August 28, 2020 WALKING THE TALK
Psalm 128:2 “You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands; you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you.” 2 Corinthians 9:7 “Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” Matthew 5:16 “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” Luke 6:35 “But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men.” Ephesians 4:32 “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ Jesus forgave you.”
The Christian faith is built on the super-natural; the bible records the super-natural acts of God, and Jesus demonstrated the super natural. As believers, the fact that we have been made new creations and given hew hearts, new minds, and a new spirit, is a super-natural work of God; the Holy Spirit working in us is super-natural. However, the scriptures are replete with instructions on how our super-natural life impacts the practical-the nitty-gritty of life. (An old preacher friend of mine once said that “some Christians are so spiritually minded that they are no earthly good.” There is some truth in that statement.) The super-natural work God has done and continues to do in us brings life to all we do, even as we go about the daily routines-doing the things that we need to do. The living, active relationship we have with our Father should be the motivator, or the source of all we do. Colossians 3:23 instructs us this way: “Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for man.” That is an amazing verse. Whether you are leading a bible study, or mowing the lawn, do it heartily and do it for the Lord-and not for the praise of man. If our motivation for doing a good job is to impress someone else, then we miss the point. We may want to please someone and bless them by doing a good job on a particular project or whatever, but our deepest motivation should be that it pleases the Father and is a demonstration of the life of Jesus in us. I understand that there are some things we have to do that we do not enjoy, and that sometimes there is a sense of drudgery in what we do. Oswald Chambers has said that “Routine is God’s way of saving us between our times of inspiration.” His point is that drudgery, or routine, is not a bad thing and is actually an essential part of life. Again, even in the drudgery, we have the life of God at work in us. I find it refreshing to know that ‘heartily’ doing whatever we do is an opportunity to demonstrate the life of Jesus in us and it frees us from trying to please man. It is an awesome thing to know that God is the motivation and the power for all we do! There will be some drudgery, and some things we do not enjoy doing in life, but let us have a bigger and higher mindset in the process; let us have the mind of Christ as we go about life, knowing that we can glorify and honor Him in all we do.
1 Peter 2:9 “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”
Blessings,
Buddy
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