The Velveteen Rabbit

( I don't know that this lesson will do you much good unless you have the book The Velveteen Rabbit: Or How Toys Became Real as the lesson follows the book)

Read until Rabbit asks what is Real – the rabbit is like a person in the world - worth is determined by how others view him.  Rabbit wants to be loved and accepted but listens to what those around him say.  Everyone in the room wants to be REAL.  Take a moment and answer Rabbit’s question for yourself. What is real?

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REAL is something that happens to you, when you are REALLY loved.  It can be painful and it is a gradual process.  Becoming a real christens is similar.  It happens when you finally realize you are REALLY loved by Christ and His Father.  While your acceptance is the first step, the rest of your life is a journey to becoming REAL, ending when you stand in the presence of God.  You don’t earn God’s love, He loves you, end of story.  (Romans 5:6-8)   The people who break easily, have sharp edges or have to be carefully kept are also in the world.  These are the ones who step away from God when things get tough and stop trusting Him.  They refuse to repent of their sins, or they avoid the hard parts.  Think about the parable of the sower (Luke 8:4-14)  all have the same information available, but not all grow from it and trust.   I read in Eat Your Peas:  Faithfully by Cheryl Karpan  “For the faithful, accepting change and opportunity is a time of growing in God’s love and becoming all we are meant to be. Are you willing to give up what is for what could be?”  Those who don’t become REAL are those who aren’t willing to give up what is for what God has for them. 

Once you are Real, you can’t be ugly (despite all that has happened in your life, all you have done wrong) except to people who don’t understand (p. 10)  God doesn’t see all of our ugly anymore no matter how the world views us, what they know of our past, how we have messed up, how unworthy we really are, God sees us as beautiful.  (1 samuel 16:7, Ecc 3:11)

p. 14-15  The Rabbit was pulled out of what his routine in life was and placed into a situation that was at first very uncomfortable for him.  He was squeezed, smothered, lonely and missed what he had before.  God also pulls us out of our comfort zones and places us in situations that are uncomfortable.  Sometimes, like in the Rabbit’s case, it is done to help others during a time of need in their own life.  Rabbit accepted what had happened and over time began to see that it wasn’t so bad after all.  He became what he needed to in order to fulfill a need and in the process he began to be happy, despite the toll it was taking on him.  Part of becoming REAL is sacrifice, being willing to give up what you want so that you can serve others. (1 John 3:16, John 15:12-13)

p. 17-23  As Christians we have to be careful that we don’t begin to think that we have achieved REAL even though we are still on the journey.  Rabbit wanted to be REAL so much that he allowed himself to be convinced he had achieved it, despite the evidence that proved otherwise.  We have to be always compare ourselves honestly to what is REAL, God’s Word.  While the Rabbit may have resembled a rabbit, inside he was still stuffing and thread.  It is our hearts that God looks at and it is our hearts that will show us to be REAL or not.  Becoming real is more than just believing.  Being a Christian is more than just believing in Christ, the demons believed in Jesus and they weren’t Christians. (james 1:19)  Believing is part of being real (Hebrews 11:6), had the rabbit not believed he would have had nothing to strive for, no purpose or goal, but it wasn’t the end of the journey, just the beginning.  Sometimes we deceive ourselves, hiding from reality, and we get hurt, or hurt ourselves as we are trying to serve God, just as Rabbit was hurt.  We have to be willing though to examine ourselves, to consider the truth of the life we are living. Galatians 6:3

Another point in this section is the real rabbits.  They were a stumbling block for our Rabbit.  Quick to point out how he wasn’t REAL, how he couldn’t do what they could, and then run off and leave him.  These real rabbits remind me of Pharisees.  They represent the Christians who are so caught up in who they are that they don’t think about how their words and actions affect others.  They are quick to point out wrongs and yet disappear rather than assist Rabbit in truly becoming REAL.  Romans 14:13 tells us not to be a stumbling block, not to judge others.   We have to be careful that we encourage each other on this journey to becoming REAL.  (1 Thess 5:11, Hebrews 10:24-25)

p. 30  Again Rabbit’s situation is changing, the journey to becoming REAL is one in which things don’t always happen as we think they will.  Rabbit stayed true to the situation he had been placed in, gave everything he had to it, thought that he was going to be rewarded with a trip to the ocean, only to discover that his situation was changed again.  He felt discarded and was set aside.  Things looked very dark for Rabbit.  We will have dark times on our journey also, times when we feel that perhaps the situation is unfair, or that we are alone.  Perhaps we will feel like all of our actions have been in vain and that we have wasted a part of our life.  James 1:2-4 tells us that these times are tests of our faith and they help us to grow more real.

