John 15:16-19 You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that you should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remin; that whatsoever you shall ask of the Father in My name, He may give it you. These things I command you, that you love one another. If the world hate you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love his own; but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you
Again with the 'me' and 'I' statments. It's so hard to get away from them in this life. It's so hard to make everything you do selfless when as humans we need so much! But the question, am I chosen to do this or this has come into my head a lot lately. I know that God has a plan for each of us, and none of us are accidents. We are all part of His plan. Sometimes people have a very hard time giving their lives to the Lord and letting him direct their path, me included. I was inspired to write today because I have been so busy lately with life and church and date nights with my kids, but I was reading in a prayer book that I had gotten from my LWML Convention last summer and was reinspired! Here is the message I read that made me feel alot better about my lack of acknowledging that God chose me as His people! This excerpt is taken from the book 'You Make A Difference' by Alma Kern.
Yes!You!
Moses was one of the greatest men of all times. He was the leader of God's ancient people.
How did Moses react when God chose him? He made all kinds of excuses: They won't believe me. They won't do what I tell them. I'm not a good speaker. O Lord, please send someone else. (sound familiar?)
What God tells us to do is often not what we want to be doing. We look for excuses. We put ourselves down, so we'll be excused.
Jesus is our Savior, also our Lord and Master. He laid down his life for us. He expects us to live our life for Him.
A few of our assignments are: Love your neighbor, forgive those who hurt you. Do good to those who hate you. Pray for those who mistreat you. Be salt of the earth, light of the world. Be a witness, tell other people about Jesus.
We are inclined to respon, " Who? Me? You've got more confidence in me than I have. I can't do these things. No way! O Lord, please send someone else."
We may be tempted to ask, "Who? Me?" We already know the anser: Yes! You!
We all do this, don't we? We don't stand confidently in the Lord? We are cowards and are afraid to to be bold and take ownership of our Christian tasks!
I have many things going on at church right now. I am teaching midweek, helping with all youth activities and planning, a member of the choir, on the board of Evangelism, in LWML and a women's circle, and the chair of the National Youth Gathering committee. But I am addicted. I need more more more! Church is not a responsibility to me anymore, it is my enjoyment, my free time and my outlet. I recently found an awesome women's Bible study that I wanted to do with a small group, and showed it to my friend at church and was pleased that she was so excited about it, she wanted to open it up to the whole church! I feel my path with the Lord is pulling me (sometimes in different directions) but I feel like I am gaining confidence in my roles and have talents at the Church in certain areas.
I am no longer asking am I worthy or why am I chosen for this all the time (only some of the time). I am enjoying sharing my talents with others and using some of my talents to help the church. I hope to continue to help with whatever I can.
Dear Lord,
Thank you for the talents you have given to me. Please help me to continue to use those talents to be selfless and help others. Help me to not question your path for me and to give my life to you daily. Thank you for my church and my friends that appreciate me for me and accept me as another chosen member of their congregation. Thank you for all these gifts.
Amen
