Sometimes it’s a tricky line between what is my responsibility and what is God’s. God has given us resources, talents, and opportunities so we want to steward those correctly. We know Jesus is the one building His church (Matt 16:18) but we know He wants to use us. (2 Chron 16:9).
We’re all no doubt familiar with the jugglers who keep the plates spinning on poles. My suggestion is that sometimes we just need to let the plates drop. If we try and keep all the plates spinning we’ll eventually burn out, drop out, run out or just plain check out. I’m not talking about abdicating or being irresponsible – I’m talking about surrendering.
Jesus said His yoke is easy and His burden is light. And that we are to cast our burden upon the Lord and He will sustain us, never allowing us to be shaken. (Psalm 55:22). There are times when we need to say “Ok God, this is too much for me, I’m just going to let these plates drop – I can’t keep running round keeping them spinning. If You don’t like the sound of crashing china then You can keep them spinning.”
In Mark 1 Jesus was at the house of Simon Peter and his brother Andrew, possibly relaxing after a busy morning at the local synagogue, teaching and ministering to a man with an unclean spirit. Being the Sabbath the people waited till the sun went down then they all found where Jesus was and came to be healed. It says “the whole city had gathered at the door” (v33). I wonder when Jesus got to bed that night? But He still managed to get up when it was still dark and go out to pray. Obviously the people were knocking on the door at first light as Simon and others went out looking for Jesus. They found Him and said “Everyone is looking for you” (v37).
Faced with such a need, and in line with His mission, we would expect Jesus to continue ministering to the people out of His deep heart of compassion. Surprisingly He said “Grab your bags boys, we’re moving on” (or words to that effect). My take on this is that He perceived it was appropriate to leave all those spinning plates and if they fell…? Well, His Father would take care of them.
There was only one Saviour, only one Son of God, only one Messiah – but He could still walk away from tremendous needs and trust His Father to orchestrate the big picture. Is it time for you to do the same with the circumstances of your life?
In Mark 4 Jesus was asleep in the boat and the disciples were panicking as the waves of the storm were breaking into the boat. They woke Jesus up and said “Teacher, don’t you care that we’re dying!” Interesting how we tend to interpret adverse circumstances as a sign of God’s lack of concern for us.
Anyway, to restate this situation in terms of the point I’m making, the disciples saw that the plates were about to drop and they wanted Jesus to fix the problem. Jesus, of course, did fix the problem and then once there was some peace and quiet he said (my paraphrase) “What’s the problem guys? Just because you think things are getting out of control doesn’t mean you can’t trust me or my heavenly Father. I said we were going to the other side but you obviously didn’t believe me. Let it go. Believe my words. Chill. Don’t judge by what your eyes see or your ears hear. Now get out the oars and put your back into it cos we’re certainly not going anywhere by sail.”
Trusting in the Lord with all of our heart and not our mind (Prov 3:5) sometimes means we come to our Heavenly Father with an attitude of “I’m not being irresponsible but I give up trying to keep the plates spinning. If they drop, they drop”.
This was one of the many challenges given by Darlene Cunningham, co founder of Youth with A Mission, here in Tauranga (NZ) last week, but this is the one that captured my attention the most.
Darlene shared how she was living in a country where it wasn’t the custom to do recycling so she didn’t do it. She was asked by someone “don’t you believe in recycling?” and she said “Yes I do”. But her response really convicted and challenged her because if she did actually believe in recycling it would be reflected in her actions.
It caused me to question how many things do I really believe are right but they aren’t part of my lifestyle. If I really believe in God’s Word and His commands does that necessarily mean I am actively doing them and if not why not? If Jesus is Lord of my life surely doing the right thing and obeying His commands is not an option but imperative if my desire is to be pleasing to my Master and to be in the centre of His will. Am I a believing believer in all God says in the Bible? Am I acting out my beliefs faithfully, regularly?
After some soul searching I realized I still have a long way to go to be like Jesus.
