Go With Me Devotional

 Go With ME

Embracing our Sacred Responsibility with Christ

^“Brothers, each man, as responsible to God, should remain in the situation God called him to.”

 I Corinthians 7: 24 - NIV

It is a normal part of growing closer to Christ, to desire to serve Him more fully.  This is healthy, and it is a right perspective.  It is also a common misunderstanding to feel we have a grand destiny to fulfill, but that it cannot happen in our current circumstances.  This is where we begin to lose a right perspective, and a wrong one sets in.  Why is this?  Without considering God’s perspective and sovereign placement of our life, we tend to think our current circumstances give us a mundane existence, with little meaning.  We can feel as if we have no obvious impact on the people around us, and we lack the respect we need to affirm our purpose.  Have you been is this situation before?  Are you there now?  I’ve been there, and I can tell you that you must not linger long in this attitude, for it will rob your joy and cause you to waste precious opportunities to serve your King.  It can also become a rotten place where self-pity shows up.  Since we know all self-pity originates from the Devil, we do not want to stay in this place with him.  It will become a rotten voice whispering in our ear every time things don’t go our way, and it will produce rotten fruit in our life. On the other hand, it is true that a deeper connection with Christ stirs within us a desire to express His glory.  It becomes a passion, and a driving force within us that must be expressed, as well as a desire to be heard.  However, if we are not careful, we will tend to think our value to God is measured only by our activity, the effectiveness of our expression, how people see us, and how they react to us.  It is at this point that a worldly value system can invade our life, and our connection with God’s grace begins to wane.  As hard as we try to prevent it, our connection to the Vine becomes hindered.  So, if you find you are living in such a time as this, and with such and attitude, what should you do?  I’ve got an easy answer.  Do not change locations or vocations, for such a move could be following the voice of “self-pity”.  God might lead you this way eventually, but not at first.  The first thing God wants to do is put a new occupant inside the vessel Jesus and you occupy, and  then He will begin to lead you toward your ultimate place of serving Him best. ^“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” 2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV Let me explain.  Our first move in fulfilling our purpose in serving our King is not to leave where he has currently placed us, but rather, we need to assess how we react to the people who are in this place.  We must allow the “new man” in us to relate differently to these people, if we want to express effectively what Christ is doing within us.  Now, I will be the first to agree there is very little glory for ourselves in trudging through life this way.  However, you must know that a man who serves our King best is not in it for his own glory.  If it is your purpose to bring God His greatest glory by your life’s expression, the greatest glory to our Lord is produced in anonymity and obscurity.  It is in this place of purpose where we stop self-pity in its tracks.  We allow no access for the enemy to speak to us and discourage us.  Our enemy will try to whisper, “What’s in it for you?”  A man who has safeguarded his heart with humility will answer, “For me?  A smile from my King is enough, for it’s about His glory, not my own.”  I tell you, my brothers, when this new man is living with Christ, has abandoned his rights to himself and is following his King right where he is, there will be no access to his heart for the enemy. When a man stays put, and faces his circumstances by not fleeing his tests, God will forge this man into a Champion who is prepared for the next battlefield where God will send him.  In your current circumstances, you are being trained for impacting the future.  You will be prepared for bigger giants by facing the ones in your face at present.  It is through this process you become a man who will fulfill his “grand destiny,” for God is preparing you for it.  The vision of yourself you seem to see vaguely, at present, will one day become reality, if you allow God to have His way with you.  You will one day realize the vision you saw some time ago being fulfilled.  Look what is promised, if you will stay put, trust God, and make it your purpose to abide with Him: “Do not fret because of evil men or be envious of those who do wrong; for like the grass they will soon wither, like green plants they will soon die away.  Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.   Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.  Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.”  Psalm 37: 1-6

“Trust in the Lord - Dwell in the land - Delight yourself in the Lord- will lead to: The desires of your heart”

I would challenge each reader of this devotional to spend an excessive amount of time in Psalm 37.  Read the whole chapter, and journal through it.  Allow God to speak to your heart about this passage.  If you do so, I believe you will come away with the same conclusion I have about God’s sovereignty, His protection, how He is shaping us into the men He wants to make of us.  I believe, one day, you will agree that this man He is making out of you  is the man you long to be.  Oh, and if that is not enough, there is also another benefit.  It’s called “having the desires of your heart.”  But these will not be the heart desires of the present man.  They will be the heart desires of the man God is crafting through your current circumstances. Now doesn’t all of this connect back to the key verse listed at the top of the devotional in I Corinthians 7:24?  Doesn’t it encourage you to stay put, and see what God can do in your present circumstances?  If He wants to lead you out, fine.  But let’s make sure it is He leading you out, and not yourself.  If you will trust Him to use you in spite of your present inglorious, mundane conditions, I believe you will see all I shared come true in your life.  I also believe there will be a few voices out there who will share a wonderful story one day because you trusted God and waited for His intervention, rather than striking out on your own. Finally, brothers, the most beneficial way to weather a trial such as what you are going through now is by clinging to the Vine.  I know you understand what I mean, for I’ve said it many times.  Abide, abide, abide. Dwelling, trusting, and delighting in the King, Rocky ***TO DOWNLOAD A COPY OF THIS DEVOTIONAL, CLICK HERE!