1 Chronicles 4:10 “And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, “Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!”
Continuing Pastor Herk's message: Enlarge my known territory, my established border, my horizon beyond my sight means to lead us beyond our comfort zone in expanding ministry, trust and faith in areas where I has never gone before. Jeremiah 29:11 “says, For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Do we move God out of the picture of our future in the present? We have to be careful about our present. The future that God wants to bring us to has a role to play in our life right now in the present time. What are we doing in the present to prepare for the future?
God doesn’t want to just be the God of our future, but also our present. He knows the end from the beginning, so why can’t we trust God? He wants our full attention and obedience in the present. Some of us seek to control our “right now” existence in the present. We find a comfortable place and settle there, believing that God has our future. We worry only about today and not tomorrow, so we don’t move any further along; having a “What happens happens” attitude.
Each and every one of us are called to be representatives of God and the kingdom of Heaven to a lost and dying in sin world, and as disciples and Ambassadors of Jesus Christ representing Him and teaching others everything that He taught. When sin gets in the way, it has the potential to distort those around us as to how they view God. It’s been said: We are the only Bible a careless world will read; we are the sinner’s gospel, we are the scoffer’s creed. We may mess up and fall, but we must get back up, trust God and move into the future.
Another prominent factor that we need to be concerned with is our pride that inhibits our future. Our pride and overconfidence really gets in the way of what God wants us to do and what He intends to do through us. Focusing on our future comes back to humility. God wants us to play the background rather than the forefront in our lives. God wants to be in charge. God never intends for any of us to retire from the ministry of the Gospel. We always hav3e a future in Christ. We can be trying to put God at the top of our priority list but God wants to design and make our priority list. Get out of His way and let God design and write that list for you. His wants and way is above ours.
When it comes to our hopes, dreams and aspirations, we have to make God the number one priority on the list, then turn it over to the Lord and allow Him to build the list from there. If we are going to learn to focus on our future, then we have to give it to Him. Our Creator has to be the One who is creating our list of priorities in life. And guide us to the future that He has in store for us. Focus on God.
In Christ, Brian
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