This outtake from Ruthless Trust by Brennan Manning has been on my mind today. It reminds me of how much differently God values things than the world we live in.
...every arena in life [this world] — compel[s] us to measure our worth, for better or worse, on a scale that does not exist in the mind of God. (Manning, Brennan (2010-10-12). Ruthless Trust: The Ragamuffin's Path to God (p. 142). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.)
Although the above quote is just a tidbit from Manning's chapter on how God in His grace uses imperfect people to be used by Him for His perfect work of redemption in our world it has reminded me of a couple things about this struggle.
1) God doesn't divide people into levels of talent or ability. He divides us into faithful and faithless. He sees people as either using the way He created us (our gifts/ abilities) as living for Him, or living for ourselves. My responsibility is to faithfulness.
2) Because God created and gifted each person uniquely, the best way to worship God, is to be the best "me" we can be. The best "me, we can be," is only found when we are re-united with God, our Creator, through Christ and then are able to live the way God always intended, doing the things He prepared for us ahead of time (Eph 2:10). Everything accomplished with God is eternal, everything accomplished apart from Him is temporary.
3) Part of what Christ died to set us free from, is finding our acceptance in other people's opinion of us. Every person knows their own value, not because of what they do, but because God reminds us of our value by Jesus going to the cross. Just like Romans 12:1 says, give your whole body (Gk here indicates, mind, soul body) to God. Worship happens when we give all of ourselves to God, not holding anything back for any reason, including our fear of what others think, expect or want from us.
Be encouraged today. Let's find our value in Christ, not comparing ourselves or under the fear of being compared to this world's sliding scale of importance. The only scale that matters to God is faithful or faithless.
-Micah B.
...every arena in life [this world] — compel[s] us to measure our worth, for better or worse, on a scale that does not exist in the mind of God. (Manning, Brennan (2010-10-12). Ruthless Trust: The Ragamuffin's Path to God (p. 142). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.)
Although the above quote is just a tidbit from Manning's chapter on how God in His grace uses imperfect people to be used by Him for His perfect work of redemption in our world it has reminded me of a couple things about this struggle.
1) God doesn't divide people into levels of talent or ability. He divides us into faithful and faithless. He sees people as either using the way He created us (our gifts/ abilities) as living for Him, or living for ourselves. My responsibility is to faithfulness.
2) Because God created and gifted each person uniquely, the best way to worship God, is to be the best "me" we can be. The best "me, we can be," is only found when we are re-united with God, our Creator, through Christ and then are able to live the way God always intended, doing the things He prepared for us ahead of time (Eph 2:10). Everything accomplished with God is eternal, everything accomplished apart from Him is temporary.
3) Part of what Christ died to set us free from, is finding our acceptance in other people's opinion of us. Every person knows their own value, not because of what they do, but because God reminds us of our value by Jesus going to the cross. Just like Romans 12:1 says, give your whole body (Gk here indicates, mind, soul body) to God. Worship happens when we give all of ourselves to God, not holding anything back for any reason, including our fear of what others think, expect or want from us.
Be encouraged today. Let's find our value in Christ, not comparing ourselves or under the fear of being compared to this world's sliding scale of importance. The only scale that matters to God is faithful or faithless.
-Micah B.
