Keith's Korner for May, 2012
Please take some time to read this guest article from Aimee Dudley:
Don’t you love those moments in life when you realize that God is beginning a new work? I know that for many, change is a very intimidating thing. There have been moments (and many of them) in my own life when I have just wished for calm waters, smooth sailing, and that NO ONE would make even the tiniest ripple in my life. However, I am finding for my own spirit, that I am feeling very open to some “God changes!” …
God started to poke at me. He started prodding me. He started opening my eyes to what my “faith” really looks like, and how little of an impact I was actually making for the
Kingdom of God. I take no pleasure in admitting this. I am sad to say it. But I am honest in saying it. I DO love Jesus and He is my Savior … but so many times I have resisted letting Him be LORD over ALL my life. I battle with moments of selfishness just like everyone else.
There are times when there is way too much of “Me” in my life and far too little of “God” and “others.” It is frightening how easy it can be to let ourselves be the center of our universe - and yet God calls us back to Him. He reaches out, shows us where we went off course, corrects us, and draws us back. He is a God who desires to show us grace, mercy, and love.
So why, even though I know God has a heart for ALL mankind, do I tend to focus solely on myself? Why do I let my own wants, and desires trump God’s dreams and plans for others?
Why is it so easy for me to get wrapped up in the day to day and forget that people’s eternities are at stake? Why is my relationship with God not impacting my community and bringing others to Christ?
The answer is sad, but simple. I am standing in the way. Instead of allowing the Spirit of God to fill me and lead me, I tend to depend on my own knowledge and passions to lead me to action. For whatever reason, I stop asking God what He wants and how I can be His hands and feet. Instead I “guess” what might be the best things to do and I stumble around trying to accomplish tasks God never asked me to do in the first place.
Instead of being an effective witness for Christ, I become just more white noise in a world filled to the brim with distractions.
God has placed in my soul weariness for living life this way. It is NOT what I was created for and it is NOT how I want to be! At the end of my days on earth I do not want to stand in front of my Heavenly Father and feel shame for all the missed opportunities to love others like He wanted me too. I want to know I lived my life serving Christ and fulfilling His mission.
How about you? Am I the only one who struggles? Am I the only one who can look at their life and see where I am coming up short for the Lord? I want to love the Lord with ALL of my heart, my soul, my mind, and my strength …ALL OF IT! I want ALL my life to be a reflection of God’s love. Nothing held back, nothing reserved for later, nothing stored away for myself. I want to be all His for all time.
So what now? Where do you start such a journey?
I start on my knees, in prayer to my Father. It is where we should all start. If we, as Christians, are serious about being the church then we need to be serious about our connection and relationship to God. It cannot be a “long-distance” love affair or a “we touch base once in a while” kind of friendship. It has to be an everyday dependence on the ONE that holds our life in His hands and loves us more than we can imagine.
It truly has to be all consuming. God is worth it! He has held nothing back from us! All of creation He has given us…the air we breath, the food we eat, the water we drink, the people we love, and His very own Son to take away our sin.
What is it that you have that you think God doesn’t deserve? He gave His best for us and we should offer Him no less! I don’t want to give God my leftovers. I don’t want to know more about the television line-up on Thursday night than I know about the God who created me. I do not want to look “through” the people that God loves just so I don’t feel “guilty” for not helping them.
I want to SEE people and how God can use me to love them. So I pray…I pray God will rearrange my priorities so that I absolutely cannot do anything BUT love and serve Him. I pray also, that He will teach me how to reach others through the example of Jesus. It is not ok to be content to sit back and watch others serve the Lord.
We need to be prayer warriors for one another. We need to step in and step up to what God is calling us to! When we gave our lives to the Lord we said we would follow Him and serve Him…we never said we would just sit in the stands and cheer for the team. We miss out on so much when we are “content.” I pray that the Lord takes our sense of “contentment.” I pray that He makes us an on fire body of believers that desire to change this community for Him.
To God be the Glory…Forever!
Aimee Dudley
