we are around—our “neighbors”.

Part of why this hit me so poignantly this morning is because of a book I’m reading right now. I’m reading Chasing Daylight by Erwin McManus. It’s really an awesome book. I can’t quite say enough good things about it. I can’t go into tons of detail, because he says it all much better than I could, but one of the big themes in the book is something like this: God has changed our hearts and given us passion and desires that align with His passion and desires so that we would pursue those things. Therefore, if God doesn’t say, “no”, then go and change the world with the things he’s laid on your heart.

He was reflecting on what gives us the ability to do this, and he wrote something like this (sorry, I don’t have the book with me right now and can’t quote it exactly): “I want what I give to define my life.”

I’ve been really thinking about this a lot. I want what I give to be what defines me. I don’t want to seek to gain anything, but rather only to give. I will gain a great deal, I am confident, because God promises it. But where do my goals lie? In gaining or in giving? One will breed a productive life, the other will hold us back from finding true life.

Take a peek at Luke 17:33 “Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it.”

Something that I have been thinking a lot about recently is how God’s most important plan for us is to love people. Now, love may manifest itself through sharing the truth of the gospel with people, but oftentimes it looks just like love. And love almost always is serving people. I’ve been thinking about this a lot and I’ve been asking God to make me excellent at serving.

Today as I was reading in the word, I came across this passage in Psalms that is a really great servant’s prayer:

Pslam 90:16-17
¹⁶Let your work be shown to your servants,
and your glorious power to their children.
¹⁷Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us,
and establish the work of our hands upon us;
yes, establish the work of our hands!

Today when I was reading the Bible, I came across a passage in Galatians that I have read, I’m sure over a hundred times, yet it really hit me again.

Galatians 5:13-14 says,
“For you have been called to live in freedom—not freedom to satisfy your sinful nature, but freedom to serve one another in love. ¹⁴For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” (NLT)

I think, as a Christian who is seeking to live in God’s grace, it can be easy to forget why we have been freed from the law. Sometimes, we can focus on the fact that we are free, and forget that we must respond in a way fitting to the gift we have received. We have not been freed to go live however we want to—that would be quite ungrateful. We have been freed so that we can love and serve those around us. I don’t fully understand how this works, but it makes me excited to trust God to show me as I attempt to do it.