Almighty God, who are we to come to You? Would You come to us that we may experience Your presence? We are not worthy of who You are, we are only deemed worthy through Your own work. Thank You Father, You gave up Your son that we may become Your son. He lost His life that we may have it abundantly with You. We praise You and thank You and ask for You. The blessings You bestow on us are a gift, but they aren't the gift. You are the gift Father. Your being is the gift; Your love is the gift; who You are is the gift we have been offered and You have given us the ability to receive. Thank You for these profound truths. In Jesus name, Amen.
If I look back on my life, I can see a lot of times that I overloaded myself with work and in the end, accomplished none of it. There were times I committed to two things that were at the same time and ended up attending neither because of the stress it put on me. There were also times when I committed to something every day of the week (things I enjoyed and loved) and ended pursuing them half-heartedly. Have you experienced this my friends? I'm sure you have, it isn't a rare problem to experience. We (Christians especially) take on so much that we have trouble having joy in what we are doing. How do we gain that joy back? How do we renew our excitement for working for God?
Well brothers and sister, it's easy in one sense and hard in another. It's easy because it means doing less for others and doing a bit more for personal growth and rejuvenation. It's hard because it requires a very delicate balance between time spent growing personally and time spent for the sake of others. Before I move on, I think it's important to make the point that time spent for yourself and time spent for others both need to ultimately be time spent for God. Not a moment should be wasted in this pursuit. Having said that, we must learn when is the time to grow personally and when is the time to exert ourselves for the sake of others.
The problem of overloading yourself with work for others comes primarily, I think, from wanting to be the body of Christ. None of us want to only be the arm, we want to be the legs and the head and the ears and everything else in the body. Why do we want to? For some people, it's a problem of pride. They think that they can do everything by themselves and so they attempt to do so and fail miserably (like the basketball player who never passes the ball). For some people, the problem is that they have never seen any other christians working hard to do their part. In other words, the arm has quit doing it's job, so they take over for it. As the body parts quit, these people step in to take over their roles. They then get exhausted, and fail. Though we may have a bias to think that one of these situations is better than the other (and possibly the motives are), that is not the point. The point is that both of these situations, regardless of the motives, are unhealthy for spiritual growth.
We need to quit trying to be the body, and be parts of the body. If everyone takes on the part that they have been given to play, the body will work in great harmony. Trouble comes when parts of the body shut down and when peoples pride gets a hold of them. If your a teacher, be a teacher; if your an encourager, be an encourager; if your a lover, be a lover. Be what God has gifted you to be and do not pursue that which God has created others to pursue. If we truly pursue with our whole being the objective that God has set before us, then we will pour into that objective with all of who we are, and not just part. Do not devote yourself to many things, but to one thing - that which God has called you to. Just as you do not devote yourself to many gods, do not devote yourself to many parts of the body.
You are called to be a specific part of the body, and so I plead with you on behalf of my brothers and sisters, be that part!
"Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness." - Romans 12:6-8
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