THE WORD 4 ev 1

Today’s reading is Luke 10 (click here for link)

Happy Monday everyone! I know I am late to the game again this morning. This past week was killer and I am sure the Lenten season will prove no less. However it is always nice to begin a new week with a sense of accomplishment—even if it was “killer.” But maybe that brings me to my point for today:

Luke records Jesus' word's: "… do not rejoice that… but rejoice that your names are written in heaven." Jesus is saying here, in effect, “Don't rejoice in successful service, but rejoice because you are rightly related to Me.”

Sometimes, I believe that a real temptation in our Christian work can be to rejoice in successful service as if success is the mark of true accomplishment. But is that really a healthy attitude? Are you only content to serve your Lord when success is certain, or are you happy to rejoice in the fact that God has used you? Truth is, you never can measure what God will do through you if you are rightly related to Jesus Christ, because then your joy will not be bound only to success. The joy of knowing Jesus as Lord is that no matter the success or failure of our lives or our service for him, nothing can separate us from him and our status as a part of His mystical body.

I know I had to remind myself over and over again the past few days as I awoke at 3:00 or 4:00 each morning to begin my task; but whether failures or successes, I was comforted to know that through it all I was doing what I have been called to do, serve Him. That is… when I wasn’t grouchy and irritable from being so tired. :o)

We must be careful that whatever circumstances we are in, and whoever we meet day by day, we never object to His pouring rivers of living water through us. It is easy to do! Life can quickly get in the way. And I firmly believe that our obsession with the “act” of service—the details of the work—can overwhelm the joy of the service in a hurry. In fact, beware of the people who make their “usefulness” their ground of appeal. If you make usefulness the test, then Jesus Christ was most certainly the greatest failure that ever lived, for the world has never deemed him very useful at all. Instead, let our standard be God Himself, not our estimated usefulness. It is the work that God does through us that counts, not the detailed plans we make in our service for Him.

In your life, let Jesus bring you to the Father. Never rely on your usefulness for that. Only He can write your name in the book of heaven.

Thank you for keeping with the journey,

Pastor Aaron