Sunday, November 14, 2010

The shoe box

“He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live to please themselves. Instead, they will live to please Christ, who died and was raised for them.” 2 Corinthians 5:15

Do I spend more time doing things that benefit me or that will bless others? If I am honest with myself and you, I will say that a majority of my life has been to please me. How sick that is to even type. Christ never once lived to please Himself. Instead He devoted Himself to please His Father and to bring all people to Him.
 
If I am living to please myself than I am also focusing on myself and not on Christ, therefore I cannot claim to love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, mind and strength. I must be willing to die to myself daily, shoulder my cross and follow Him.

Let me share a story with you that was shared with me at our Women’s Retreat by our speaker Jen Hatmaker. It has left such an impression on my heart and really drives the point home that I believe the Lord is wanting to get across. This is my paraphrase and does not do this story justice.

Jen and her husband were taking a missionary to dinner one night who had returned to the states from the Dominican Republic. Jen had asked him what it was like coming back to the United States and this was his reply to her. “One night I was staying in a little room and I received a knock on my door. When I opened the door I saw a woman standing there holding her dead baby. She said, “Pastor could you please help me find something to bury my baby in, I don’t have anything.” So together we found a shoe box and pieced it together. (This woman had already lost her husband, and other children who had starved to death, just as this baby.) We went out to bury her baby when she hit her knees, outstretched her arms and said, “Lord I know You are here with me because You provided a shoe box for me to bury my baby in. Thank You Lord for loving me and taking care of me.”

He then said when he returned to the states and attended a church a woman stood up and said, “God is so good to me. I have wanted to get a new SUV for a while now and I wanted it to be periwinkle. So my husband and I worked with our dealer who searched everywhere for our periwinkle SUV. They could not find one anywhere so I thought I was going to have to settle with gray, but we received a phone call from our dealer who finally found one in periwinkle.”

Lord teach me how to be a real follower of You. Move me to the place Lord where I am no longer living to please myself. Instead may I please You the one who died and was raised for me. Lord I confess to You today that my heart has been divided, one part me, one part you. Lord forgive me. I want to follow You, I want You to have my entire heart. Lord design my heart to be like the woman who saw Your grace, mercy and love from a shoebox. Keep me from ever desiring to be blessed worldly. Amen