“God wants that we give ourselves to Him. He can’t use us if we are not completely under His control”. Wow, He kept going. I say He and not he, because it was God and not my husband the one really talking to me.
Those are the kind of things, that as a “mature” Christian, I already knew. But it is also the kind of things that you “know” but you may not “feel” or “fully understand”.
These two thoughts brought me to a third point. As I was examining myself to see what God was trying to deal with me about I was thinking: “well, I am a missionary. I have given the Lord my family, my desires, the future I had planned, my home church, the girls possibility of going to a Christian school, the security. And I have come up to an area where we don’t know anyone, where they think of us as a cult (talking about Spaniards), or as too conservative (talking about other types of churches). I face the devil’s attacking me and my family everyday, as he wants us out. What else do you want me to give to you?”. Now, before I go on, two things. 1.- I was not fighting with God, I was examining all the things that I thought God may want from me, willing at all times to give God whatever He wanted me to give to Him. 2.- I am not wanting you to feel sorry for me with all of my “I gave up..”, because I would do it as many times as I need to for my God. He has given me all I have, and it is my privilege that He thought of me to bring the light to a dark area. How would I not want to give Him my all, when He has given me so much. So, now on I go…..
One thing I realized is that, in the last few weeks, I haven’t been giving to Him something, to the extent that I believe He wants me to give. I had given it to Him, but as things get hard, and lonely, my attitude had change. Just as we lose our first love as times a while after we get saved; sometimes we lose the motive of why we are in the ministry. Have I been doing what He wanted me to do out of obedience because of duty or out of my love for Him?.
Before you think, “what is the difference?” or ”what is wrong with that?” let me talk to you about kids.
We are called to train our children so that they may grow to be godly people. We teach our children to be obedient to us. And as parents that love the Lord, we try to do our best; to discipline the right way; to do it in love… Children learn to live their childhood trying to stay out of trouble, they learn the rules and they know the consequences, so they learn to be “obedient” . But then, they leave their parents or they get married, or they go on their own, whatever the case may be. Some of those children will go nuts, and start doing all the things they wanted to do before and they couldn’t. And then some will live their life’s to serve God one way or another. As I ponder about these things I have wonder where the difference is. Now, I am not saying what I am about to say is the key, but just something that I thought may be. I thought I wonder if the difference is where they were just being obedient out of duty or because they know who is God and what can happen to those that disobey, or did they obey out of love. See, if we teach our children to be obedient to us, just out of fear, when they grow up, the fear will not be there any more. But if we teach our children to obey out of love and we point them to Him, they will learn to love God by the love they have for us, and when they move, their love for us and God will still be there.
The same works for us. If we obey God out of duty, we will get disappointed when we don’t have the results we expect. We will ask God questions, and we will have “an idea” of what is supposed to happen. We will expect certain results, and when we don’t get them, we get discourage and go on with our lives.
But if we obey God because we love Him, it won’t matter the end result, it won’t matter what happens and what “doesn’t”. We won’t expect anything in return because our motive was just to please Him. If we love God and do His will because of it, our reward will be knowing that we are pleasing Him. We need to follow God’s will because of who He is, knowing that He loves us, without questioning His motives or reasons.
A song by Bill Daab, comes to my minds as I write this. Again I believe it comes from the Lord.
“Peter asked His Savior, what shall this man do?
Will he have and easy road or will he straggle to follow you.
Will his days be full or sorrow, will his path be one of ease.
What do you have plan for this man, tell me Master please.
What is that to thee? Follow thou me.
I can hear the Savior say, follow me anyway.
What is that to thee, follow thou me.
Don’t worry about what others may do,
What is that to thee? Follow thou me.
No one wants to listen, no one seems to care
No one understands you, nor the burdens that you bear
No one really knows you or have seen your sacrifice
When you needed a warm compassionate heart
The words were cold as ice.
What is that to thee? Follow thou me.
I can hear the Savior say, follow me anyway.
What is that to thee, follow thou me.
Don’t worry about what others may do,
what is that to thee, follow thou me. “
Will he have and easy road or will he straggle to follow you.
Will his days be full or sorrow, will his path be one of ease.
What do you have plan for this man, tell me Master please.
What is that to thee? Follow thou me.
I can hear the Savior say, follow me anyway.
What is that to thee, follow thou me.
Don’t worry about what others may do,
What is that to thee? Follow thou me.
No one wants to listen, no one seems to care
No one understands you, nor the burdens that you bear
No one really knows you or have seen your sacrifice
When you needed a warm compassionate heart
The words were cold as ice.
What is that to thee? Follow thou me.
I can hear the Savior say, follow me anyway.
What is that to thee, follow thou me.
Don’t worry about what others may do,
what is that to thee, follow thou me. “
5 comments:
You know me! Yep I´m Señora Llorona. :)Mrs. Cry Alot! That´s what I did through the majority of this post. It´s what´s been on my heart for my children. Joseph and I just said last night, "We need to work on our "relationship" with the boys more, now that they know to obey for the most part." We don´t want them always obeying out of fear. It must be out of love.
What a great comparison, Pilar. Are we obeying our Savior out of Love? Great point, and well taken from this friend. Thank you for being transparent. Praying for you, pray for me in this too.
This was such a good post! We've already raised one family of the four,and two walked away from church, after they turned 18. We are now raising another family, and all that you wrote is so much on my heart...how do we ensure that God is real in our lives, so he will be real in theirs...not just a list of rules to obey(which is how my daughter felt)but someone to be loved.
This may not be a popular thing to say, but so much of the problem lies in the church...when our children don't see love, grace and mercy lived out in the church...coming down from the pulpit to the people in the pews, and spreading from there, how can God possibly be real to them? If all they see is christians fighting among themselves, when the lost are going to hell, why should they want what we have?
You have the advantage that your husband is Pastor and can set that tone, not just in the home but in your church...
It is a blessing to me to know that this was a blessing to someone else. I didn't know if anyone was going to read it because it was so long :). At least two of my blogger friends read it yeah!!
Thanks so much for your comments , it is such an encouragement to me :)!
Pilar, this is beautifully transparent and very encouraging! Thank you for sharing with us. You're a sweet soul!
That was a great post... We find ourselves spending more time here talking about parenting:) So much more is accomplished when you serve God out of love from the heart, when your actions are not a duty or a show, but are real and sincere. Since we both have Christian parents who set an example for us it is inspiring, but also very challenging to be sure we are doing our best following Gods plan to raise our son.
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