On Becoming Yourself
Have you ever wondered why everyone's
so fascinated with stars? Movie stars, rock stars, pop stars, country
stars, every kind of star. Partly because they look so good and we
all like to look at people who look good. We also like to look at
them without their makeup and say, well, they don't really look any
better than me without their makeup, and that sells magazines.
I've been thinking lately that another
reason we're so fascinated with stars is because they at least appear
to have found what it is that they do best and are doing it, and
maybe we can't yet say that about ourselves. So we envy them and we
look up to them. We like to read about how they got where they are.
We want to know how they made it so we can emulate them.
Following Jesus
As believers, we have someone else to
emulate, namely Jesus Christ, and He has given us His Holy Spirit and
His Word to help us do that. God gave us examples to follow in the
Bible. Many of us may want to follow Him by having a powerful
ministry with signs and wonders. But this is not the primary emphasis
in Scripture.
Jesus Christ suffered for us, leaving
us an example, that we should follow His steps, Paul said in I Peter
2:21. Suffering wrongfully, then, is part of what Christ has called
us to. I am suggesting that most of us will more likely experience
this in our daily life rather than being one that will raise the dead
or see people getting up out of wheelchairs.
We live in a culture of stars and
entertainment and we all gravitate toward the glamorous, the
spectacular, the extraordinary. We like to read the famous people's
books and hear them speak and talk about what they said. But the
Bible doesn't teach us to do that. We do that on our own. The Bible
teaches us that the Holy Spirit is our teacher, that He is with us
all the time and that He has a plan for our life.
What About Our Dreams?
I confess to you
that I have dreams of accomplishing certain goals, and I am working
toward those goals. And I confess to you that the Lord has to remind
me regularly to keep my priorities in the right order, namely seek
Him for Himself, not just for what He wants me to do. Yes, He wants
us to do things. I believe that.
Paul wrote to the
Ephesians (2:10) that God prepared good works for us beforehand that
we should walk in them. We all need to find out what those works are
and do them. Perhaps that is where the enemy likes to hit us the
most. If he can keep us from doing what God has called us to do, then
he has gained ground against us. He can rob us of eternal rewards and
earthly blessings.
God has gifted us
all uniquely and individually. I can't tell you how to be you any
more than you can tell me how to be me. But we all have a stewardship
of gifts and talents to use for the glory of the kingdom of God. So
may we all be about our Father's business, seeking Him first and all
His righteousness (Matthew 6:33) and redeeming the time for the days
are evil (Ephesians 5:16).
This article will also appear in the Fellowship of Global Christian Job Seekers newsletter for May, 2014
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