Several years ago I was working in the front yard cutting up a limb that had broken off a large cedar elm tree. As I was working I clearly heard God my Father say in my heart “how precious is the doing that comes out of being”. As I pondered this I heard my own heart respond with “I be because He Am”. I realized how important it was for me to believe what my Father had spoken because it was counter to my life experience but I knew it had to be true. Most of our lives we spend effort in doing, in the hope that someone will see us as being of value, i.e. precious because of what we do. But my Father had confronted me with the truth that I am precious because I am made in His image and therefore have intrinsic worth to him no matter what I have done or not done.
A diamond is called a precious je
wel because of its nature even when it is in its natural state of being an odd shape and not polished to reveal its beauty.
So what does this all have to do with the title of this post, “Why Do I Do What I Do?” Several years ago a very wise management consultant at work taught us that what we do comes from what we believe is the truth. Every person lives from some philosophy about what is true and real in life. That philosophy gives us a perspective that acts like a lens that colors everything we see and hear. Two people can hear and see the same things at the same time and come away with a completely different understanding of what they just witnessed. This is because of the perspective that they have that is rooted in their philosophy of life and is largely shaped by their life experience. Their perspective then leads to what they do!
If I believe that I have to earn God’s and people’s approval then I will feel good about myself when they approve of me and will feel down if they do not show their approval. However, God our Father is not like people. He acts in perfect agreement with his nature and at the core of his nature he is love. Love (He) is patient, is kind, does not envy, does not boast, is not proud, does not dishonor others, is not self-seeking, is not easily angered, keeps no record of wrongs, does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. He always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres. He never fails. (1Co 13:4-8)
“Abba Father, I pray that out of Your glorious riches that You may strengthen us with power through Your Spirit in our inner being, so that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith. And I pray that we, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge–that we may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to You who are able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to Your power that is at work within us, to You be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” (Eph 3:16-21)
Blessings,
Kevin
Amen, Amen!