TAKING INVENTORY & LOOKING AHEAD (2)
Often, after I have written a blog, a thought will come to me, that I wish I had included in that blog. I wrote this morning about “TAKING INVENTORY”, that is looking back over the past year, and seeing the Lord’s hand in your life and “count your many blessings and see what God has done”. Then looking forward to 2020 and making a “commitment” to press on and seek to serve the Lord with all your heart and to grow in the grace of the Lord Jesus..
Then I began to meditate on the awesome truth that we read about in Eph. 1:4-6 NKJV just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.
My finite mind can hardly take in the God knew me (and engraved my name in the palm of His hand) in eternity past and CHOSE ME to be a son of God, and He prepared an inheritance for me, because God not only chose me, but had a purpose and a plan for me to fulfil, as we read in Eph 1:11 NKJV In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.
In the “secular” world there comes a time when you decide to “retire” and put your feet up, or see the world, or do something else just for yourself, and there is a danger in the Christian life and ministry that we can develop a “retirement mentality” and just slide along in life and take it easy, when it seems to me, that we should reject retirement thinking, and think about REFIRING.
GOD’S PURPOSE AND PLAN FOR US, DOES NOT INCLUDE RETIREMENT.
In my own case, there has been a radical change from a very public ministry of teaching and preaching, to a much more private ministry of prayer and writing and mentoring. It has taken some adjustment, but there is as much excitement in my spirit as there was when I was travelling the world in ministry.
The words of Mordecai to Esther are ringing in my heart, as a “personal” word for me to embrace. Esther 4:14 NKJV Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
That 2020 is going to be a significant fruitful year (for me), perhaps not as man calls significant, but it the eternal purposes of God, I was born for such a time as this, and that I can be used by the Lord to see the Kingdom of God extended. At this moment I have no idea what that could be, but I bow my knee to our Sovereign God, and say,
I’ll go where you want me to go,
I’ll do what you want me to do,
I’ll say (and write) what you want me to say and write.
I’ll be what You want me to be.
To every Believer who will read this blog, you also were chosen by God before He created the world,(He knows your name) He has a plan and purpose for your life, like me you may not see it at this time, but bow your heart and knee before the Lord, and submit to Him, you will never regret it. You may be surprised at what God has for you, be available and willing to be an instrument in the Lord’s hand to be used in a significant way to extend the Kingdom of God, and being a blessing to His people Amen.
There is no doubt it would seem to me that we are in the last of the last days before Jesus returns, let us be busy in His vineyard and be part of the end time harvest.
