Driven? If so., by What? Jan. 2015
As we all begin a new year, we usually reflect on the one just past. We will soon reach our second anniversary as foreign missionaries! It has been an interesting and challenging year.
Both Sam and I have type A personalities and I grew up with a performance-based view of my worth. Living in a third world country has ramped the fires of purifying that mentality out of me, has sent me to my knees and has developed my patience. On a day-to-day basis, I often felt as if we were accomplishing nothing.
Things move extremely slow in a third world country as compared to what we are used to in the US. It can either frustrate you, which I confess it did many days, or hone patience and trust in our Lord’s perfect timing. I have repeated many times over the past year and know I will in 2015, “ En el tiempo del Dios.” For if I believe that God is sovereign and is trustworthy, then I should want all to occur in His perfect timing…..it is anyway, so I need to embrace this mindset.
Last Sunday, we heard a beautiful teaching on this principle that I want to share with you all.
Jeremiah 17: 9,10 reads,” The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? I the LORD search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.”
God knows our hearts and our minds; what motivates us, what drives us; and He will reward the fruit and overflow of the heart that is pleasing to Him.
Jeremiah 17:5-6 and 7-8 describe two different people
Verses 5-6: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the LORD. He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land.”
This person is driven by outside influence. Living a life of drought can be difficult and very frustrating but worse, it will lead to eternal death.
Verses 7-8: “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.”
The Spirit of God drives this person. Living a life rooted in the Lord and trusting in Him will not necessarily be easy but it will be fruitful and will lead to eternal life.
I am no longer given to make “New Year’s resolutions” because I was rarely able to keep them and now to even remember them. But we all want to make changes and be ‘better’ people, right? So, how do we really change?
We need to recognize that God is in control, that He loves us and desires good for us; but also that we live in a fallen world full of sin and the ramifications of that sin. How do we respond to living in a fallen world?
We can either put our trust in man, seeking to achieve success is the eyes of our peers, gathering up storerooms of ‘stuff’: power, prestige, wealth, and popularity. – OR - We can put our trust in the Lord, seeking to know Him better, follow Him more closely and love Him more dearly.
You are just as driven as I am. Ask yourself, are you driven by outside influence or by the Spirit of the Living God?
I want to begin 2015 with a renewal of my mindset and trust anchored in Christ who came to redeem me from this fallen world and to give me the greatest gift of all: reconciliation with Abba, Father. I want to recognize my own sin and repent from it and turn away from these destructive mindsets and life choices. I want to recommit to follow Jesus wherever He leads me so that my roots will be by a stream, without fear of heat or drought and my fruit will continue to grow and be pleasing to Him.
Feliz Año Nuevo en Cristo!
Roxanne