I believe the greatest satisfaction when one examines their own lives is that we want to have value in the service to others as Gods representative. I have good news!! God values each of us. By having true joy in ones life, it comes by serving Him when we serve others in their time of need. The Bible indicates that "If they obey and serve Him, they shall spend their days in prosperity and their years in pleasantness and joy" (Job 36:11). This tells us two things we need to do. To obey and serve Him according to that scripture. When I re-read this sentence, God revealed this thought to me. You will notice that the word "obey" comes before the word "serve Him". I look at this as prioritizing our requirements. This tells me that we need to first be obedient to Him if we expect to effectively serve Him. When I examine my life, I often may think I am doing the works that He calls me, but when He speaks to us deep within (when He speaks to our conscience), He may be telling us otherwise. Therefore, my "so-called good works" really isn't pleasing to Him if I don't first learn to joyfully obey Him. This may be simply to learn to just wait and trust in Him when we would rather go out and rush to do something for Him, even though what we do may be Godly. When we study the Word, I like to dig deeper and often ask myself the question on many issues "How"? In other words, we often know what we need to do by what we read, but the key is knowing "How to apply" what we know. So one of the questions is: "How can I get myself to obey the Lord better"? I like what it says in Ecclesiastes 12:13, that the whole duty of man is "Fearing God" and keep His commandments (by obeying Him and His commandments). So even before we learn to obey, we notice that it first comes by reverently fearing Him. Just like the previous verse we talked about the position of the wording. We notice here that it first starts with reverently fearing Him. So, the next question we should ask ourselves is "How can I be most effective to reverently fear Him more?"
One of the things I find it most helpful to reverently fear Him is when we learn to take our time see how awesome and big our God is. For myself, I like astronomy, so I get the atlas book out and turn to the page that shows our solar system. When you look how tiny the earth is in comparison to our immediate galaxy we are located in, this is just a start of a glimpse of how great and awesome our God is, because He fills all Heavens and earth (Jer 23:24) which goes far beyond our galaxy. When I see how small I am compared to the earth, and then realize how insignificant the earth is compared to some of the other planets within our solar system, and then our solar system is tiny in comparison to other systems, I am amazed at how Great He is, knowing that He is beyond the boundaries of what scientists have been able to locate out in the extremities of the universe. He also names all the billions of stars and many of the stars that look like a tiny dot in the night sky can be a million times bigger than the earth, such as the massive giant star called VY Canis Majoris, which is the size that would fill the entire orbital path of Saturn. There are billion times more stars that are many times more massive than the sun, and yet, God Himself is far greater than all of these. When we take time and consider how He orchestrates the position of earth to maintain its perfect distance from the sun to sustain life, continuously making its orbital path around the sun by maintaining equal timings for different seasons and spinning at its point of axis consistently at the same speed by giving us the same time of 24 hours to complete each day. Even at the massive speeds that the earth orbits around the sun and spins on its axis, yet there are times that you don't even see a ripple in the water. To me, that is how God is awesome to know that He has everything under His control. He tells us that everything is held together by the power of His Word (Col 1:17). So here, we see the power and control of our God. Therefore, when we take time to see how much control and power He does have, we can learn to truly trust Him. This is why we often need to sit still and meditate on these things and know the He truly is God (Ps 46:10).
When you consider the complexity of how we humans are formed and how fearfully and wonderfully we truly are made, how can anyone be so foolish to believe we just evolved? I may tend to be harsh about this, because I believe God is most displeased which is why He has the right to be a jealous God (Deut 4:24). When you consider how we are fearfully and uniquely made, to think otherwise is indeed foolish. What the doctors are finding out now, God had already created everything right from the beginning. If one chromosome was out of balance, we would appear much different than we truly are. This is only a fraction of the awesome knowledge and wisdom of our God. With such power, knowledge and wisdom beyond our comprehension, yet, we are never too insignificant for Him to be forever mindful of each of us.
I now like to compare His love for us in the same magnitude as His bigness, His infinite power compared to our extremely limited ability, His infinite wisdom and knowledge that no man can comprehend. When we come to terms to think that any human being on earth would dare to leave living the life in a royal palace and having everything handed to you and choose to live in a clay hut and be a servant to everyone, I can't see any human being considering this thought. Yet, Christ Himself went beyond that, because His Throne in Heaven far exceeds the best palaces on the face of this earth. Yet, He willingly chose to be born in the lowest of clans to do this for you and I (Micah 5:2) and be servant to all. When you realize His love in a greater capacity for you and I individually, we will want to love and obey Him more. This starts by being still and taking quality time to meditate on His sovereignty (His awesome attributes) in detail. God tells us in Joshua 1:8 to take time to meditate on His Word in order that are able to do according to do all that is written in His Word which He promises us that will make our ways prosperous and be able to deal wisely and have good success.
When we make quality time to meditate on His Word, this is when it gets from our head to our heart. When His Word gets into our heart, this is when we do all things out of love for Him because His Word is now placed in our heart. Jesus says, if you love me, you will obey Me. When His Word is in our heart, we will also have that deep rooted reverential fear of Him. Afterall, this is the whole duty of man (Eccl 12:13).
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In the Matchless Name of Jesus
Richard
Associate Director
Answers2Prayer
http://sites.google.com/site/greatestbuilderforourlife
http://www.answers2prayer.org/
For He who promised is reliable (sure) and faithful to His Word. (Heb 10:23b Amplified Version)
You are most welcome. May it truly and richly bless you.
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