IS SOMETHING MISSING IN YOUR LIFE?

BIBLE PASSAGE:
“But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace to
me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of
them – yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.”
(1 Corinthians 15:10)

MEDITATION:
Have you ever had the feeling that you want to do more for the Lord,
but can’t figure out exactly what you should do?
    Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is
    written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve
    Him only.’”
    (Matthew 4:10)

Remember when you were first saved? It was a time that is often
referred to as a ‘spiritual high’. It was a time in your life when…
    You couldn’t wait to tell others how the Lord had changed your life.
    You couldn’t wait to read His Word.
    You couldn’t wait to spend time with Him in prayer.
    You couldn’t wait to go to church to spend time with other
    believers and hear the pastor deliver a message from the Bible.

What has happened since that time? Has anything dulled your enthusiasm
about loving the Lord intensely? Have other things pushed God down to a
lower level of importance in your life? Have you allowed the pressures of
this life to damage your enjoyment of spending with the Lord?

Have you become more selfish and allowed the pursuit of worldly
pleasures to replace your activities with Lord? Are you trying to
do the things you did when God first saved you, but you have been
relying on your own strength and wisdom to the exclusion of His
presence in your life?

Paul gives us some insight to what we might be overlooking
in our attempts to worship, please, and serve the Lord. Paul
said His grace had a major and lasting impact on his own life.
He tells us that God’s grace has made him who he is.

He realized the importance of God’s grace and the lasting impact
it had on his life, his attitudes, and his desire to serve and please
the Lord. Most importantly, Paul knew that he could successfully
accomplish what the Lord wanted him to do, because His grace
was vibrant and alive in his life.

Paul didn’t succumb to the ways of the world, but He chose
instead to ask for and allow the Lord to guide him in a new
direction. He set his sights on being a servant of the Lord
and didn’t waver in his determined efforts to serve Him.
Paul’s love for the Lord gave him the courage and focus
which allowed the Lord to have control of his life.

We can guess that Paul was like any of us and had his own selfish
desires. He probably had things he wanted to do and things he did
not want to do, but he allowed God’s grace to live in him and keep
his priorities in the right order. Paul was under the control and
direction of God’s grace and not controlled by his own selfishness.

We came into the world with nothing, and we will leave it with
nothing. We are born poor without God’s grace, and we will die
poor if it were not for God’s infinite mercy and grace. Without
the gifts of intelligence, imagination, personality, and physical
energy (which are all given to us by God) where would any of us
be? If we are anything, it is because God is everything.

One of the detriments to allowing His grace to live in us is – we
may think that our idea of success and God’s idea of success are
the same. But that’s just not true; God’s plan for success requires
us to forfeit our natural inclinations and follow His guidance
(which will most likely require us to leave our comfort zone).

Too often we establish our own routines and exclude the Lord’s
involvement in our lives. Rather than allowing God’s grace to
direct our paths, we make excuses, and we justify why we have
chosen to stay in the comfort zones we have created for ourselves.

Think for a moment about the crucifixion of Jesus. Was He
comfortable on the cross? Did He prefer to go to the cross?
He had a choice; however, He left His comfort zone because
He loved mankind and wanted all to enjoy living with Him
and His Father for an eternity. He also chose to be obedient
to His (and our) Heavenly Father.

ACTION:
How much of God’s grace is actually living in you today? Has it
been suppressed due to your own selfish desires? You might be
thinking, “How dare you to call me selfish”, but how many times
have you ignored a text from someone you know? Have you become
too ‘important’ and can’t ‘stoop’ low enough to respond to someone?
What if God responded to your prayers the same way you respond
to a friend’s text?

Do you have a desire to ‘rekindle the spiritual fire’ you had when you
were first saved? When is the last time you chose to not do something
you really wanted to do, so you could do something that would please
the Lord and possibly lift the spirits of someone else?

Have you ever made a special effort to ‘reach out’ to someone you
may not know very well, but you felt they needed encouragement?
When God causes you to think about someone else, how do your
respond? Do you ignore those thoughts or do you act on them
because you know the Lord wants to use you?

Do you justify your inaction because you don’t have the time?
Did Jesus have time for you? As believers, we are God’s agents
and servants, so we can expect Him to call on us at times when
He wants to encourage someone, or answer one of their prayers
through us.

If we love God and want to please Him out of a heart of gratefulness
for what Jesus did for us, then we will have no excuse for rejecting or
ignoring His calls for us to be active in some way. Would we ignore a
command from our employer? Of course not! Then why would we
ever choose to ignore God’s command to be actively involved in His
ministry?

Have you ever thought that when the Bible refers to the ‘poor in spirit’,
it could be referring to those who have set aside their personal spirit of
selfishness? When someone is poor in spirit, they realize the sinfulness
of their sins, and freely confess them with a desire to avoid them in the
future.

A person who is poor in spirit will not spend time trying to justify their
sinfulness, but instead they will admit their sins and humbly ask the
Lord for His forgiveness. When we are poor in spirit, we are confirming
that God’s grace has changed our lives, that what He wants of us is the
most important, and that we belong to Him.

Pray,
“Heavenly Father, thank You for saving me. Forgive
me if I have allowed the influence of the world, or my
own selfishness to suppress Your grace from being in
active and in control of my life. Forgive me if I have
left my first love that I felt for You when You saved me.
Other people can see my words and actions, but You
read my heart. Where I have pride, give me humility.
Where I have selfishness, give me selflessness. Create
in me a renewed heart with a desire to spend more time
with You and less time trying to fulfill my own desires.
Give me a greater desire to worship and serve You than
in pleasing myself. Forgive me when I tend to boast about
my own accomplishments, and remind me that I am nothing
without Your grace and love. Thank You, Jesus for leaving
Your comfort zone so that I could be saved. Help me to leave
my comfort zone as confirmation of my desire to please You.
I know that it may be difficult for me to change my focus and
direction, but I am confident that Your grace will give me the
courage and confidence to be successful in transforming into
more of a likeness of You. Help me to love others with the same
intensity and forgiveness that You love me.”

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