P. 34-39 Rabbit didn’t hold it all in and pretend like he wasn’t upset.  He was honest about how he felt, just as we need to be honest about our feelings.  It was because Rabbit was honest and allowed the tear to fall that the fairy came.  She came to make Rabbit real.  I believe that we will also stand before one who will make us REAL and that He also will ask if we know who He is.  Our life here on earth is like being real to the Boy.  God surrounds us with people who love us, people who are willing to help us on our journey to becoming Real.  They may only be in our life for a short time.  They may be people that we must sacrifice for and become ragged for as we learn to love selflessly and completely.  They may move on from us and leave us behind.  We may get hurt by them and we may feel loved by them.  It is our responsibility though to give them our love, to give them everything we have so that we can be REAL to them because one day Jesus will stand before us and ask if we know him. 

So what do we learn about becoming real from Rabbit.  First, we need not compare ourselves to others.  (Gal. 6:4, 2 cor. 10:12)  Second, becoming real hurts (1 peter 4:12) but it will help us grow (romans 8:28).  We can’t become comfortable and deceive ourselves about what we really are (romans 3:23, 1 timothy 4:1).  We need to encourage each other (1 Peter 4:8-10, Heberws 10:24).  Finally, we learn that we have to share everything with God (phil 4:6-7, psalm 27:14, 2 cor. 9:8, prov. 3:5-6, 1 peter 5:7)

See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are!
1 John 3:1 (NLT)

Ruth and Orpah

To me, the term “sold out Christian” is as silly as the label “very explosive dynamite”.  Dynamite isn’t dynamite if it isn’t very explosive ~Aaron Darlington

This story takes place during the time of the Judges

Exodus 3:17- God tells the people that the land He was giving them would flow with milk and honey

Exodus 6 – God sets some rules about this land.  The Israelites needed to be careful to obey Him so that it would go well with them there.  They should love God with all their heart, soul and strength, be careful to not forget the Lord, serve only God, not test God, keep His commands and do right in His sight.

Then we get to Judges.  Judges begins with the Israelites not destroying the altars of the people currently living in the land, making agreements with the people rather than driving them out as God had instructed them to do since He had given them the land.  As a result God tells the Israelites that He will not drive the people out of the land, instead they would be left as a test to see if the Israelites will keep God’s ways.

After that generation died, the next didn’t know God and began to do every thing that God had warned them to be careful about not doingl.  The He appoints Judges for the Israelites, and as ling as the judge is alive the Israelites do well.  When there isn’t a judge they “do evil in the eyes of the Lord”.  During these times the Israelites warred with the surrounding people, including the Moabites.  These multitudes of wars led to a famine in the land.  This is where Ruth begins.

Read Ruth chapter  1

Let’s look at Orpah and Ruth

Bot women were Moabites.   Moabite history lesson – when Israelites were leaving Egypt the Moabites refused to help.  As a result non of the Moabites for ten generations could enter the assembly of the Lord with the Israelites couldn’t even seek a treaty of friendship with them.  (Deuteronomy 23:3-6)  At one point, in Judges 3:14, the Moabites ruled the Israelites.  At least until their king was killed by Ehud in his private chamber which led to a war in which the Israelites killed 10,000 Moabites.  This led to a tenuous peace of 80 years and then discord broke out again.  These women probably would not have been readily accepted in Bethlehem due to the history.  They both knew that.  Yet they both pack up their belongings and start on the road with Naomi.  They didn’t know what was in store for them at the end of the road.  This is like the beginning of our Christian walk.  We were outsiders, our past actions weren’t approved of by the people we were wanting to join.  Still, we were willing to pack up our stuff and change our lives.

At some point on the road though, Naomi seems to reconsider the girls coming with her.  Whether this was out of concern for them or because she was concerned about what her family and friends would think about her and her sons for marrying them we will never know.  Whatever her reasons, she tries to convince the girls to return to their old loves.  We face this early on in our Christian walk as well.   Someone makes you feel like you can’t have the life you thought or that your old life was better.  Think about it and I bet it has happened to you!