We are all on a journey in our faith walk with Jesus and thankfully God doesn’t condemn us when we fail, in fact it’s quite the opposite. As any loving earthly father picks up his toddler when he stumbles and falls while learning to walk, so too our Heavenly Father is right there with us when we stumble or are weak in our faith, encouraging us on and forgiving our shortcomings . Our part is to desire with all our hearts to be pleasing to our Saviour and to check in daily to make sure we’re on the right track and if not be quick to repent and receive forgiveness for our failures. We need to live with a humble, teachable heart, always seeking to please our Lord.
Living a life of faith is the only way for us to grow so that means we don’t just do what we’ve always done or we will get what we’ve always got. We cannot please God this way. When was the last time you did something for the first time? The faith life is one of risk and challenge, stepping out of our comfort zone, being as sheep in the midst of wolves, trusting God when the situation looks impossible, but obeying because we know God has told us to do it. God never said it would be easy but that He would always be with us. The life of faith is a life of living on the edge and extending our borders often into the unknown. Isn’t it wonderful we weren’t created for the ordinary! Life is meant to be an adventure, with God partnering with us to achieve His purposes.
It’s great for my soul, and essential, to have regular spiritual checkups and may God continue to challenge us all by asking “do your actions reflect your beliefs?”
Just as Easter symbolises the beginning of new life perhaps it’s symbolic that Lynne and I begin a new chapter of our lives this Easter. After 20 years of local authority finance I finish work at the Waikato Regional Council just before Easter and then straight after that Easter weekend we join with a 2 month YWAM (Youth With a Mission) outreach “Activate Love”. That outreach will see us join with 100 young people from all over the world who are coming to NZ to help re-evangelise NZ 200 years after Samuel Marsden first preached the gospel. We’ll be part of one of the teams that will be sent out throughout NZ to assist local churches in their mission to their community.
After the YWAM outreach we return to Tauranga in June and begin a new chapter of our lives, trusting God to open doors of ministry as He has been prompting us over the years.
We’ve spent most of our married lives in Hamilton so it’s a big move to put our goods in storage and head off into our future, based in Tauranga. God’s call on our lives has been clear to us but it’s been many years before the timing was right. Making that final decision was quite a struggle but I had set myself (and God) a deadline of Sunday Feb 1st to determine God’s leading so I could give my employers two months notice (or not at all!). Lynne was sure but I just couldn’t see things clearly so she prayed “Lord you’ve got to make it clear to Alan”. When I was clearing out a storage room on Saturday January 31st I found a bag of assorted cassette tapes and gave them to Lynne to sort through. One of those tapes was a message from 3 January 1993 by me entitled “Don’t Limit God”. So Lynne in her wisdom put it in the player. One of the challenges I brought to the listeners 22 years ago was “Don’t be in the same place in a year’s time”. At the end of that message Lynne and Daniel (oldest son who’s staying with us at present) and I discussed things and it wasn’t too long before I said “Ok, I’ll resign on Monday”. Decision made. Lynne thought God had a real sense of humour getting me to preach to myself to bring me to the point of decision! That message from 1993 is attached to this blog.
Since then the peace of God that had been so elusive in recent weeks returned.
God has given us many words in 2014 about travel; adventure; ministering together; our lives are just beginning; the season of preparation is over. Many of those words were repeated several times in different circumstances. So we knew God was giving us some strong clues and now the time has come to step out.
We really aren’t sure what our lives will look like after the YWAM outreach but we are confident that God has gone before us and will lead us as we settle in Tauranga and look for opportunities to preach, teach, minister, run prophetic art workshops and otherwise seek to equip the saints.
Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass. 1 Thessalonians 5:24
For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:6
Don’t limit God, 3 Jan-93. Fountain City Christian Centre, Hamilton:
Recently I had so much trouble getting a newsletter finalised. I got distracted and somehow the newsletter just disappeared from view on my computer screen. Obviously I touched something I shouldn’t have. After about an hour of trying to retrieve it I thought I would have one more try the following day. Praise God I found it. Perseverance won in the end!
This has got me thinking about life. Often when things don’t seem to be working or our prayers don’t seem to be answered we can be prone to give up and let go of the promises of God. This can happen just before our breakthrough. One of the meanings of ‘perseverance’ is ‘going on until success is met with’.
