Tuesday, August 11, 2009

"God's Purpose of Mine?"

SO there is this grand little book by Oswald Chambers called: "My Utmost for His Highest" and it is in a word phenomenal.

It is divided into daily readings and each reading is like BAH BAM in Yo FACE AWESOME! It is just jam packed with wisdom, revelation, and truth about God. Ah I encourage everyone and anyone to get this book and just revel in the awesomeness that God has communicated through Mr. Chambers.

One particular entry, from July 28, spoke directly to the experience that has been my summer. And if you have been following my blog....(yeah if you have been then I am impressed and love you and you must be a member of my family haha) but anyways if you have been following my blog you know that this summer has been very different for me; it has been a great growing experience, but very hard (fyi: most growth has a little pain along with it). SO when I read this particular entry from "My Utmost for His Highest" it just hit me right where I was at in my summer experience. It described what I was feeling and made me examine what I'd been learning....

SO please enjoy and be blessed by this revelation. love love:

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"He made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side..." (Mark 6:45)

'We tend to think that if Jesus Christ compels us to do something and we are obedient to Him, He will lead us to great success. We should never have the thought that our dreams of success are God's purpose for us. In fact, His purpose may be exactly the opposite. We have the idea that God is leading us toward a particular end or a desired goal, but He is not. The question of whether or not we arrive at a particular goal is of little importance, and reaching it becomes merely an episode along the way. What we see as only the process of reaching a particular end, God sees as the goal itself.
What is my vision of God's purpose for me? Whatever it may be, His purpose is for me to depend on Him and on His power now. If I can stay calm, faithful, and unconfused while in the middle of the turmoil of life, the goal of the purpose of God is being accomplished in me. God is not working toward a particular finish--His purpose is the process itself. What He desires for me is that I see "Him walking on the sea" with no shore, no success, nor goal in sight, but simply having the absolute certainty that everything is all right because I see "Him walking on the sea" (6:49). It is the process, not the outcome, that is glorifying to God.
God's training is for now, not later. His purpose is for this very minute, not for sometime in the future. We have nothing to do with what will follow our obedience, and we are wrong to concern ourselves with it. What people call preparation,
God sees as the goal itself.
God's purpose is to enable me to see that He can walk on the storms of my life right now. If we have a further goal in mind, we are not paying enough attention to the present time. However, if we realize that moment-by-moment obedience is the goal, then each moment as it comes is precious.'


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ahhh yeah read that through once or twice more, it almost takes that many readings to really absorb all that is being said.

Even as I am typing it out, reading it again I am convicted. I focus so much on the future, and many of the things I focus on are good things, but even these good things can distract me from the now and what God is growing in me this very moment.

God says not even to worry about tomorrow, because it WILL TAKE CARE OF ITSELF. We are told to seek FIRST God's kingdom and HIS righteousness (Matt. 6:31-34). God and knowing Him has to be our goal: not the future, not college, not friends, not even family or even telling people about Christ. We FIRST have to live out and believe God's love in our own hearts, right now, before we can move onto anything else.

this ties into what God's been teaching me (see my last entry) about committing all of myself to Christ, even my emotions.

So keep going, pursue God and His love for you now this second. Don't get caught up in the "what's next" but just enjoy the "what's now". (the quotes were cheesy but so true!)

ah sorry a lot of words, a lot of thoughts, but i pray you were blessed.

with love.
writing from the journey called life.

<>< Caroline