Orpah turns back.  She loved Naomi, or at least cared enough about her that the thought of separating from her brought her to tears.  But in the end, she turned back.  Makes me wonder if maybe she was just following the crowd and her heart wasn’t really in it.  After all, when she married, Naomi and Ruth became her family.  It was her husband’s families job to provide and care for her.  These were the people she hung out with.  She felt safe and comfortable with them.  Problem is that she may have been part of the family based on legality, she wasn’t part of the family in her heart.  So when faced with the thought  that things were going to be rough, she abandoned what she had committed to and went back to her old life.  A lot of Christians do too.  Maybe not as dramatic as Orpah, they may not revert entirely back to their old life, but you can tell that they are just following the crowd.  That they like the company more than anything else.  These are the ones that when things get tough, rather than draw closer to God, they start missing church services, or skipping Bible study time.  Or they are the ones that never started studying to begin with, more concerned with creating the image of Christianity than actually being one.  They get so hung up on how others see them (I am hanging out with Ruth.  Yeah, you know Naomi?  She is my mother in law.  Yep, I go to that BIG church on the main road.  Etc) that they forget to get to know God.  For whatever reason, they don’t really commit, just like Orpah didn’t really commit.

Ruth however, clings to Naomi.  She doesn’t know what is waiting for her anymore than Orpah does, but she knows that she is part of Naomi’s family through and through.  Look again at what Ruth tells Naomi.  She gives up everything that is her, her ability to go where she wants to, her gods, even a choice about where she will die and be buried.  She sells out.  This is what God asks of us.  He wants all of us, He wants us to love Him as Ruth loved Naomi, with all of our heart, soul and strength.

I believe that Ruth’s love and devotion so impressed God that he allowed her to be part of Jesus lineage.  A Moabite that should not have been allowed to join the assembly of God.  Ruth wasn’t a dynamite dud!

Patience

Luke 21:19 “By your patience possess your souls” NKJV or NIV says “By standing firm you will gain life”  

The Greek word used in these verses is hypomonē  (hü-po-mo-nā')  which means steadfastness, constancy, endurance, a patient enduring, sustaining perseverance.  In the NT it is the characteristic of a man who is not swerved from deliberate purpose and his loyalty to faith & piety by even the greatest trials and sufferings.  It comes from the word hupo which means under and mone which means abide.    

Patience isn’t something we naturally have.  All you have to do is to watch a child and you can see that patience is not something that comes naturally.   We all struggle with waiting whether it be waiting for something good to happen, a bad situation to end, an answer to a question, traffic to move, or a line to end.  Paul describes Jesus as having limitless patience in 1 Timothy 1:16.  I would say that he would have to have it as many times as he has reached out to us as sinners and we reject him.  Other than the obvious fact that if more of us had patience the world would be a better place, why should we, specifically Christians, have patience?

Patience is first a trait of God.  He is a God of patience (Romans 15:5).  Think about how he has been patient with His people.  How many times He has endured rejection by those he loves, how many times He has persevered while his chosen people have forgotten Him, ignored Him, worshipped others, mocked Him.  In Ephesians 5 we are called to be imitators of God, this includes patience.

Acts 14:22 tells us that life is going to be hard, we will have many hardships before we get to enter His kingdom.  Peter tells us not to be surprised by trials (1 peter 4:12-13) we should expect them.  We experience trails so that God can learn our hearts (Deut 8:2-3), so that we may avoid sinning (Exodus 20:20) and so that we may gain patience (Romans 5:3)  We all know the story of Job, a man who had it all, lost everything, went through a terrible ordeal emotionally, physically, financially etc.  He remained steadfast, James calls him patient in chapter 5:11 (KJV), and in the end he was rewarded.  Let me point out that Job complained.  He cursed the day of his birth, he begged for death, he complained in the bitterness of his soul.  Kind of goes against our modern definition of the word patience (the quality of bearing misfortune, provocation, annoyance, delay, hardship, pain etc with fortitude and calm and without complaint anger or the like)  Even God complained when the Israelites repeatedly turned from him.  Patience is not putting on your big girl britches and your happy face and pushing through it.  Patience is hanging in there and making the best of it without sacrificing your faith, your purpose, your beliefs, your trust in God.  Did you get that?  Patience is trusting that God has a plan in your life and that He knows what He is doing.  You abide under all circumstances because you know He is in control. 

