For thought and meditation

[rl69]

Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?"

—1 Corinthians 6:19

Every now and then I’ll see one of those bumper stickers that says, God is my copilot. It sounds nice, but the truth is that God doesn’t want to be your copilot or mine. He doesn’t even want us in the cockpit. God wants to be in control.

He is the Shepherd, and we are the sheep. He is the Potter, and we are the clay. He is the Master, and we are the servants. We are the property of Jesus Christ, and we became that when we put our faith in Him. As 1 Corinthians tells us, “For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s” (6:20).

A servant owns little to nothing. As God’s servants, we need to realize that everything we have is on loan from Him: our lives, our health, our career, our ministry, our possessions, our children, our future . . . it all belongs to God.

Our objective isn’t to find out how God can bless our dreams, ambitions, and goals. Rather, it’s to find His goal, His purpose, and align ourselves with it. Why? Because we are His servants.

We like the fringe benefits, if you will, of being followers of Jesus. But what about the fact that we are His servants?

Jesus told a parable in Luke 17 about servants who were given a task to fulfill. At the end of the story He said, “So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do’” (verse 10).

True servants of Jesus want to do what God wants them to do. They are just doing their duty as servants of the Lord.

[Thundarstick]

Thanks for this great reminder.

[Boaz]

Thanks for the reminder rl69 .

[GhostHawk]

When he called me I did not understand at first why he was so intent about cleaning up my heart. Hauling up all kinds of memory's of the past. Mixed joy and pain, and love and despair. Each one with its own set of tears, and then forgiveness. And the more I learned to forgive and let go the less it hurt and the faster the Peace like a river flowed.

And eventually I was washed clean, and in a fit state for the Holy Spirit to enter in.

What a game changer that was.

Now it makes perfect sense, 20/20 hindsight ya know.

So you might want to bear it in mind. If a particularly painful memory keeps coming up.
You may want to work a little harder on forgiving and letting go. It may be what is keeping you from reaching the next step.

How many of us have gone through decades just not knowing this simple thing.

He wants us to be like Jesus, Love like him, forgive like him, understand like him, and heal like him. You can't do that if you have pain in your heart. That pain and hate, ill feelings is like an acid, it contaminates and burns everything it touches. It is not holy or righteous. And it can prevent you from being washed clean, pure, and acceptable to God the Father.

Keep your heart clean, full of good thoughts and deeds and life can be sweet.