Comfort & Counsel

Home  Articles  Site map

Pointers along the way #400

It's not about us
- Jacob Ninan

It's true that when we first come to God it is because there is a need in our life. We may need help in some practical area of our life and so come to God. But, of course, the greatest need in our life is in connection with our sins. We need forgiveness, and we need deliverance. Then we are so happy to hear the good news that Jesus has come from heaven for this very purpose, to save us from our sins (Mt.1:21;18:11). We are happy that God helps us in various other ways in our daily life also, protecting us, guiding us, teaching us, healing us, providing us miraculous help in different situations, etc.

But as our relationship gets secure with the Lord, a major change also takes place in our priorities. We get concerned with what the Lord wants us to do for Him, rather than what we want Him to do for us. It's not that we don't want Him to do anything for us any more (we actually become more and more aware of our dependence on Him), but that it becomes more important for us to accomplish His will, fulfil His purposes, tell others about Him, and generally to bring greater honour and glory to His name.

Many verses make it clear that for the apostle Paul serving God and doing His will had become the passion of his life (Ro.12:1;1Co.6:19,20;1Co.10:33;2Co.5:9,15;Php.1:20). This is the same way the apostle Peter also saw things (1Pe.4:2). These verses also make it clear that such a life is not just for apostles or so-called full-time workers but for all who believe in Jesus and become His disciples. In other words, if we have not tasted this passion at all in our life we would need to check if we have got stuck somewhere in the baby stage of our spiritual life. The Bible says that if by the time we ought to be serving the others we ourselves need to be taken care of all the time it shows that we have not grown up spiritually (He.5:12). Or in the worst case we may never have had a true experience of Christ in our life.

If we have truly experienced repenting from our sins, putting our trust in Jesus alone for the forgiveness of our sins and being born again, then we ought to check why we have not been growing up. Have we not taken the trouble to feed on the word of God (1Pe.2:2) through which He gives us spiritual food--knowledge of Him and His ways, comfort, encouragement, guidance and correction for our life (2Ti.3:16,17)? Have we neglected going to the Lord in prayer at all our times of spiritual and practical need (He.4:16)? Have we missed out on gathering with other disciples to worship the Lord together, listen to His word and to encourage one another through fellowship (He.10:24,25)? Have we been overruling the voice of the Holy Spirit in our heart who has been warning us when we strayed away from God's paths (He.3:7,8)? Have we allowed ourselves to be drawn away to the things of this life so that God has been crowded out of our mind (1Jn.2:15,16)?

Let us show our love for Jesus in words and deeds, if we claim to belong to Him.

Index

Subscribe to the 'Pointers along the way' mailing list