The Mission » Blessed for a Purpose

Blessed for a Purpose

Psalms 67 begins “God be gracious to us and bless us, and cause His face to shine upon us – “Isn’t it interesting that most of us never get beyond these words? Our faith in the Lord Jesus is a wonderful self centered blessing – He is always there, He will provide for my every need, He will protect me, He will make me a success, He is the answer to make my life smoother. I am not saying that these things are necessarily wrong but they certainly stop too soon because verse 2 tells us why God blesses us and makes His face shine upon us. It is not for our comfort but “That Your way may be known on the earth, Your salvation among all nations”. We are blest for one purpose – to bless others that His name might be worshipped by more and more of His growing kingdom family around the world. The amazing thing about this is that we only think we are blest when we focus on the benefits He brings to us. Actually, we are truly blest only when we give up our life and all rights thereto to be a slave of the one who purchased us with His own blood and bought us at the price of His death on the cross. It took me many years to know just a little of what Luke 9:23,24 tells us “Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.” I am learning that God never reveals more of Himself to me until I take the first step of obedience to follow hard after Him. For me that meant giving up what I thought was extremely important to me, my retirement, and surrendering to serve unconditionally the needs of the His body no matter what. This has been an incredible experience to see His glory revealed to me through the love of His family. No wonder scripture tells us in John 13:35 “This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples — when they see the love you have for each other.” We are called to serve and be a blessing to others which brings Him more glory and brings us true blessings of joy unspeakable.

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on January 13, 2005 at 2:40 pm Comments (1)

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On March 13, 2005 at 8:12 pm Rob Said:
What a tremendous reminder my brother. You have taught what it means to “unretire” for the Glory of His kinddom!