In the end Job received much more than he had to begin with.  It wasn’t the same, it was better.  He gained twice as much as he had before he was tested, his daughters were the most beautiful in the land.  We too have a reward for our patience.  Matthew 24:13 tells us that “he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved”  James 1:12 tells us that “blessed is the (wo)man that endureth temptation, for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised them that love him.”  2 timothy 2:12 tells us that “if we endure, we will also reign with him (Jesus)”  

Now some of us are sitting here thinking, “I got this one covered.  I have no problem with being patient when the going gets tough.”  Great!  For some, that is a tough lesson to learn.  But I got news for you, patience isn’t just about abiding under, patience is also about self-control.  

You see, two different words in Greek are often translated as patience.  I am sure you have heard of the fruits of the Spirit, traits that give evidence of the Holy Spirit living in you.  Lets look at Galatians 5:22.  

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,"

 

 What is that 4^th word?  Depending on your version of the Bible it either says “longsuffering” or patience.  In Greek this word is makrothymia (mä-kro-thü-mē'-ä) and it means self-restraint which does not hastily retaliate a wrong.  This is the “patient” that Paul urges us to in Ephesians 4.  1 Corinthians 13:4 tells us that love IS patient.  Again I remind you that we are called to imitate God and 1 John 4:8 tells us that GOD IS LOVE.  If God is love, and love is patient, then God is patient and we should be patient, we should maintain self-restraint when dealing with others, especially when we feel wronged.  2 peter 3:9 tells us that God is patient with us because he doesn’t want any of us to perish.  Take a moment to think about your life.  Have you ever wronged God?  Did He retaliate?  Now let me ask you another question, have you ever felt as if you were wronged?  How long did it take you to retaliate?  If God can be patient with us in an attempt to save us from a miserable eternity, can we not be patient with others in an attempt to show them God’s love?  Isn’t that one of our purposes, to show others the love of God so that they may know Him?

Notice that the Greek meaning doesn’t say “does not retaliate” it says “does not hastily retaliate.”  We are called to correct each other.  Matthew 18:15 tells us that when someone sins we should correct them privately.  Luke 17:3-4 tells us to rebuke them and if they repent to forgive them, repeatedly.  1 Timothy 5 gives us a clue about this though.  Timothy tells us not to rebuke our elders harshly, but to speak to them as a parent, in other words with respect.  I believe that we can take it a step further because We are called to encourage one another and build each other up (1 Thess. 5:11) which is a difficult task if we are hastily retaliating perceived wrongs and doing so harshly.  In our haste to correct we often tend to react in anger.  We attack the person rather than the action.  Correction isn’t intended to belittle them, but to help them to understand (Prov 15:32).  This patience calls us to be more concerned with the other person than ourselves, just as God is more concerned with our salvation than with the wrongs we have commited against him.  Peter tells us that Our Lord’s patience means salvation. (2 peter 3:15)  If He is patient enough to react slowly to our transgressions, shouldn’t we as imitators of God, react slowly to the transgressions of others upon us?  

This patience is a fruit of the Spirit, evidence of His work in us.  Fruit is a thing that is a result of effort, therefore patience requires effort.  Read a little farther after we learn of the fruit in Galatians 5, verses 24-26 say, “And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.  If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.  Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.”  We must crucify our desire to retaliate hastily, we must not provoke one another.  

Patience, whether in our circumstances or with others, isn’t something we can just do, or just have.  Remember our picture of a child being asked to wait, patience doesn’t come naturally.  That is why we are tested, repeatedly.  Psalm 119:71 tells us “it is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn your statutes”  Patience is learned through affliction, whether it be the affliction of circumstances or the affliction of being wronged by others.  Look at Paul.  This is a man who was blinded, had numerous attempts on his life often causing him to flee the city he was in, was stoned to the point that witnesses thought he was dead, and he was imprisoned.  That is a lot of difficult testing and a lot to be patient through.  His circumstances were difficult and he was definitely wronged by others repeatedly.  However,  Paul tells us that he has leaned the secret to contentment in all circumstance in Phil. 4:11-13.  His secret? The strength of Christ.  Let’s look at Christ.  Isaiah 53:4 tells us that, “surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows (our wrongs) yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted”  He was pierced, he was crushed, he was punished, he was wronged.    But fortunately, Jesus has a limitless ability to abide under as we saw in 1 Timothy 1:16, as well as being slow to anger (look at Psalm 103:8) As Christians we have the gift of the Spirit in us that allows us to draw upon the strength of Christ, the ability to abide under hardship and the ability to be slow to anger and to not respond hastily.  So when we again look at the opening verse, that by our patience we possess our soul, it is through Jesus that we are able to possess our soul, or receive the gift of an eternity with God.  What good does it do to gain the whole world through our impatient acts, and yet forfeit our soul?  (Mark 8:36)