Perseverance is such a great quality to have and according to scripture “blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love Him”. Also scripture says that ‘perseverance brings proven character’. In Romans 15:4 it says that through perseverance and the encouragement of Scripture we might have hope and then in verse 5 it goes on to say that God gives us perseverance. So I guess He just needs our desire to persevere to see His promises come to pass. In 2 Thessalonians 1:4 it says how perseverance and faith help us to endure the difficult times. And in Romans 2 it says God will give eternal life to those who persevere in doing good, seeking after the glory, honour and immortality that He offers.
In summary, some of the virtues of perseverance as a believer are – seeing God’s promises fulfilled in our lives, receiving the crown of life, proven character, hope, endurance for difficult times, eternal life.
So maybe losing the newsletter temporarily which caused me to pen this message was so that someone could receive this word of encouragement today.
One day when things weren’t going as I would have liked, this verse came flooding into my mind. It brought me to my senses. If I am truly living a life of faith and trusting God and believing in His Word I am able to live victoriously every day. I don’t like admitting this but that’s not always my testimony.
There are those unexpected life events and trials that seem to dictate that I have every reason to lose my joy and maybe we even think “who wouldn’t feel blah going through this situation, or this pain or this sickness or disappointment?” But the fact remains for us as believers, that God has this day sussed for us. He has made today. His mercies are new every morning, to draw upon, for whatever we have ahead of us. This doesn’t mean it will be easy or be pain free or that we’ll be understood or we will feel great but it does mean that because the day is made by the Lord, we, in faith, can choose to rejoice and be glad in it.
Horatio Stafford who lived in the late 1800’s is an example of living each day rejoicing in God. He penned the well known hymn “It is well with my soul” after many traumatic events in his life which I found too sad to mention.
James 1:2-4 says “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
I desire to be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing, don’t you? At the end of our time on earth what will our character be like? What lessons will we have learned because we were guided by what God says and not by how we felt in any given situation. God’s ways seems so illogical at times. All the more reason to choose to live by faith in His Word and His amazing love for each one of us.
Isaiah 55:8-9
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord.
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways
and My thoughts than your thoughts.
So rejoice and be glad! We are in the family of God and we have so much to be thankful for.
Revival begins with us as we live in faith and have our hearts right before God.
Here’s a “snippet” from some of that message:
If I were to ask you do you deliberately sin? I’m sure you would say “no way.” A very challenging verse is found in Hebrews 3:12 Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God.
We are all on a faith journey but we can be unbelieving believers in some areas of our lives. What are we doing about those areas of unbelief? Are we just staying in unbelief or are we pushing through and grabbing hold of the promises of God related to that unbelief and declaring them until the words go from our head to our heart and becomes a belief. Our goal should be to not remain in our unbelief in any area. We aren’t to be condemned by this as we are all guilty of it as we are all on a faith journey.
The Bible says that “without faith it’s impossible to please God.” We all want to please God so having a strong faith is imperative for an overcoming life. We need to ask ourselves “what areas do I find hard to believe and what am I doing about it? What scriptures do I need to claim. What promises do I need to believe and declare until it resonates with my spirit and becomes a belief?”
A life of faith means living outside our comfort zone and taking risks.
Our breakthrough is often on the other side of our fears.
Am I continually growing in God? Am I stepping out on the water and taking risks trusting Jesus to take me by the hand? I love the quote “Attempt something so hard that unless God intervenesit’s bound to fail.” It’s a challenge for us all.
We need to actively pray against unbelief
REPENT – receive God’s forgiveness
REBUKE satan’s influence because of our unbelief and renounce the lies surrounding unbelief.
REPLACE the sin of unbelief by affirming the truth, renewing our minds continually and memorizing and meditating on it.
RECEIVE the infilling and empowering work of the Holy Spirit to live in the truth and faith
The good news is that Jesus is the author and perfecter of our faith. If we are willing to partner with Him He will take us on in our faith journey encouraging us to step out and do great exploits for Him.
