Some people that I know live fearfully and cautiously. Their primary life endeavor appears to me to be risk avoidance. They monitor their diet with scrupulous care. They are vigilant to lock doors and check security. If their children develop a low-grade fever, they whisk them off to the doctor. They actually have a family lawyer. $Billions worth of insurance are sold primarily as a means of risk avoidance. Some might call me reckless. I don't go looking for danger, but my first thought is seldom, 'is it safe?' My attitude is usually, 'let's give it a try!' I usually forget to lock my car unless Bev reminds to do it, which she always does. I've been told that I'm naive when it comes to other people, trusting others too much, and becoming disappointed when a person doesn't turn out to be who I assumed they were.
So what makes some of us risk-takers and some of us cautious? There are many factors. How we were trained to see the world by our parents is a big one. Some us were raised by parents who taught us that it was important to minimize risk, to choose the safest course. Others of us were encouraged to try new things, to reach out and stretch ourselves. Of course, if we manage to hurt ourselves, that experience can make us less prone to take risks in the future. Some of it is innate- just part of our wiring.
Believer, if you want to grow in your knowledge of Christ, if you want to become an effective ambassador of the Kingdom of God, you'll have to overcome aversion to risk; you'll have to give up control of circumstances. How do we do that? We ask God to give us something called - FAITH! Jesus' disciples were so challenged by His teaching, they realized the futility of trying to follow Him apart from a supernatural intervention and they said, “Increase our faith!” (Luke 17:5, NIV) Is that a prayer that you're praying often?
Are you asking God to help you to branch out in His work with holy boldness, to blaze new paths into the lives of people that have not yet been touched by the good news of the Kingdom's coming? Paul wrote to the Corinthian church in defense of his ministry. He reminds them, even as he is reminding himself, that the key factor is not the approval of others, but rather the commendation of God! Then he writes this: We hope that your faith will grow and that our work among you will be greatly enlarged. Then we will be able to go and preach the Good News in other places that are far beyond you, where no one else is working. Then there will be no question about being in someone else’s territory. As the Scriptures say, “The person who wishes to boast should boast only of what the Lord has done.” When people boast about themselves, it doesn’t count for much. But when the Lord commends someone, that’s different!" (2 Corinthians 10:15-18, NLT)
When faith-filled people join together, God's work gets done in amazing ways! Instead of doing the 'safe things' that someone has already done, people of faith let the Spirit of God take them into new territory, but not so they can brag about how wonderful they are! No, they establish new ministries and build the Kingdom for the joy of saying, "look what the Lord has done!"
The Church needs men and women of holy boldness that comes, not from ego expression nor from arrogance, but from deep faith in God! These people live on the edge for they see the 'possible' not just the 'probable.' They ask God for great things and through them God does great things.
Here's a word from the Word to take with you today - “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, NKJV)
No comments:
Post a Comment