Verses to consider in the following weeks:

Proverbs 14:29                                  Proverbs 16:32

Proverbs 25:15                                  Proverbs 15:18

Proverbs 19:11                                  Ecclesiastes 7:8

1 Thessalonians 5:14                        Psalm 37: 7-9

Romans 12:12                                   1 Thessalonians 5:14

James 5:8                                          1 Timothy 6:11-14

Hebrews 12:1                                     Luke 8:4-15 (especially verse 15)

One Life

I came across something I painted about 10 years ago while cleaning out some closets that really hit me.  This keepsake box.  Now it isn’t especially important, just a craft I did with a bunch of other preschool moms while our kids were in school one day, a time waster.  The box didn’t really hit me.  It is what I wrote on the front.  Yesterday is gone, tomorrow has not yet come, we are only given today.  Let us begin.

For many of us, me included, it is difficult to remember that today, this moment is what matters.  Not what has happened before or what may happen later, now.  I have heard every one of us sitting here make a comment that indicates a focus on the past or the present that indicates we are not living as we should now.  I won’t call anyone out on it, but I want to show us a few things.

For those of us focusing on the past, let me first say that there is a time and a place in which we should examine the past.  Romans 15:4 tells us - The things written in the past were written for our learning.  I believe this applies to the things written in the past of our lives as well.  We should not forget them, but learn from the things of our past.  However, we should not dwell in the past.  Had Jephthah held a grudge against his brothers in Judges  11 he would not have saved the people of Israel.  He had been one of the sons of Gilead, only his mother was a prostitute.  His brothers forced him away from his home to prevent him from gaining anything from the family.  When the Ammonites attacked Israel the elders came and begged him to not only return and fight as commander, but to lead the people as well. He returned, defeated the enemy and led for 6 years.   He isn’t the only one in the Bible who was done wrong and had to let go of the past in order to do what was right.  Joseph did, David did, John did, Jesus did.  It seems to be a theme that people experience hardship before God uses them to do great things.  If we are living our “now” Are you hanging on to hurts?  Are you hanging on to fears that are a result of things from your past?   Are they preventing you from stepping out and doing what you have been called to do?  Rather than hang on to the hurt, let it go and learn from what has happened.  Allow God to use it to prepare you for what is going on NOW and for what is to come.

Not all of us are hanging on to past hurts though.  Some of us are still living in the past, wistfully wishing that things were now as they were then.  This can be very dangerous.  Look at Lot’s wife, a woman who enjoyed her life and was blessed to have a life she felt was good.  Her husband was prosperous, they had a sturdy home and she had children.  Then she was told she had to give up everything and leave it behind.  She couldn’t do it.  Rather than look ahead of her as she was told to do, rather than look to saving her life she turned back.  She paid more attention to what she had before than what she was doing at that moment.  As a result she was turned to salt.  She became something that prevents future growth.  If we dwell on what was, on what we had rather than what we are doing NOW we can’t grow.  The time for what was past has gone.  We have learned that lesson and we need to move on.  Dwelling there won’t change what has happened.  Lot’s wife staring longingly at what she was leaving, at what her life had been, didn’t stop the destruction, didn’t change the fact that she no longer had that life.  It won’t change it for us either.  All it can do is cause us to become like salt, a place in which nothing can grow. 

There are also those of us that are living in the future.  I realized that this is where I tend to live if not in the present.  The land of “One Day”  One day I will finish my degree.  One day I will get to spend time alone with my husband, one day I will get to go to the bathroom by myself!  This is just as destructive!

