Live Where God Has Placed Me
Think about yourself, just for a moment. Don’t go too deep for too long because we can become too fixated on ourselves if we’re not careful. Nonetheless, for a mere moment, let’s do this assignment—think about your life, your age, your career, your family, your calling, your talents, your friends, your lifespan remaining, your faith.
Now, let us pause to ask the most important question: Where do you stand with Almighty God?
Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world spoke these words—
“Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.
(The Gospel According to John 10: 7b-10 NASB)
All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.
I am the door, if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved,
and will go in and out and find pasture.
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy;
I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”
This is fulfilling faith.
This is life eternal.
In understanding exactly what Jesus is saying, let us compare evil to good; death to life; hatred to love; & ultimately, the devil to the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY.
- The devil wants to destroy man.
- The devil wants to kill our witness of what God has done in us.
- The devil wants to steal all of our joy.
- The devil always fights a good thing.
BUT—
God wants to give the victory!
God wants to give us life in abundance!
God wants us to live out-loud for Him!
God wants us to lead others to saving knowledge found only in Him!
God always gives life through the Lord Jesus Christ!
The psalmist and shepherd David (and king of Israel) said it this way.
“Trust in the LORD and do good;
(The Psalms 37: 3-5 NASB)
Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.
Delight yourself in the LORD;
And He will give you the desires of your heart.
Commit your way to the LORD,
Trust also in Him, and He will do it.”
We are to Live Where God Has Placed Us.
Maybe that means in our careers, and maybe that does not, but what is does mean is that—
- We are to trust in what God is doing in our lives right now.
- We are to “feed” on His faithfulness.
- We are to be faithful to God.
How does that look in everyday life? This is a great question to ponder, especially at the start of a brand-new year, a day when we are two mere days away from celebrating the Epiphany of the Lord Jesus Christ—the appearing, the coming, the jubilation.
We are to love God with everything we have within us! The Bible tells us so!
- This means, we are to manage our mind.
- This means, we are to make the most of our mind.
- This also means we are to love God creatively, thoughtfully, logically, and intuitively.
We are to learn all that we can about the One we adore, about Jesus Himself.
- What this does not mean is that we are NOT to ‘cram in,’ to educate ourselves to know all the answers for the examinations of life.
No!
- Rather, this means we are to ponder, to dwell, to stay, to walk, to commune, to be, to ‘draw out’ and to ‘uncover’ all that we can learn.
Therefore, we need to be within God’s Holy & Living Word every single day of this new year—beginning today.
When is the best time to begin this practice? Now, as in right now. We have phones with Bible apps; we have Bibles on our bookshelves and riding in the backseats of our vehicles; & we even have Bibles online that we can download to our desktops. We have better access to the Word of God than any other time in the history of mankind, and there is no better time in history to begin reading God’s Word & there is no better time to begin anew than right now, right here where we live & dwell in our lives.
Truly, I am to Live Where God Has Placed Me & You, Too, Are to Live Where God Has Placed You!
- How are we to read God’s Word each day?
This is a great question to ask.
- We are to Just Do It (in borrowing from Nike).
Then, we are to walk into our day and put God’s Word into practice, living so that others see Jesus in us—
- Through our actions,
- In the words we speak,
- In how we react to others, and
- Even in how we do not react when temptations & struggles arise.
Truly, our faith affects everything we do!
- My Life.
- My Family.
- My Choices.
We cannot separate the two: Life & Faith!
God is at work, perhaps more than at any other time in our lifetimes, working in churches, through ministers, in communities and neighborhoods, in ministry, & in lay-people who are living ‘a victorious life found only through the shed blood of Jesus that covers their sins.’
It is quite possible that the Lord is doing more than we can physically see, so as the apostle Paul writes to encourage young Timothy, I also end with Paul’s words, breathed out to him through God’s Holy Spirit.
May we not merely just read the words to be reading the ‘Good Book,’ but May We Live, Really Live, Where God Has Placed Us.
“Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
(The First Letter of Paul to Timothy 6: 12-16 NASB)
I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate,
that you keep the commandment without stain or reproach
until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ,
which He will bring about at the proper time—He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords,
who alone possesses immorality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen.”