Living a Life Worth Something

It’s been a while since I have written a blog due to the lack of time. However, as I was asking God what he was trying to say he brought me to a special place. I believe that this will hit home with people in some way, some sort, or some fashion. More than anything,  I pray that it will call for action in your life. That we may not just be hearers of the God’s word, but DOERS of God’s word.

 It doesn’t take true commitment to hear something, but it does take a true commitment to carry out with something.

The text that I was brought to was Acts 20:16-27

It starts off where Paul is trying to make it back to Jerusalem for the festival of Pentecost. On the way, he meets with the elders of the Church of Ephesus and what he tells them is the very thing that I believe God is wanting out of his people.

In verse 18 and 19 it says:

 ¹⁸ When they arrived he declared, “You know that from the day I set foot in the province of Asia until now ¹⁹ I have done the Lord’s work humbly and with many tears. I have endured the trials that came to me from the plots of the Jews.

I see here that Paul has learned that the Lord’s work calls us to be humble. He mentions that he worked with many tears. This tells us that it won’t always be easy. So many people come into Christianity with the mindset of “I’ll serve Jesus, he makes life good.” Yes, he promises us that everything will turn out for our good, but you have to remember that you can only have one master and serving Jesus means not serving yourself. Killing yourself and your flesh isn’t easy, my friends, but just because it gets hard doesn’t mean that it’s not God’s will for your life. The only reason we struggle and have hardships in our life is because our flesh doesn’t line up with the will of God. The Lord has really been dealing with me about being refined. Being refined requires going through the fire.
 Fire is hot, it burns you, it hurts, it’s hard, and it’s not fun. However, it brings out the dross and transforms you into who he has called you to be. I am willing to go through the fire. The hottest, most painful, fire to be who he wants me to be and I hope that’s a place where you are at, as well. If you’re not, I urge you to seek your intentions and press into a deeper humility.

Continuing, Paul says that he has endured many trials that came. I see a lack of endurance in people’s faith today. I see that the Lord is calling us to have unshakable faith. When trials come and people come against us, we must realize this isn’t a war against flesh and blood, but of the spirit. I believe that many people, including myself, give up right before the breakthrough because they haven’t learned and disciplined themselves to endure and persevere. Every time a trial comes up, they run. How will that ever strengthen you? It won’t. We are called to be a light in the darkness. How can we be a light in the darkness, if every time darkness is in our midst, we run and hide because of our lack of trust in God and our lack of endurance?

 ²⁰ I never shrank back from telling you what you needed to hear, either publicly or in your homes. ²¹ I have had one message for Jews and Greeks alike—the necessity of repenting from sin and turning to God, and of having faith in our Lord Jesus.

In verse 20. I see the Lord telling us to be Bold. This world lacks discipline, and honestly it longs for it. In the bible it says that discipline is love. When someone cares enough to tell you the hard things, they love you the most. One of my favorite quotes is “anybody that wants to get the best out of somebody is willing to take them through hurt to get them there”  by Damon Thompson. I believe that this is exactly what the Lord is saying. Paul NEVER shrank back. I think that we need this exact mentality. If it means you have no friends, then you have no friends. If it means people think you are too radical, then you are too radical. If it means that they get mad at you forever, then they get mad at you forever. Whatever your excuse is, it’s not good enough. His word is his word. Period. He always kept his same message. This is so important to me. ALWAYS KEEP THE SAME MESSAGE. So many times you see people just straight up on fire for God, the next thing you know it’s a little compromise in one area, a little more, and then a little more until they are just off the map. I think that when someone professes that they are a Christian, we are required to love them enough to hold them accountable to their word,

IN LOVE.

So many times we let people off the hook to easily by not sharing the truth with them.

The truth is WHAT WILL SET THEM FREE,

 so why do we hold back from it? His word says that people perish because of their lack of knowledge. Knowledge is truth. Truth is freedom. Sometimes the truth  hurts and may fluster your flesh, but GOOD! It needs to die anyways. That’s the goal in laying down your life. Is actually laying it down and not only laying it down- but never picking it back up again. Be set free from lies and deception.

 ²² “And now I am bound by the Spirit^[b] to go to Jerusalem. I don’t know what awaits me, ²³ except that the Holy Spirit tells me in city after city that jail and suffering lie ahead. ²⁴ But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God.

 I also see that Paul was bound by the Spirit. My gosh, my gosh, my gosh. What would it look like if we could all get to a point in our life that we were BOUND by the Spirit? Think of when something or someone is bound to something. I picture two people in handcuffs with a chain connecting them. If we could just get our pride, our fear of rejection, our fear of man, our insecurities, and our flesh out of the way and actually be BOUND BY THE HOLY SPIRIT.
I can’t imagine what things would look like. We can all say, yeah that’s for someone else...

But what I want everyone to realize is that “It starts with me.”

 We have got to learn to be obedient to whatever he tells us to do. How many times do you follow your own will and own voice when you know God has spoken to you to do something? I think we’re all guilty of it. We have got to get to a place where our "Yes God, I will follow you no MATTER WHAT" is bigger than our "no." Just think, your obedience could be one more person in the kingdom of God and that one more person is more important that one selfish decision of our own.

I also see that Paul was okay with not knowing. The things that he did know weren’t comforting to him at all. I’ve discovered that God will always take you out of your comfort zone because he is more aware of the potential that you possess than you are yourself. Paul is aware that suffering is ahead, but what does it say at the beginning of the story? That he was hurrying to this place. He wasn’t afraid. You know why? Because
He knew who he was in Christ.
 He knew that HIS LIFE WAS WORTH NOTHING unless he finished the work assigned to him by God. I find that many people get saved, love Jesus, but forget that with salvation comes a plan and an assignment from Christ. I see that without completing the assignment...

YOUR LIFE IS WORTH NOTHING.

I encourage you to evaluate your life and see if you are fulfilling God's plan for you and spreading the News of God’s grace and love and mercy. It’s not about what’s easy for you. It’s not about what’s comfortable. It’s about you laying your life down for the sake of others, like Jesus did for you. That’s what it’s about. I think it’s high time we get over ourselves and our agenda and serve, whether its suffering or whether it’s not. What is the price that you are willing to pay to live a life worth something?

 ²⁵ “And now I know that none of you to whom I have preached the Kingdom will ever see me again. ²⁶ I declare today that I have been faithful. If anyone suffers eternal death, it’s not my fault,^{[c] 27} for I didn’t shrink from declaring all that God wants you to know.

I see that Paul wasn’t concerned with who knew his name. He wasn’t concerned about getting the Glory. He wasn’t concerned about seeing people again. All he was concerned about is that he was obedient. That he was faithful and their blood would no longer be on his hands for his disobedience. Instead, he had peace with himself knowing that if anyone suffered eternal death – THERE WAS NO WAY that he was responsible for it because he did what God told him to do and declared everything he wanted them to know.

I sit and wonder to myself how many people do I see a day? How many people do I talk to about the wonderful Grace of God? If they died today, could I be responsible? People don’t just happen to be in your midst for a reason. You come across every person you see for a REASON. Make a difference. Make a difference. MAKE A DIFFERENCE. I don’t ever want to be responsible for being disobedient. Instead, I want to be bound by Spritit. I want to be humble. I want to be obedient. I want to have a new boldness. I want to persevere. I want to love others enough to suffer for them.

But most importantly,

I want to live a life worth something.

-Natalie