GOD’S PLANS (part-13)

ARE YOU FEELING LONELY OR WORTHLESS? THAT’S NOT GOD’S PLAN FOR YOU!

BIBLE PASSAGE:
Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple
and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?
(1 Corinthians 3:16)

MEDITATION:
A pastor had the privilege of pastoring different churches in the midst
of building campaigns. It was a faith-growing experience for him to
watch God work. In fact, he said he will never forget the first church
where he sensed God at work – in Fort Pierce, Florida.

There was an elderly architect who was leading the rebuilding
effort and he said something the pastor would never forget. As
they were looking over the plans, the pastor said,
    “It can’t be expensive because we don’t have much money.”

The elderly architect replied,
    “Oh, my boy. Good architecture is not an arrangement of
       beautiful materials. It is a beautiful arrangement of materials.”

The pastor realized at that moment that the Lord can take people
like you and me from a life of sin, and with His grace through His
Word, He can fit us together into a majestic temple of God.

All of us might experience brief times of discouragement and feeling
useless, but we shouldn’t allow those kinds of thoughts to seize control
of our minds and lives, especially when God has adopted us into His
family.

When we humbly confess that we are sinners, when we ask the Lord
for His forgiveness, and when we commit to following Jesus, we should
expect changes in our thoughts, words and actions, shouldn’t we? If we
haven’t experienced significant changes in our lives, then we might have
questions about our salvation experience.

When we are blessed with salvation from the Lord, there are at least three
significant impacts to our lives:
    – We receive the Holy Spirit to help us live as a follower of Jesus.
    – We receive at least one spiritual gift for serving the Lord.
    – The Lord begins a sanctification of our lives that purges
       us of unrighteousness and increases our righteousness. We
       can know He is sanctifying us as we begin to lose our attraction
       and passion for sinful things and we have more disdain for them.
       In addition, we have a new desire and attraction for righteousness.
       Note:
           Sanctification can have a sudden or gradual impact on us, but in
           either case, it is a lifelong process that culminates when we go to
           meet the Lord. When we are a part of God’s family, we should
           expect to experience a lessening attraction to sinful things and
           an increasing desire for righteousness and serving the Lord as
           we follow His plan for our life. We can expect a ‘shift’ in our
           thoughts from thinking only,
               “I need to stop yielding to sinful temptations”
           to including,
               “How can I serve the Lord and point others to Jesus
                 using the spiritual gift I have been given?”

ACTION:
Questions to consider:
    – Do I feel like a mixed pile of bricks today?
    – Am I wondering if my life has any purpose?
    – Do I question why I am even here?

God doesn’t want us floundering through life with a feeling that we
are useless and have no real purpose for living. If you are having
those kinds of thoughts, then re-read this brief devotional from the
Lord several times until it changes you from uncertainty to faith,
from sadness to joy, from uselessness to purpose, and from being
controlled by sinfulness to empowerment for rejecting temptation
and sin.

Pray,
“Heavenly Father, thank You for considering me as someone of worth.
Help me to look past my own ideas and search for Your purpose for me.
I know that when I am on the path You have charted for me, I can find
a new joy, faith and purpose for living.”

BLOG: utvolwoody.wordpress.com