Stop doing things FOR God.
Okay Lord, I hear you loud and clear.
I haven’t even been on the Race for half of a month and God is already wrecking my life in the best way possible. You see, somehow over the course of my life I have gotten into this mindset that I have to go and do big, BIG things FOR God. It’s as if I put an unrealistic pressure on myself that the world lived, breathed, and died by my doing. And somewhere along the way I put the whole pressure of the livelihood of my friends and family in the States and overseas all upon my shoulders.
My backpack of weight of the burdens of my own life and the lives of others weighed heavy on me. I’ve been reading Jennie Allen’s book Nothing To Prove and she says it best,
“I found myself caught up in fear of God. Fear I would let Him down, fear I wasn’t doing enough for those He loves. At the end of my life and at the end of the day, I just wanted to be enough for Him.
My backpack was so heavy, all I could think about was when I could take it off. But because this pack contained some good things, God things, I didn’t even know if it was all right to take it off. I had strapped onto my shoulders the mission of God in this world. I wanted Him to be proud of me.” (pg. 32 & 33)
Unknowingly I brought myself to this idea of believing I was not enough for God. As much as I spent every day trying and trying and then trying some more, I always seemed to not be able to do enough FOR God in every day. Like Jennie Allen, my backpack has been so heavy with the mission of God in this world. So heavy that what God intended to be a glorious mission began to seem more like a burden.
“There are still people lost.” It depends on me.
“Some of my friends in the States still don’t know the true goodness of God.” It depends on me.
“People across the globe are still starving and homeless and parentless.” It depends on me.
I became caught up with trying to do so many good things FOR God that oftentimes I forgot that God doesn’t need me to do any of this to bring His kingdom come here on earth as it is in heaven. He never needed me to reach the lost, to heal the sick, to be a home for the homeless or a parent to the orphan. God can do all of this on His own. He is God, you know.
But in His loving kindness and overflowing grace and mercy, He asked me to stop trying to do so many things FOR Him and start doing all of these things WITH Him.
God placed so many different desires within my heart, and within your heart, to go & do great things right where you are WITH the God of the universe. What God is teaching me and what I believe He is trying to teach all of us is this: stop trying to do things FOR God & start doing things WITH God.
God is going to let His kingdom come regardless of what we do or not. But He’s given us a choice: we can either take His hand and do them WITH Him or keep striving to do them by our own ability.
I’m choosing to stop doing things for God today.
And in return, I can now start finally doing things WITH Him.
Who’s with me?