The biggest example of how destructive living in the land of “one day” can be is the Jewish nation today.  As a people they have spent thousands of years examining prophesy and looking for the Savior to come.  They had already decided what it would look like, and how it would happen in their version of “one day”.  However, because they had spent so much time and thought about what it would be, they missed what it was when it was happening.  They still miss the gift of Jesus today as they continue to live in their one day land.  When we are so focused on what will be, we easily miss the gift of what is.  We miss the beauty around us, we miss the opportunity to join in on what God is doing.  We miss the miracles He has for us.  Jesus went home to minister to his own town.  They were so stuck in one day thinking that they missed out on what Jesus had come to do for them.  They refused to see what He truly was.  How many times have we missed our miracle because we didn’t see it?  How might our present be different had we been living in the moment in our past?  

Lets look at Mary and Martha, a story familiar to most of us.  Luke tells us that Jesus arrived at the home to visit and Mary sits with Jesus and talks with him.  Martha rushes about trying to make preparations, probably trying to scramble up enough to eat for Jesus and his disciples, find places for them all to sleep.  You can imagine everything that needed to be done when a group of unexpected guests show up at your house.  Martha was focusing on providing for the future.  Martha missed out on the present.  She invited them into her home, they didn’t seek her out or even show up uninvited.  However, Martha couldn’t take the time to live in the moment and be with her guests.  Instead she was stuck in “one day” mode and was more concerned with what happens next rather than now.  Jesus tells her, when she complains that Mary isn’t flitting about also, that Martha was worried and troubled about many things, but Mary had chosen the good thing (to be in the moment with Jesus) and that it would not be taken from her.  Jesus wasn’t about to take away Martha’s worries and troubles for the future, He knew what the future held.  Jesus only wanted Martha to be in the moment with Him, because they only had that moment at that time.  Mary and Martha became close friends with Jesus.  I hope that Martha heard what Jesus said to her and stopped fretting about later and sat down with him.  What we do know is that they must have spent some time together because in John chapter 11 we learn that Jesus loved both Martha and Mary.  How many relationships with family and friends have we missed out on or weakened because we were making preparations for later rather than being in the moment with them?  If we live for “one day” we miss today.

People will get upset if you start living in the moment.  It goes against the world view.  That is nothing new.  Even Jesus and his disciples had to deal with it. In Mark 2 Jesus was confronted by the Pharisees because he and his disciples were living in the moment.  John’s followers and the Pharisees were fasting as was customary, a tradition of the past.  Jesus and his disciples were not.  Now they could have just held up the tradition, or they could have been worried about what people would say later when they found out, but they weren’t.  Jesus tells the Pharisees when he is confronted,

 

“¹⁹ How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? They cannot, so long as they have him with them. ²⁰ But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast.”  In other words, the disciples were living in the moment.  There would come a time that fasting would be appropriate for them, but for now, they needed to do what they were doing, they needed to be in the present.  Do you think that God would have been honored or glorified any more had the disciples fasted rather than spend time with Christ?  No.  Had they been focused on anything other than their present they would have missed what it was God had for them to do.  Had they fasted without Christ it would have shown that they trusted tradition more than Jesus.   

I am not saying that we don’t need to think about the future.  We do.  We need to put money aside for retirement, we need to make plans for our children’s future or for dinner later tonight even.  We need to look to the future, to the day Christ returns for us.  We need to learn from our past and prepare for our future, but LIVE now.  It is when our now becomes a less important than the past or the future that we have problems.  When our lives become entangled in the snare of the past or future that we stagnate. 

Galatians 5:17  You have to live by what you KNOW, not by what the flesh feels.  I know that God will use the past for good (romans 8:28) and that He has the future in His hands (jeremiah 29:11).  The flesh tells you to worry about how the past is going to affect now, or to worry about how the future will turn out.  God tells us to not worry about those things because HE will take care of us.  When we focus on and worry about the past or the future WE AREN’T TRUSTING GOD.  Either we don’t believe that He can handle whatever life throws our way, that He doesn’t have plans for us, that He can’t overcome our mess ups and make them good, or that He just isn’t who He says He is.  Are you trusting Him?  Are you living in the moment?

