Monday, May 19, 2014

Being Me...As God Intended

This afternoon, I am in my recliner reading the blogs of several fellow Christian authors and I have a disturbing feeling creep up inside of me.....jealousy.  Here are these lovely, godly women who are sharing His Word and encouraging others. They are running the race and are running well. And I have to ask myself, "How?" How do they come up with the perfect recipe, the perfect family photos, the perfect words of encouragement? They have thousands of followers who adore everything about them.  They are picture perfect.  The real question I am asking is: why has God decided to use them in this way and not me?

I am sitting in my recliner with no make-up, hair unraveled, and my couch full of clothes that are yet to be folded.  As of this morning, my blog has four followers (thank you to those four people). Yet,  after my moment of confession, I am sitting here laughing at the lesson God is teaching me.

So often we try to measure success by the number of Facebook friends, Twitter followers, or other tangible evidences we can grasp. We crave attention and affirmation even when it comes to ministry.  Jesus' disciples did this as well.  Yet Scripture is abundantly clear as it relates to how Jesus sees discipleship. In Matthew 16:34. Jesus states that whoever wants to be His disciple must "deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me." If ministry goals and objectives get in the way of God's purposes for us, we lose sight on what it truly means to be His disciple.  Jesus paid the ultimate price so that we might have a relationship with Him and that we might make Him known to others at His leading.  The lesson that I am reminded of is that I must say, "yes" to what He is asking me to do today.

 My "yes" to Jesus today was playing with my daughter and teaching her to be gentle. It will be putting up the clothes on the couch and making sure that my family has dinner on time. It is posting this authentic blog for whoever needs to read it at this time.  It is answering the phone to someone who needs to talk.

God does not rate us by how many fans we have or what our approval rating is. He acknowledges us by how obedient we have been and by how intimate of a relationship we have had with Him.  If my next task He asks of me is to scrub toilets for Him, my prayer is that I will be the best toilet scrubber I can be.

May we stop looking at how God is using others as discouragement, but rather encourage one another on and look for ways in which we can say "yes" to God every day for His kingdom and His glory.