My Utmost - Sept 21, 2009

Go here first...
http://www.myutmost.org/09/0921.html

Missionary Predestinations

Isaiah 49:5
“And now, saith the Lord, that formed me from the womb to be His servant.”

Key Passages

• The first thing that happens after we have realized our election to God in Christ Jesus is the destruction of our prejudices and our parochial notions and our patriotisms; we are turned into servants of God's own purpose.

• The whole of human race was created to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

• Sin has switched the human race onto another track, but it has not altered God's purpose in the tiniest degree, and when we are born again we are brought into the realization of God's great purpose for the human race, viz., I am created for God, He made me.

• The first thing God will do with us is to “force through the channels of a single heart” the interests of the whole world. The love of God, the very nature of God, is introduced into us, and the nature of Almighty God is focused on John 3:16 - “God so loved the world...”

• We have to maintain our soul open to the fact of God's creative purpose, and not muddle it with our own intentions.

My Own Thoughts

I am created for God and for His purposes. Sounds good to me. Takes a lot of pressure off from me with trying to come up with my own plans. I mean that seriously. How freeing it can be in those “every once in a while” times when I can really let go of all my plans and ambitions and just accept the fact that God has a plan for me. I am His for His eternal glorification, and He is mine for my eternal salvation and life.

My own intentions do get in the way sometimes. Specifically these last couple years I can see it. My trying to make it on my own. God keeps showing me over and over again that all the things that happen in my life, whether good at the time or bad, seem to work themselves out along the path of bringing me to a better understanding of God and a sense of His closeness and realness.

A statement I've made in the past that seems like something too smart sounding to have come out of my mouth... “When I look to the future I can't see God, but when I look at my past I can't deny that He is real and that He has been working.” So what does the future hold? How do I answer that question? I look at my past. I see that God has always been there for me, even in some dark times, and that God has always worked things out and had a grand plan that has brought me to where I am now to be used in the way I am being used now.