There are times in my life that I forget that I am a child of God. I don’t forget this mentally, I know I have been grafted into the body of Christ and that nothing can separate me from this love, but that is not always reflected in the way that I live. Do I reject the teachings of Christ? No. Do I curse at God? No. What does happen is that I try to put on my old shackles and live in the sin that once entrapped me. I give into my old desires far too easily, I don’t love others because I don’t love myself, I feel inadequate to do the work that God has set before me…
I believe that this is a case of mistaken identity that has infected many believers in the church. We live as if we are still hopeless sinners, we live as if we have been defeated, and heck… we barely live at all. We forget that “[we] are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that [we] may proclaim the excellencies of him who called [us] out of darkness into his marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9).” When we do grasp this truth and understand that we have been adopted into sonship by the Lord of Lords himself then where we go, what we do, and who we impact is limitless. We will stop praying small prayers of safety and comfort, but we will start praying that His will may be done in our lives. God’s will is rarely “safe” and almost never “comfortable.” However, the Will of God will bring abundant life (John 10:10).
While it is healthy to remember where we once were as sinners, we must no longer live I that state. In order to understand just how amazing this grace that we sing of, we must first understand the “wretch like me.” This understanding will help us realize just how desolate and poor we were, emphasis on “were,” but it does not stop there. To identify ourselves as “sinners” would be to deny the power of God’s Grace. The old has passed away and (hallelujah, praise GOD!) the new self now lives as a SON or DAUGHTER to the MOST HIGH GOD of whom the angels sing eternally. Now that is something to get excited over!!!
The call to proclaim the Gospel is treated as just a chore sometimes. We hear the charge and we act like God is just giving us something to do to occupy our time until He comes back. But this isn’t the case, at all. The command to preach the Gospel is one of the greatest honors ever bestowed upon mankind. God gives us His most precious message and entrusts us to carry the Good News to those who need to hear that there is hope in the name of Jesus.
In this short sermon-ish blog I hope that it will help to give perspective to where we see ourselves in relation to God as believers. We are His Children! With all the benefits and privileges that entails. Seek your Father’s will for your life. Be careful when you pray though, God takes prayer seriously and he may just answer your prayers. His will for your life may not, scratch that, WILL not be the easiest path for you. When we pray for God’s will to be done in our lives we must remember that when Jesus prayed, “Your will be done,” it was followed by Christ’s crucifixion. This is not meant to scare us from God’s will because the greatest tragedy story of all time is followed by the greatest plot twist to ever be introduced and the greatest “happily ever after” ever written. The journey is hard, but the destination is worth it. Or as Paul says, “For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison (2 Cor. 4:17.)”
All this to say, when I prayed that God’s will be done in my life he led me to The World Race and specifically to the Expedition Route. Through training camp I found out my suspicions were right and it will be HARD. However, this is where God is leading me and I know that through the hardship there will be blessings unimaginable throughout. It has been a dream of mine for the longest time to spread the Gospel while getting to travel the world and when I learned of the World Race I knew two things. 1. The World Race can help me accomplish my dreams and 2. It would be hard. Many people abandon their dreams because they are too hard, but God has placed passions inside each one of us that he wants us to pursue. So I implore you to find those passions that God wants you to pursue, and then pursue them with all you have!
“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”
