Productive

Do You Realize Who You Are?

By / 3 minutes of reading / , ,
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Image by Thorge from Pixabay

The lineage of God’s chosen people traces back to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We know His promise came through Isaac even though Abraham had at least one other child. (Romans 9:7) But Isaac was the child of God’s promise. God told Abraham that: “Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted.” (Genesis 21:12 )

“This means that Abraham’s physical descendants are not necessarily children of God. Only the children of the promise are counted as Abraham’s children.”

Romans 9:8 NLT

Of the children of Abraham, it was Isaac that God chose. Then, of the children of Isaac’s wife, Rebekah, it was Jacob who God chose. And now, if you have received Christ as your beloved Savior, it is you that God has chosen, for you did not decide to live a Christian life by your intellect nor by some sense of family tradition.

Spiritual Awakening

“Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? (Galatians 3:2)” It was by faith. Only by the Holy Spirit’s call was your spirit awakened, and by faith, you received salvation. And, by the blood of Jesus, you were made right and reconciled to God, for these things are the will of the Father. For Jesus is the only Son of God:

begotten from the Father before all ages,
God from God,
Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made;

Nicene Creed

Therefore, you are a child of Abraham since you were chosen just like Isaac and Jacob. You can be confident that God called you for a purpose. We can confidently say that you are a child of the promise, and therefore, you have the full backing of Almighty God for your purpose in life.

But What Is My Purpose?

Now you may say, “I don’t see my purpose, or how can I find God’s purpose for me.” God is not playing a trick on you, but you must see with spiritual eyes. Look at what God has put in your hands to do; that is where you start. But growth only comes through your faithful actions.

Fake faith is foolish, but God grows us through Spirit-led faith. As the famous missionary Hudson Taylor said, “Unless there is an element of risk, there is no need for faith.”

Called To Be An Ox

Look and see what God has already placed in your hands. Do that work by faith in God. Working in harmony with Almighty God will equip you for more wondrous works. God’s will is for you to grow and be productive. We know Jesus said that seeds that fall on good soil produce a crop. (Matthew 13:8) And we know God wants us to be productive from the wisdom found in Proverbs 14:4: “Where there are no oxen, the manger is clean, but abundant crops come by the strength of the ox.”

I pray that you have the strength of an ox!

Image by Thorge from Pixabay

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Effective and Productive

By / 2 minutes of reading / , ,

Many times I have sincerely prayed, “God, help me to be effective in my ministry. Help me, I pray, to be productive so that I won’t be like the servant that buried his one minas!” I hate to say it, but my prayer was incomplete and didn’t conform to God’s word. Yep, I needed to not just read the Bible, but I needed to integrate it into how I lived my life.

Of course, what I prayed was in the will of God; that was not the problem. The problem I had was that I didn’t pay attention to the promise God had already placed in His word. The issue was that, as with all of God’s promises, there are conditions, and I was ignoring those conditions. 

I found those conditions in 2 Peter 1:5-8 (NIV). For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge, and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

What was the point of me asking God for something He had already promised to provide when I was ignoring His conditions? What I needed to do was to “possess these qualities in increasing measure…” If I would do what God said then I would be effective and productive in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

God’s promises are so simple. Simple always trips me up. 🙁

Prayer: Father God, I come to you in the Name. Jesus is that Name above all names so in Him I come. I ask that you would teach me and correct me as I strive to add to my “faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge, and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love.”  My heart’s desire, my Father, is to be effective and productive in the work Jesus assigns me. Help me to put action to your words, I pray. Amen.

Photo by Tim Gouw on Unsplash

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