God has been showing me lately how important it to trust him and lean on him in times of uncertainty. He's also showed me how crucial it is to be obedient to his word and the things that he has told for us to do. I'm realizing that in situations that have stretched me and caused for me to be uncomfortable are the very things that he is preparing for me to receive. Learning to be faithful in the trenches has been a huge lesson in itself and one that I am still learning. I am realizing that it takes more than just doing what God says in order to be in preparation for what he has for us.
With preparation there comes difficulties, battles, sometimes there's questioning of faith, and even a questioning of trust in God. You may come to a season where it seems you are experiencing more loss than gain and that's where the obedience is tested. See what I am realizing is that God doesn't want perfection he just wants a genuine heart and someone who is ready to fully be used by him. He doesn't look for someone with accolades even though he will use them, he looks for someone who is willing. Remembering that God often qualifies they unqualified. He's looking for someone with a God loving and great attitude someone who has a meek spirit about them. I often think to myself when I'm working with others "am I making it easy and pleasurable to work with?" "Am I professing God's love?" Even when I'm caught up in my human emotions, how am I really dealing with that? Am I taking time to sit on how I feel and revisit the situation later? Am I taking these things to God and laying them at his feet?
God doesn't need us in order to be sovereign because he's sovereign all by himself. God wants us to be examples and witnesses to those who don't know him and for us to bring glory to who he truly is, not what he is often portrayed to be. I look at serving God so much differently than what I used to. We can easily say we don't do it for us or for what we can get out of it but that's not always true. We do expect to receive something out of it but at the end of the day do we lay down OUR fleshly desires for God? We get caught up often in the wrong things that we forget our mission. Our mission here on earth is to serve and to bless God's kingdom. We serve a sovereign God so our intentions, our mindset, our heart posture should be on Kingdom things. We should be focused on the glory of God and everything that comes with it.
My prayer today is that we stop looking at what we can get from God and start giving God what we owe him. I pray that we fix our eyes on the sovereignty in which God reigns and let go of the focus on what we can get from God in return, because if he never gave us anything else for as long as we remain on this earth; he has given us more than enough.
With love,
Yours Truly, Eb