Hearers & Doers - Your Room is Ready

If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from His love, if any fellowship with The Spirit, in any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. NIV Phil 2:1-4

In these blogs we talk about hurrying to one place only, UP to God for his direction; and then listening, praying, waiting for Him… Then what?
Do we act with prompt obedience when He clearly answers us?
OR,
Do we put things off ... second guess what God is telling us … look for a more ‘logical’ answer than the one God is giving? Do we continue to wait when He clearly said "GO?" Do we go when He said "WAIT!"

We show God that we love Him by doing EXACTLY what He tells us to do, no matter how humbling. Many times I don’t like His Answers, many times they don’t make sense, and many times they take me off the path I had mapped out for myself. People say they don’t hear from God, maybe that’s because their own voice is STILL speaking and drowning out His Still, Small Voice. Jesus was a gentle-man, but also God. He is often a 'direction-changer,' and a 'side-tracker.' He can ask a 'natural born leader' to take a back seat and let someone 'less talented' go first. His Word instructs us to consider others as better than ourselves. How are you doing with that one? The trials in our lives show us how we are doing. If we are honest, we will admit that we NEED humbling, we tend to want the driver's seat not the back of the bus.

BUT, you know what, at times when I have put self aside and done what God asked, it has always resulted in JOY. The thing I have found about God is that His Will is hard; good & hard; but, there really is no other way. AND, we can reflect on the trials of our lives and see purpose. If God uses a tough trial to chip away more of my vain conceit and selfish ambition, then that is a very good thing! God is always at work changing us, growing us, teaching us to love others more, and encouraging us to draw life from Him.

There is protection under His umbrella even as torrential rains pour down around us. If we stay under His umbrella we find peace despite the storm.

Today, our pastor talked about being HEAR-ERS and DO-ERS of The Word. HEAR & DO. We observe Jesus hearing from God in The Gospels. He often goes off by Himself to pray; He asks His followers to pray with Him; and He prays for hurting people all around him. Then, we observe Him doing, acting on behalf of others: healing sick people, teaching about The Heart of The Father, stopping to hear the heart of one outcast woman at a well, multiplying loaves and fishes so that crowds of hungry people could eat. Jesus saw the need and filled it. He provided for everyone He encountered.

Can we say the same thing? Do we look to the interests of others or, do we hurry on by? Are we willing to be interrupted, inconvenienced, side-tracked as the Good Samaritan was? Or, do we think that our agenda is more important than those around us?

If our highest daily goal is:
to stay in Step with The Spirit, and lean on Jesus through suffering, loss, uncertainty… then, our lives will bear fruit! Our light and momentary troubles, our dark days here, will pass and God will lift us up into His Eternal Light. HEAR & DO, then, Jesus will be able to say, Well done! Come, ENTER INTO MY FATHER’S HOUSE, LOOK YOUR ROOM IS READY!