Deaf Devotion 8/2/2010

“For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.”
(Philippians 2:13 NLT)

One of the greatest secrets I have ever learned is this: God doesn’t want us to do anything FOR Him. He wants to do something THROUGH us.

I have heard people say, “Well, I just serve God in my poor, little, old small way.” I feel like saying, “Well, quit it.” He doesn’t want us to serve Him in our own “poor, little, old small way.” God wants our plans, goals, and pride out of the way, so He can flow through us! We need to make ourselves available to God and say, “God, I’m tired of limiting what you can do. I want to be filled with YOUR Spirit. I want you to live your life through me.”

We need to stop and allow God to show us where we have been standing in HIS way instead of surrendering to God and letting HIM live through us.

This can affect how we relate to each other also. Jesus had to deal with this in His Disciples.

“From then on Jesus began to tell his disciples plainly that it was necessary for him to go to Jerusalem, and that he would suffer many terrible things at the hands of the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, but on the third day he would be raised from the dead.

But Peter took him aside and began to reprimand him for saying such things. “Heaven forbid, Lord,” he said. “This will never happen to you!”

Jesus turned to Peter and said, “Get away from me, Satan! You are a dangerous trap to me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.” (Matthew 16:21-23 NLT)

Believers are called to be compassionate. “Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.” (Colossians 3:12 NLT)But at the same time we must show sensitivity even when dealing with others. At times, when we step into another person's life with a plan we put together, it puts us in front of God and God cannot put His plan into action. It has to be God's way.

Peter once allowed feelings to cloud his judgment too. Attempting to interfere in the divine plan for Jesus Christ was an experience that he likely never forgot.

Peter knew exactly who Jesus was—namely, the Messiah and Son of the living God, he also held common Jewish misunderstandings about the Messiah's mission. Many Israelites awaited a king who would overthrow Roman rule. Consequently, Peter refused to accept Jesus' warnings of the judgment, mistreatment, and death He anticipated. After trying to convince the Lord that such an end was attempting to upset God's will.

Peter had a narrow view of God's plan. Jesus’ priority was to set free people’s hearts from sin rather than people’s bodies from government authority. Peter's wrong views led him into open rebellion. Do not make his mistake. Seek God's will before offering compassionate aid, lest we block His unfolding plan.

What sometimes we fail to understand is that God’s plans can be different from our plans. The truth is that we should expect that God’s plans will be different than our plans.

Understand that we should never, never, never stop acting in love to help one another. Let’s just do it with God and not ahead of God.

The greatest test of our commitment to God is when God’s plan is different to ours. Peter believed that stopping Jesus was the loving thing to do. No doubt, Peter thought that this would be the greatest display of love to the Savior that could ever be expressed. But, Jesus knew better that the most loving thing would be to follow God’s plan that would take Him to the Cross, to death, to the tomb, and then to resurrection Sunday. That is the love Jesus has for you and me. Peter’s version of love would have stopped salvation’s plan. God’s version of love made salvation available to all who will believe.

God asks us, “Are you willing to make whatever changes might be necessary in your life to follow me?” if not, we will not hear from God and we need to get out of His way. But if we are sincerely willing to let God make changes in our life and work through us to the glory of His perfect plan, then we are in a position to hear God speak!