Doing my utmost

 

My Utmost For His Highest

 

I am encouraged by Ittai today for this unknown person has shown what it means to be a disciple of Jesus as he walked with David. David was fleeing Absalom and this man left Jerusalem to go with David into the wilderness, bringing his whole family with him. David told him to stay in Jerusalem and he refused. By his actions and his words he declared himself a soldier, ready for scars, wounds and even death. If I am going to be a disciple of Jesus, I must enter into the same conviction and with the courage from His grace, be His servant.

Then the king said to Ittai the Gittite, “Why do you also go with us? Go back and stay with the king, for you are a foreigner and also an exile from your home. You came only yesterday, and shall I today make you wander about with us, since I go I know not where? Go back and take your brothers with you, and may the Lord show[d] steadfast love and faithfulness to you.” But Ittai answered the king, “As the Lord lives, and as my lord the king lives, wherever my lord the king shall be, whether for death or for life, there also will your servant be.” And David said to Ittai, “Go then, pass on.” So Ittai the Gittite passed on with all his men and all the little ones who were with him. – 2 Samuel 15:19-22  ESV

Believe it or not, this kind of devotion has a good side to it, but there is a bad side too. When I do everything I can to serve Jesus, there will be those who will hate me. I am introduced to Shimei today. His hatred for David were unjust, he had done nothing to deserve it and yet, in his humility, David received his words as true. So David was cursed when all he did was returned to Saul good for evil and had shown himself righteous, patient and holy. He had never avenged himself and always respected Saul, even honouring him with a funeral lamentation.

And Shimei said as he cursed, “Get out, get out, you man of blood, you worthless man! 8 The Lord has avenged on you all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose place you have reigned, and the Lord has given the kingdom into the hand of your son Absalom. See, your evil is on you, for you are a man of blood.” – 2 Samuel 16:7-8  ESV

While I might think that doing my utmost for Christ will bring rewards, and they might, I need to think of those who will also hate me for doing the same.

So my confidence is still in Jesus and in our victory for it gives me motivation to give Him everything I have and to live faithfully. This is my goal as a faithful disciple summed up well.

So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. – 2 Corinthians 5:9  ESV

When I come across the words of a spiritual abuser, which Psalm 71 really relates well too, there is no worse arrow in all the quivers of hell. If David felt it, and Jesus felt it, it is no wonder that I will feel the same at some point in time if I am to give my all to Him. The barefaced lies that I will hear, especially when I am down, will come because those will think that it is safe to insult me for they know there is no one to rescue me. The cowardly act of someone who, in pride, wants to wound the soul of a follower of Christ, does not know that the cry of that follower to the Lord their God, will endure their cruelty. 

“God has forsaken him;
pursue and seize him,
for there is none to deliver him.” – Psalm 71:11  ESV

 

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Commitment

 

When troubles come into my life, I do not tend to be troubled or even fall into depression. I find that I cling to Jesus and look to Him to fill me so that His joy becomes my strength.

But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.  We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair;  persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;  always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.  For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.  So death is at work in us, but life in you. – 2 Corinthians 4:7-12  ESV

It is not unusual to see the enemy coming against the witness of a fruitful disciple. Could he crush and mess up our work and witness? Could he box us in and try to press us into an ungodly mold? Yes, he would like to persecute, oppress, embarrass and suppress my walk and bring me to a point of desperation.

The good news is that Jesus was exposed to the same things. If it happened to Him, how could it not happen to me. This is why we are more than conquerors. I know it is the opposite of what seems natural but it is the spirit of dying that reflects the life and death of Jesus.

So I pray. I pray so that I do not find myself complaining of a barren heart all the while knowing my heart is actually full of evil. Even as I feel destitute of love and humility, I long at the same time to be a real, sincere disciple of Jesus. I come again to a place where I see how easy it is to make a profession of religion – I will do that in my fallen nature. But to possess the Spirit of Jesus can only be enjoyed when I accept the grace of God which is filled with such a great benefit.

Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right[b] spirit within me. – Psalm 51:10  ESV

Brennan Manning wrote in Ruthless Trust that, “The foremost quality of a trusting disciple is gratefulness. Gratitude arises from the lived perception, evaluation, and acceptance of all of life is grace—as an undeserved and unearned gift from the father’s hand. Such recognition is itself the work of grace, and acceptance of the gift is implicitly an acknowledgment of the Giver.”

