Many people believe that if they invest their years improving how they think, how they feel and what they do life will be better. For the christian however, it goes much deeper than this. It’s about who we are. Our thoughts, feelings and actions are important but they do not define us. We are defined by who we are...the reality that we are created in the image of God, broken yet reborn through amazing grace.
Once you begin new life with your identity found in Jesus Christ; perspectives change. It’s not so much about the number of years we live on the earth but how we live them in light of the death and resurrection of Jesus.
Most evenings as I drift off to sleep I pray a short simple prayer and give thanks for my family. I will then pray these words ‘Lord use me or take me home.’ Those 7 words are a frightening yet potent prayer. In truth some evenings I think, if I were God I’d just bring me home! There are better people for the task than me. I’m not doing a very good job... yet each morning as I awake my spine stiffens. The Lord has kept me alive for a reason. I’m alive in Him and this truth propels me forward in confidence to finish the mission and fulfil the upward call. The very creator of the universe has answers my prayer and chosen to keep me alive for a purpose.
Some years ago I decided to build my life around three purposes. They help me to focus on clear objectives each day:
1, To accelerate the mission of God.
2, To give my family the best experience possible.
3, To keep myself reasonably fit.
Today I will set these before me once again. Remembering that what I think, feel or do does not define me or measure my success; It’s about being. I am alive in Christ Jesus.
My pray for each of you is that you will enter into the truth and knowledge of Jesus Christ and be found in him.
Psalm 139
1 You have searched me, LORD, and you know me. 2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. 3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. 4 Before a word is on my tongue you, LORD, know it completely. 5 You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. 7 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? 8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. 9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, 10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. 11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” 12 even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. 13 For you