Categories
Christian Living

Walking with Christ is worth it even if no one else walks beside us.

close up of a person's feet as they are walking as a symbol of us determining if we will walk with JesusSo I ended my previous post about walking with Christ with these words:

This life can be (and will be) a struggle, but God will be with you as you walk a difficult path due to difficult people. Keep pressing on with Him. Working with Him and walking with Him is worth it!

Though Jeremiah had a God-given purpose and was living in the very center of God’s will, he became frustrated because people would not listen to him and had turned against him. He was growing tired of the struggle of living for God while seemingly getting very little in return.

You might also find yourself in that place at some times in life. You may be thinking, “That’s where I am right now.” Though Jeremiah did complain to God about the situation, he followed up his complaint with some powerful words which tell us that even though he was frustrated, he did think that serving God was more important than his own discomfort. He was frustrated, but he knew that he wanted to serve God more than he wanted to be popular and more than he wanted to have an easy life. He said:

But if I say I’ll never mention the LORD or speak in his name, his word burns in my heart like a fire. It’s like a fire in my bones! I am worn out trying to hold it in! Indeed, I cannot do it!
I have heard the many rumors about me…. Even my old friends are watching me, waiting for a fatal slip….
But the LORD stands beside me like a great warrior! Jeremiah 20:9-11

Jeremiah understood this truth:
Walking with Christ is worth it, even if no one else walks beside us.

Walking with Christ is worth it, because doing so will change our lives and it also has the power to change someone else’s life.

Let me end with an example from the Gulf Coast after Katrina had come through. One of my fellow church members was working with an organization to provide grants to people who needed assistance. One man came in and during his interview, he shared this with my friend:

“My entire life, I have been so bad to God. But ever since Katrina, He has been so good to me. Volunteers are rebuilding my house, God has provided for my needs through church people from other parts of our country, and I have a restored relationship with God. All of the loss and devastation that happened to me through Katrina was worth it for me to have a right relationship with God.”

Isn’t that what we want to hear someone say as a result of our involvement in their lives? That someone who was hurting is now healing? That someone who was Lost is now Found? And that it is due to them watching how you live your life as a ministry to them?

It is true that God has called you to a difficult task – to live for Him and be His hands and feet in the midst of difficult people (sinful people, of which you also are one), but He has a plan for using you to make a difference in the peoples’ lives that He has placed around you.

Let us be encouraged by what Jeremiah discovered, that though God has called us into a struggle of ministering to difficult people in difficult places, we are loved by Him and He is our great warrior, our mighty champion.

Let us not worry so much about how God might bless our lives, but let us consider how we might use our lives to bless the Lord, our great champion.

Categories
Worship

The Hard Work of Thanksgiving

It’s Thanksgiving Day!
The one day of the year we are supposed to be thankful.
Then we can go back to being regular ole grumps!

Actually, this isn’t the only time of the year when we are to be thankful, but the thankfulness aspect of today was originally about being thankful for a good harvest. Having a good harvest meant lots of food on the table, so I guess that is why our holiday tradition for today is eating until the point of discomfort!

So the eating isn’t hard work, though having motivation to do much else with that full belly might be. The laughing at the table with family isn’t hard work. The watching of football games with each other isn’t hard work. So what is the hard work of Thanksgiving?

I believe it is keeping a right focus in today’s American society about WHO we should be thankful to.

It will be easy today to say…” I am thankful because such-and-such happened to ME because I was able to use MY abilities to….” And in doing so, we can focus our thanks on self – on I and Me. That is the American way. To go against that grain takes effort.

The hard work is to honestly ask and answer the question – who has ultimately given us these good things to be thankful for? Who has blessed us with family, with the good things that are on our table, with the innate abilities in us to even work and provide for our families?

God.
He alone.
He is the reason you have food on the table.
He is the provider of rain.
He is the provider of life.
He is the reason you are able to take each breath.

The hard work is refocusing today on Him – the author of good gifts. “Every good thing given and every perfect gift come from above, coming down from the Father of lights” (James 1:17).

“Will we only give God the things that cost us nothing?” King David was freely offered what he would need to make a sacrifice to God, but David replied: “No, I insist on paying the full price. I will not…sacrifice a burnt offering that costs me nothing.”

It won’t cost us much to be a part of the celebration today, but refocusing our attention on God is hard work. Stepping up as the spiritual leader of your family and asking them to pray with you to thank God might be foreign to you and your family. It is a foreign concept for many in America today. But God desires for you to exalt His Name, and today is the perfect day to do so.

The rest of Thanksgiving won’t cost you much. “But it costs plenty to pray with others. Prayer is hard work, and it takes courage, dedication, concentration, and steadfastness.” As we pray with others, we open up our lives to them – our thoughts, our ideas, our beliefs. This is hard work that God desires of us today – to open ourselves up to others in prayer as we honor Him with thankful hearts.

Don’t let the day just be about turkey and dressing, full bellies, football, hunting, or shopping. It will be easy to stop there. Go further. Do the hard work. Refocus the day on the Giver of all good things so that your family members develop a deeper Thankfulness to the One worthy of all Thanksgiving.