Growth

Pieces, Plans & Peace

You know who you are. 

When a friend asks you to do something, you immediately check your calendar and figure out when you can negotiate a social outing.

When there’s a church event, school project, or t-ball party, you are put in charge of the festivities.

When someone mentions a vacation, you immediately check airline prices.

Planners of the world….Unite!

Ok, maybe the process isn’t as dramatic as all that, but for a lot of us, maybe most of us, planning is something that we take refuge in. After all, a plan gives us the sense that we can ensure that what we want to happen, will happen. It’s our way of exerting our imprimatur on the events of our lives. Sure, our very breath is dependent upon God’s grace, but somehow we think we can look into the future and dictate what will face. We’re given part of the puzzle and think we have the ability to figure out the rest.

But it rarely works like that. 

Instead, many of the times, maybe most of the time, God gives us a piece of the plan. He tells us “Do this; this is the next right thing” and our job is to follow Him in faith.  When He’s silent, when He hasn’t told us the next move, our job is to rest in His peace as the plan is revealed. We don’t obtain peace by trying to figure out the remaining pieces of the puzzle, He’s promised that peace comes from Him, not the plan. 

May we faithfully do whatever God has called us to today, and leave the rest of the plan, in His hands.







Question: In what area is it hardest to trust in God’s plan for your life?

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Growth

For Others’ Sake

For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles – Ephesians 3:1

It’s not easy to give up what is rightly ours for the sake of others. It’s even less easy when we can rightly determine that “they don’t deserve it.” It’s human nature, perhaps, to cling to our privileges and prerogatives because they lead us to the mistaken impression that somehow we are important. We want to mark our territory, draw our lines, and dare anyone to try and cross them.

In Ephesians, though, Paul shows us a different way. Paul gave up status and prestige that were rightfully his because of Christ’s work on the cross. Paul, the Jew among Jews and the Roman citizen, became a traveling missionary, ostracized from the people who once esteemed him, making tents (rather than teaching) for a living, all for the sake of a people that he once believed were unworthy of salvation. He followed the example of Christ in becoming “nothing” at least in the world’s eyes, so that he could demonstrate the love of Christ to people who were lost. 

For many of us the story is so familiar that it’s power has become dim, but let’s not let it. Instead, let us recognize all that Paul had, all he gave up, and the reasons that he did so. Paul realized that his life was sacrificed to Christ and that Christ desired to do a work for others through him.  Paul was “Christ’s prisoners” so that through his service, the Gentiles may come to know Christ.

Whose life does God want you to impact through your service to Him today?



Question: What have you been willing to give up in order that others may know Christ?

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