He Loves Me by Wayne Jacobsen

I thought I would share with you something that I have read and re-read many times which I have found really helpful in my Christian walk - and I hope you do too. It is from He Loves Me by Wayne Jacobsen.

I used to be driven to do something great for God.  I volunteered for numerous opportunities and worked hard in the hopes that some book I was writing, some church I was planting, or some organization I was helping would accomplish great things for God.  While I think God used my misguided zeal in spite of myself, nothing I did ever rose to the level of my expectations.  Instead, my pursuits seemed to distract me from God, consume my life, and leave me stressed out or worn out.

I’m not driven anymore. I haven’t tried to do anything great for God in more than a decade, and yet I have seen him use my life in ways that always exceed my expectations.  What changed? I did, by his grace.

My desire to do something great for God served me far more than it ever did him. It kept me too busy to enjoy him and distracted me from the real ministry opportunities he brought across my path every day.

I used to start my day laying out my plans before God and seeking his blessing on them. How silly! Why would I want God to be the servant of my agenda? God’s plans for my day far exceed mine. I can almost hear him now as I awaken: “Wayne, I’m going to touch some people today. Do you want to come along?”

It’s amazing how gentle that is, but all the more powerful because it is.  I don’t have to go. God’s work won’t be thwarted by my lack of participation. He will touch people anyway, but I wouldn’t miss it for the world. He does things I’ve never dreamed of and uses me in ways I could never conceive. His focus on touching people instead of managing programs has revolutionized my view of ministry. It requires no less diligence on my part but directs that diligence in far more fruitful endeavours.

If you’ve never known the joy of simply living in God’s acceptance instead of trying to earn it, your most exciting days in Christ are ahead of you. People who learn to live out of a genuine love relationship with the God of the universe will live in more power, more joy, and more righteousness than anyone motivated by fear of his judgment.

For your personal journey
Spend a few moments thinking what you are still counting in your relationship with God. Is it failures? Minutes in prayer?  Number of converts?  If you find yourself doing those things, ask God to help you receive what he has already given you. Stop doing anything that seeks to earn his love and learn to do what you do simply because you already have his love. This is quite a change of mind that only God’s Spirit can produce.

Great things for God

“My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. John 4: 34

There is something in the heart of many Christians and churches to do something great for God. We know God is a great God and does great things and so we slip into a mindset that says we too need to do something great for our God. It will show how much we love him. However this thinking has a fatal flaw in it because God has never asked us to do great things for him but to do great things with him. There is a huge difference.

Doing great things for God can lead to a life independent of God.  God has not called us to live our lives without him unless we cannot manage – he wants us to live our lives dependent on him. This can be a very hard concept for us to accept because many people fear becoming mindless idiots unable to think or do anything for ourselves. However God wants us to use our God given brains and gifting in conjunction with him. We see dependence on God as limiting us but God sees dependence on him as expanding our lives beyond anything we can ask or imagine. If we are dependent on what we can think or imagine, limits soon become obvious. When we give our brains and talents to God for him to use, the limits disappear.

God wants us to do great things with him. He has wonderful plans for our lives but it means we have to stop trying to do something great for God and instead ask him what he is doing. That is what Jesus did – not his own thing but what the Father was doing. As Wayne Jacobsen says, ‘I used to start my day laying out my plans before God and seeking his blessing on them. How silly! Why would I want God to be the servant of my agenda? God’s plans for my day far exceed mine. I can almost hear him now as I awaken: “Wayne, I’m going to touch some people today. Do you want to come along?”

It’s amazing how gentle that is, but all the more powerful because it is.  I don’t have to go. God’s work won’t be thwarted by my lack of participation. He will touch people anyway, but I wouldn’t miss it for the world. He does things I’ve never dreamed of and uses me in ways I could never conceive. His focus on touching people instead of managing programs has revolutionized my view of ministry. It requires no less diligence on my part but directs that diligence in far more fruitful endeavours.