How will I be remembered?

I read yesterday in 2 Chronicles 25:2, “[King Amaziah] did right in the sight of the Lord, yet not with a whole heart.” I'm going to be honest. This kind of scares me. What a sad way to be remembered for eternity.  I don't want to come before the Lord and have the Him say, “Well, you did the right things, but your whole heart wasn't in it.”  I want to be remembered as a woman after God's own heart, a woman who loved the Lord with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength.

How do you want to be remembered? Are you okay with being half-hearted? I say no.  Let us ask the Lord to search us and know us. Let us ask Him to change the parts of our hearts that are not fully seeking Him.

Bondservant

“Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God.” -Romans 1:1

“Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ...” -2 Peter 1:1

Many of the writers of the epistles, including Paul and Peter, introduce themselves as bondservants of Christ. These men of God seem to consider this their title possibly even before the title of apostle. In the back of my head I've always kind of wondered what it looks like to truly be a bondservant of Jesus Christ. What would it look like if I found my identity in being a bondservant? How would it change my life if, in everything I did, I considered myself a servant?

“For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.” -Galatians 1:10

Whoa... Lord, forgive me for the ways I seek to please men. Form me into a true bondservant of Christ. A servant lives to please his master, not the people around him. So, to be a bondservant of Jesus Christ, I must leave behind my desire to look good before those around me. 

I have begun to pray recently that the Lord would separate my identity and my value from the way others see me or act toward me. I am entirely too affected by the comments others make. If someone agrees with something I say, I think, “Wow, I actually said something good.” But if someone even is not as interested as I thought they would be, I think, “Oh no, that must have been wrong.” And with that comes “I said something good, I'm so good,” or “I said something wrong, I'm a terrible person and I never say the right thing.” You can imagine that this roller coaster is quite tiring. 

Lately I've been thinking more about how it says in the Bible that believers will be hated and persecuted (one example is Matthew 10:22-23). With so much of my value found in what others think of me, I am sad to say that if I was mocked (not to mention beaten or thrown into prison) for my faith right now, I would be shaken. So, I pray to my Master, my Lord, and I ask Him to change me. He's already starting, and it is AMAZING. As weird as this sounds, there is so much freedom in being a bondservant of Christ. I don't have to worry about what others will think or if what I'm going to say will be well-received or even if it's right because I am simply the servant. I simply have to listen to the Master and obey. Praise the Lord!

With Love,

Melinda, bondservant of Jesus Christ

God's Battle

I was reading 2 Chronicles 20 yesterday, and the Lord used it to teach me about relying on Him for victory.

Three different armies came up against Judah, and Jehoshaphat the king was afraid. But instead of starting to bark orders at the commanders of his army or doing his best to come against this threat, he turned to the Lord. Part of his prayer reads, “For we are powerless before this great multitude who are coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are on You” (verse 12). He declares his helplessness, but he also declares his faith by saying his eyes are on the Lord, his only hope. What do you think the Lord's response was? “Well, you should have been better prepared.” Or “You go ahead and fight and I'll be here to help.” Both are so wrong. He says, “Do not fear or be dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours but God's... You need not fight in this battle; station yourselves, stand and see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf...” (verses 15 and 17). So, the next morning they go out praising the Lord for His promised victory, and “when Judah came to the lookout of the wilderness they looked toward the multitude [their adversaries], and behold they were corpses lying on the ground, and no one had escaped” (verse 24). Judah's enemies had come against one another and not one was left. God had won the battle.

How cool is that? How often do I think I have to try and do my best even though I am so limited in my abilities? How often do I fight the battle with my limited resources just to get defeated? What did King Jehoshaphat do? He prayed, confessing his powerlessness and asking for the Lord's victory. Then he trusted. He didn't say, “Okay, God, I want your help, but I'm going to go out their and do my best. So bless my efforts.” Our Father wants to fight our battles, in fact He says they're not our battles but His. But we must surrender control to Him. And we must trust Him. Then we simply watch Him bring victory.  Praise the Lord!

Dearly Loved Daughter

Picture a good dad, one who loves his children. Does he love them because they're perfect or because they always do everything he tells them to? No, he loves them because they're his kids. Picture him with his little girl. He loves her. He delights in her. He smiles as she dances freely. This little girl hasn't done anything to earn her father's love. She doesn't have to. She already has it. Sometimes she disobeys her dad. Sometimes he tells her to clean her room and she says no. He wants her to obey, but even when she doesn't, he still loves her. She is his dearly loved daughter.

Recently, the Lord's been teaching me about His love for me. Because I believe in and confess Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, I have been given the Spirit of adoption. I have become a daughter of the God of love. So, remember we were talking earlier about a good dad? Well, our heavenly Father is a perfect dad. He doesn't love me only when I'm perfect (because that would definitely be never). I don't have to earn my Father's love. I already have it. Sometimes I disobey. I don't always love those around me as Christ loves me. My Father desires that I be obedient. He desires that I love. He disciplines me when I don't follow His commands. But He still loves me. I am His dearly loved daughter.