"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field." ~Matthew 13:44
Then Jesus told his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeit his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?" ~Matthew 16:24-26
Lately I have been examining my walk with the Lord and trying to make sense of this thing called life. If you look in my older posts you will see how the Lord has been taking me on a journey of turning my focus from "self" to "HIM and HIS WORD." It has been a process and will continue to be a process. My selfishness creeps up daily. I am not just talking about the selfishness where I find myself washing dishes after dinner and wishing that dinner time could be about serving "mommy" for once. I am talking about BIG selfishness where I want to just put my little life in a bubble and just be a wife, a mom, and maybe have a couple of friends, go to church a few times a month and maybe even volunteer a time or two.
But is that really what God has in store for me?
To be honest with you, there was a time that my life looked just like that... and I was NOT content! When I made my life all about "me" it was...at best...liveable. But when I took the focus off of "myself" and started focusing on God and what He desires for me...then it was LIFE!
It is scary to open up our lives to others...to serve others...to make life about bringing glory to God. It is continually making the switch to live for God and not for self. I find myself thinking, "that is what the old Kerry would do, but what about the Kerry who is being conformed to God's image?" It is like continually having to go in and change the printer option in your computer. The default wants to live for "self." I will call it "self2600" since that is what my printer is.. :) But what God desires is "GOD2011." Live for him TODAY!!
One of the most important components to living for God is being in community!
"In our experience, people are often enthusiastic about community until it impinges on their decision-making. For all their rhetoric, they still expect to make decisions by themselves for themselves. We assume we are masters of our own lives, "It's my money, its my life, it's my future," we say, "so it's my decision." ~Total Church, A Radical Reshaping around Gospel and Community
God didn't intend for us to live out the gospel in isolation. That is what I wanted to do by keeping my life in a bubble. We are created to be communal beings. We need eachother and ultimately God! The way we live out life together is how God is glorified and others are brought into the kingdom!
I encourage you to be in community with other believers as well as non-believers to be relationship with them and walk out your faith for all to see so that your Father in Heaven will be glorified.
Consider the cost of living for Him. Is it worth it?
You bet!! But it means change! We can't claim to be followers of Christ and remain the same.
His Word is a double edge sword and it pierces the heart. If His Word is not drawing blood, then we might need to examine our hearts.
~kerry