Just Do It

⁹ “And you, my son Solomon, acknowledge the God of your father, and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the LORD searches every heart and understands every desire and every thought. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will reject you forever. ¹⁰ Consider now, for the LORD has chosen you to build a house as the sanctuary. Be strong and do the work.” …²⁰ David also said to Solomon his son, “Be strong and courageous, and do the work. Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the LORD God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you until all the work for the service of the temple of the LORD is finished.  1 Chronicles 28

David wanted to build the temple, he wanted to be the man who created a permanent home for the Ark that was precious to him and his people.  God had other plans and informed David that because he was a warrior and had shed blood the honor of being the temple builder would fall to his son Solomon.  The above advice was given to Solomon by David before construction began.  Solomon spent 7 years building a home for the Ark that lasted about 400 years.  

Today we have no beautiful, elaborately decorated building to “work for the service” of.  There is no longer a physical building to store the ark, for that matter we don’t even know where the ark is currently resting.  However, we do have a temple that we should be building.

¹⁹ Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; ²⁰ you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

So, the advice that David gave to Solomon applies to us as well.  Let us look a little closer at the advice.

“acknowledge the God of your father, and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind”  I feel safe in saying that all of us sitting here acknowledge God.  I also feel safe in saying that we don’t always serve him with wholehearted devotion and a willing mind.  Do you, without reservation, commit yourself to serving him and His way of life with a willing mind?  I believe I can answer for each of us when I say no.  We have let things get in the way of our service.  Bitterness, other tasks, pride, loneliness take your pick.  David tells us that God searches our hearts and understands our desires and thoughts.  He understands our desire to feel appreciated for what we are doing, to have someone acknowledge our efforts.  He understands why we make excuses to not serve.  But notice that David doesn’t say that it is okay to not serve because of these things, he tells us to seek the Lord.  

Not sure what you should be doing?  Seek the Lord.  He isn’t trying to hide your purpose from you, He is just waiting for you to ask.  It may not be glamorous, it may not be fun, and it may not be what you thought you should be doing.  Then again it may be some or all of those things.  What is important is that once you ask, you listen for a response and then serve with wholehearted devotion and a willing mind.  Notice it wasn’t Solomon who desired to build the house.  That was David’s dream.  Perhaps Solomon had his own dreams of what his service to the Lord looked like.  Maybe he thought he would lead God’s people into a time of peace.  Or maybe he didn’t even want to be king and he hoped that his brother, who traditionally should be king, would be king so that he could sit back out of the spot light and enjoy a relatively worry free life.  God had other plans though, and Solomon was appointed to build the temple.  David tells Solomon to be strong and do the work.  Don’t complain about not getting what you wanted.  Don’t try to get out of it and tell yourself that someone else is just as capable and probably has more time or more skill to do the job.  Don’t let the people that are whispering that you are going to fail affect you.  Just be strong and do the work.

I say the same to you.  You are building a temple today.  And when your temple is completed you will be taken from this life.  Be strong and DO THE WORK.  Find the time and the way to serve in the building of the temple.  Study God’s word, pray and seek his plan for you.  Ask to see God’s blueprints for this temple rather than trying to haphazardly put it together on your own.  Quit complaining about it being hard, quit making excuses about why you didn’t do such and such.  It is going to be hard, not going to lie to you.  And you will have periods in your life where your service in building this temple is painful, difficult, and will require you to sacrifice.  But here is the thing.  Your temple, you, are only a piece of the puzzle.

When you are strong and do your work, then others can do theirs as well.  Solomon didn’t single handedly build the temple.  He probably didn’t ever move a stone, weave a cloth, refine the metals, or craft any of the decorations.  It took a LOT of people to build the temple.  If Solomon hadn’t done his work then others would not have had the finances, the materials, the inclination to do theirs.  God is working towards a much bigger temple in this world.  One that involves all of us.  And if you don’t do your part, you may be making someone elses work more difficult.  I won’t say impossible because we know that God will make a way for His will to be done.  However, I firmly believe that we can, and do, put up roadblocks on the easy paths by refusing to do things God’s way and insisting on doing them ours.  That makes the work of others more difficult as they now have to tear down the roadblock we have created.

So what is your service?  Is it a children’s ministry?  Then Do the Work with wholehearted devotion.  Is it music?  Do the work.  Is it cleaning the church? Just do the work.  Is it encouraging others? Do the work.  Is it ministry?  Do the work.  Is it being a wife?  Or maybe being a mother?  Just do the work.  God is with you, and He will be until your temple is built.  He sees what you are doing, even if no one else comments on it.  He sees your struggles, He sees your heart, and he loves you.  You are never alone in His service.