Missions Monday- What is your mission?

I know that finding your purpose in life can sometimes be overwhelming. Trying to hear what GOD wants you to do can be frustrating, sometimes. So, during those overwhelming frustrating times, what is your mission? Your mission is to LOVE.

Why love?  Well, because GOD says. :) John 15:12  in the NIV says, "My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you." That's pretty clear.  GOD commands us to love. Sounds easy, right. Yeah, sure it is. It is easy to love those that are easy to love. That's not really what GOD is talking about, though. We ALWAYS have to love. Even when we don't feel like it. Even when it's hard. Even when people seem unlovable. We still have to love. 

Loving is not always easy. It can be one of the most difficult things we do. Sometimes is seems like GOD places us in the paths of what we consider the 'unlovables'. Every one's 'unlovable' is different and our reasons for avoiding love are different. Maybe we've been hurt in the past. Maybe those 'unlovables' remind of us that hurt. Maybe we have built protective walls that we are just not willing to tear down. Whatever our reasons for avoiding love, we have to get over them. We have to move past the hurt, or the issues and get to lovin'. :) 

Once we really grasp the reality of GOD'S love for us, how can we not want to love like HE loves? He gave HIS son, HIS life, HIS everything for us. The sacrifices HE has made are tremendous, can we not make the commitment and small sacrifice of loving our 'unlovables'?

GOD has left explicit instructions on what love is, what it means to love, and how love works. Take these words to heart and work on sharing love with your 'unlovables'.



1 Corinthians 13

1 If I speak in the tonguest of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,t but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part,10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Thoughtful Tuesday-Getting the rest we need.

 

As I was doing some bible study/personal God time this week I came across a couple verses that got me thinking.  One of them is Galatians 6:9. In the Message version, it reads like this, " So let’s not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don’t give up, or quit."  I think that sometimes people understand this as meaning keep doing services, actions,  'stuff', even if it is to the detriment of yourself or your family, because eventually we will get something out of it  and we will be greatly rewarded if we just stick to it long enough. Even if we are worn out, broken down or physically, spiritually, and emotionally exhausted, we just need to keep trucking along and do all the 'stuff' everyone thinks we should do.

 I don't think so. I think that we are supposed to do 'good' and not let it get us down. I don't think that we are supposed to run ourselves ragged trying to be everything for everyone. Doing 'works' and doing good are not always the same thing. Sometimes they are, but not always. To me, and you don't have to agree with me, doing good is well...doing good. We all know what good is, really. Doing good is doing what God wants you to do when and how HE wants you to do it. It is living a life God would be proud of. A life that would please Him. We should do what it says in 1Corinthians 10:31 "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." Everything we do should glorify God. Everything.
 It doesn't necessarily have to be a public thing. It can be very private. No one but you and God even needs to know what your particular 'good' thing/things is/are. We just have to do those things in the right mindset. We can't do them begrudgingly, or just because it's expected, or whatever your personal reasons might be. We have to make sure that we are doing the things God has called us to do. Sometimes we don't get the right message from God. Sometimes the needs of the church or ourselves or even our own emotions cry out louder than the voice of God and we end up making rash judgements or wrong choices. Do we keep doing those things anyway and wait for our 'right time' to come? Maybe. That's a personal call, I think.

Galatians 6:7-8 says "7 Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 8 Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life."NIV

If we are sowing when we are tired (spiritually, emotionally, or physically), unfulfilled, concerned about our image, worried about what other people think, sowing with halfheartedness, resentment, or anything that is not 'good', what kind of harvest will we be reaping at the end?  Not the kind of harvest I am personally looking for. I don't want a half-hearted harvest. I don't want a harvest full of resentment. I don't want a harvest that doesn't bring joy. I don't want a harvest that comes with a 'whew, I sure am glad that's over'. I want a joyful harvest. Maybe that's selfish, I don't know. That's just me being honest right now.

Matthew 11:28. "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." We go to God.  We let Him restore. We ask Him for guidance and we keep asking until we CLEARLY hear what He wants us to do.  Maybe we step down from things, narrow our 'to-do lists', clear out the clutter of our lives, re-focus. Whatever it takes to restore that relationship with God. Whatever it takes to get back our energy, our hope, our fervor, our zeal, our excitement for God and for following Him. That is going to look different for each of us, but that's OK. Your friends will still like you.(Probably, and if they don't then well...re-examine your friendships.) Your Pastor will still like you. God will still like you. It is not selfish. It is not self-serving. It is what it takes for you to be productive in the kingdom and in your calling.

Isaiah 40:28-31

NIV

28 Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.

29 He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.

30 Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;

31 but those who hope in the Lord
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.