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Inspirational Article
From
Joanne Lowe
Index of Writings by Joanne Lowe on Gospel Web
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Inspirational Article
From
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This week someone sent me a Christmas present from Canada. It was delayed at Customs to be inspected and I was told that it could take up to thirty days before it cleared and was allowed to be shipped to me. Since I am human, my first reaction was frustration and disappointment. I felt sorry for myself for about an hour and then I remembered that God has given me the ministries of encouraging pastors and writing devotions and I needed to be about the Master’s business.
We can give all of our money, all of our time and everything else that we have but if we don’t trust God enough to keep serving Him when crises and heartaches come our way then we will never be able to please Him. Every person must have a time in his or her life when he or she says “Nothing else matters but serving Jesus.”
Everything that we do while we are doubting Him will stink in His nostrils because everything is meaningless unless we have faith in Him and unless we trust Him and unless we believe that He will do what He tells us that He will do. We have more faith in a chair than we do in Him. How often when we sit down on a chair do we stop and wonder if it will hold us? If you are like me, the answer is “never”. I am so grateful that our Heavenly Father has a tender, kind and compassionate heart that is filled with understanding, with forgiveness and with unconditional love for us.
How can we possibly call ourselves Christians and tell Him that we love Him when we don’t trust Him? What a sad commentary on those of us who claim to be Christians. How we must hurt Him when we don’t trust Him. If you are a parent, then you know how it hurts you when your children don’t trust you and when they keep asking you if you will do what you said that you will do. If we, as parents, hurt when our children don’t trust us, how much more our Heavenly Father must hurt when we don’t trust Him. Since we are human, we will fail our children at times but our Heavenly Father never fails to keep His word.
We are His children and He loves us unconditionally. He is a very understanding Father and He is always faithful to forgive us when we go to Him with a humble heart. However, we must go to Him with a humble heart instead of going to Him with an arrogant heart and demand Him to answer us just because we ask. We need to be very careful that we do not go to Him and demand Him to do anything for us. Our dear Heavenly Father is not a puppet. We should not try to pull His strings and make Him perform for us. He is a Holy God and deserves our respect and courtesy.
I asked God to forgive me for thinking about myself instead of concentrating on Him and thinking of others. I composed and sent out my devotion for that day. Within ten minutes after I had sent the devotion to everyone on my mailing list and had posted it on my website, I received an email telling me that the package was in transit. There is no doubt in my mind whatsoever that had I not trusted God and been obedient to write the devotion and send it that the package would still be there in Customs.
There is a song called “OTHERS”. It is one of my favorite songs. Some of the words in the song are “Lord, help me live from day to day, In such a self-forgetful way, That even when I kneel to pray, My prayer shall be for-others.” Oh, that you and I would allow Jesus to fill our hearts with so much compassion and so much unconditional love for others that when we kneel to pray our prayer would be for others. Also, it is not enough to kneel physically in prayer; we must also kneel in our hearts when we pray.
In our Scripture for today we read that God is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. I looked up the word “diligently” in Webster’s Dictionary this morning and this is what I found. The definition that Webster’s gives for the word “diligently” is “characterized by steady, earnest, and energetic effort.” Not only are we to seek God faithfully and earnestly but we are to also seek Him energetically. I don’t know about you, but I don’t always seek Him faithfully, earnestly and diligently. How I must break His heart when I allow material things to come before Him.
Have you said to Jesus “I will serve You no matter how many obstacles, problems, turmoil, heartaches and crises comes my way because nothing else matters but serving You”? If you haven’t said that to Him, not only are you not pleasing Him, you are hurting Him. Determine to serve Jesus no matter what comes your way.