Whose Am I?





Psalm 31:3–5 (ESV) For you are my rock and my fortress; and for your name’s sake you lead me and guide me; 4 you take me out of the net they have hidden for me, for you are my refuge. 5 Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God.

There is a modern Christianity obsessed with the idea of self-fulfillment. The "Hole in my Heart" Gospel that makes Jesus the answer to all my needs and hopes, the key to unlocking my dreams and potential. While it is true God in Christ is all you need, and is your hope, and in Christ you can do incredible things... they may not be the things you imagined or planned at all. They may not center on you and your wants. They may ask you to decrease and let others increase all around you. 

 The Psalmist has it right. To be committed in Spirit to the Lord is to let your life resonate for the sake of His name and not your own. To understand our redemption means to comprehend our being as a possession of God. He has the right to do what He wants with His possessions!

 Later he says:

Psalm 31:15 (ESV) My times are in your hand; rescue me from the hand of my enemies and from my persecutors!

This is what it means to be redeemed. All that you have is in the hands of almighty God. Christianity is for you but it is not about you. It is about God in Christ saving, redeeming and repurposing you when and where He sees fit. 

This does not mean you can't go where you want and do what you want. It is to mean that even those realities are developed and determined by God for His ultimate plan and purpose. Look at the Early Church as a case in point. They were told by Christ to go to Judea, Samaria and the uttermost parts of the Earth. But they stayed put in Jerusalem for 7 chapters! It took a man named Saul and some other persecutors to get them moving. Yet God used that great persecution to send His sons and daughters far and wide around the world. 

To say you are committed to Christ is to let go of the reigns of your life. To understand His purposes prevail over His chosen people. Stop worrying and complaining and let the adventure begin.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

God’s View of You

Sometimes I think we imagine that God is mostly disappointed with us. That He puts up with us and bears with us because He has to (after all He is love), but most of the time our glaring weaknesses weary Him and make His day miserable. Of course, this is the devil’s doing in our minds. The truth of scripture bears out that the world has to get staunch-raving evil before God is totally weary of us. And the stories in the Old Testament remind us with each passing character that God is patient, loving and kind to His very flawed inconsistent servants. Saul is a case study of this. His lineage will not hold the kingdom, that has already been stated from the mishap of offering the sacrifice instead of waiting for Samuel to arrive in 1 Samuel 13. His next great gaff will happen in the chapter to come in 1 Samuel 15 where his own kingship will be taken from him and the anointing placed on one soon to come. Yes, God will regret making Saul king and we’ll talk about that next. But for now...
Read more

The Stain of Slavery

One of the greatest pains in my heart over the history of the church is the fact that many "Bible-believing" Christians used the Bible to promote, continue, and enable slavery in America's past. It may have happened elsewhere, but I'm an American, and I know it happened here. Then, some repeatedly make the claim because of a tiny amount of verses where God informs Israel on how to take slaves, it means the Bible is a pro-slavery document. How absurd. The overarching narrative of the Bible is that God sets the slaves free. The second book testifies to this part of God's character.  Getting to Jeremiah's day, one of the reasons Israel's nation was handed over to exile was because they enslaved each other. This attitude was so engrained into the culture of Israel that they had a hard time giving up slavery even in the face of national catastrophe.  In Jeremiah 34, the king is promised that he will die in Babylon, but he will die in peace. Jeremiah 34:3–5 (ESV...
Read more

Leaders Who Later Fail

Remember Johanan from Jeremiah 41? The man who saved many others from the threats of the murderous coup? He seemed like a noble leader. But time reveals a lot.  Jeremiah 42:5–6 (ESV)  Then they said to Jeremiah, “May the LORD be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act according to all the word with which the LORD your God sends you to us. 6 Whether it is good or bad, we will obey the voice of the LORD our God to whom we are sending you, that it may be well with us when we obey the voice of the LORD our God.” These are the words of the presumptive leaders of Israel in the land while the nation is in exile. The previous chapter saw a hero arise to protect a few remaining survivors. His name was Johanan. On the surface, he seems like a good man, seeking the will of the Lord in his leadership position. Jeremiah returns with directives from the Lord: Jeremiah 42:10 (ESV) If you will remain in this land, then I will build you up and not pull you down; I will plant y...
Read more