O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
 For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;
you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. – Psalm 51:15-17  ESV

May my commitment be found only in that grace that comes from Jesus and may my strength to serve come from that grace.

 

 

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Build others up

 

build each other up with action

 

As I read 2 Corinthians chapter three – what I know to be true has an added element – I am not to build anyone up in my own strength but from the competence that comes from God.

Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God,who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. – 2 Corinthians 3:5-6  ESV

I need to remember this as I engage in helping another person grow.

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Voices

 

Lauren Daigle – You Say

 

How crazy are the voices that surround you?  It is okay if these voices are those you have come to understand and know, your ability to weed out the weird and accept the love has a proven track record. But what if you started a new job, started attending a new church, or even moved into a new neighbourhood, how would you handle those voices?

 “Do you think, because David has sent comforters to you, that he is honoring your father? Has not David sent his servants to you to search the city and to spy it out and to overthrow it?” – 2 Samuel 10:3  ESV

The Ammonites had a new leader and the voices around him did something that wreaked havoc into his life and at the end of the day, his life was destroyed. It matters that I know the voices around me and it matters that I am listening to the right voice.

However, I get it that sometimes there is a voice that somehow takes control, supersedes God’s voice. How can that happen when He is your rock, your truth, and your life. I think there is a need that comes up and somehow that voice meets that need – in a very human way. Maybe it doesn’t meet your need, you just need it and want it, and you hope it meets your needs eventually. We actually exchange the real for the counterfeit.

Lately, I have discovered that I have been listening to a voice at work and I have been believing that the voice of approval with what I do is more important than God’s voice. At least I seek it more and listen more and want it more than God’s voice. It would seem that I know already from Him that I am special, loved, unique, called and gifted by Him. I now want to hear it from people. Not a good place to be because in order to get it, I have to lose some of me and what God has purposed me to be.

I pray today that my discernment of the motivations of what I hear will stay true to who I am in Christ and that I do not allow the new voices around me to be more important or a higher priority in my life as a disciple of Jesus.

 

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Subjecting material prosperity to the spiritual

 

The whole idea of David looking at his life of wealth and then looking at the tent that God resided in, bothered him, and rightly so.  I believe that the older Gen X and those older than that come to God with the idea that the best belongs to God. If I were to do a survey of what the “best” was, most responders would give an answer that was largely in a material form. While David’s head and heart were in construction, I would say that a cup of cold water, a loaf of bread and even a new garment could be sacred gifts too. The bigger idea is that a gift made, in Jesus’ name, is really an expression of my prayer to Him for His blessing on the one whom the gift is given.

 The king said to Nathan the prophet, “See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent.”                     2 Samuel 7:2  ESV

I am sure that the greatness and glory of God’s presence and power cannot be seen, understood and interpreted in what the surroundings and settings look like. Before Jesus was born in a stable, Elijah was taught that God’s presence was not in the wind, earthquake or fire, but in the still small voice. It was a shame that the Corinthian church regarded that style and sensationalism as what was more spiritual. Worse, is that they decided to despise those who were less spectacular. True expressions of God’s glory are not in the external, but more in the fact that God Himself is in us, His body. God’s glory can be found where God is present.

Taking a continued look at the Corinthian church, I found two principles there that I can take advice from as to my character as a disciple of Jesus. They are truth and faithfulness – let my “no” be that and my “yes” the same.

Was I vacillating when I wanted to do this? Do I make my plans according to the flesh, ready to say “Yes, yes” and “No, no” at the same time? As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been Yes and No. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not Yes and No, but in him it is always Yes. – 2 Corinthians 1:17-19  ESV

Then I continued to read and started with Psalm 2. What a great prayer – another model for me to see what a disciple looks like.

David’s Prayer

The focus cannot be me and my needs, only on God and what He wants from me. How many times do I want to be the rescuer, the overachiever, the best teacher or the most popular. I even want to be the best in my profession. What is really important is that I do what I am called to do and do it in a way that will reflect God’s love and grace. My world is all about the numbers and accomplishments. However, I am a follower of Jesus, the shepherd who abandon the ninety-nine for the one. I believe Jesus said something along the lines that the first will be last. The one with the most toys actually does not win.

 

 

 

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