Many of us would like to be recognised for what we do from time to time. A pat on the back. A word of encouragement.
We occasionally have insecurities about whether we are appreciated or not. Have you ever been there? “What about me?” You have to laugh sometimes. It’s a form of seeking status, or recognition, or identity.
This kind of insecurity is not reserved for a limited number of Christians. Most people feel alone sometime in their lives and not properly cared for socially or emotionally.
It’s completely human, but slightly immature and not always beneficial to our wellbeing. Sometimes we grieve over our own inability to cope without some level of recognition or affirmation.
Set apart to win in life
Of course, we can’t live there. Godliness with contentment is our aim, and it yields great gain (1Tim.6:6). We are not designed by God for pity parties or self-centred dramas, so we have to overcome the temptation for feeling sorry for ourselves when don’t seem to receive the recognition we desire or we feel we deserve. The key thing is, are we doing God’s will? If God approves, what more do we need?
This is not to deny periods of genuine grief, or even disappointment. Tears may come in the evening, but are replaced by joy in the morning (Ps.126:5, Gal.6:9). David was discouraged at Ziklag, where he and his men lost everything to raiders, but he then encouraged himself into place of leadership despite his grief, and led them to ultimate victory (1 Sa 30:6).
We, too, will be troubled by issues in our lives, but we can cast all our cares onto the Lord and He will give us peace, the avenue to recovery (Phil 4:6-7).
Even if we have a period of righteous indignation we are not to sin in it, nor let the sun go down on wrath (Eph 4:6-7). Do you see a pattern here? The fruit of the Spirit includes long-suffering and self-control (Gal 5:22-23). Self-doubts can be overcome by trust in the Lord (Pro 3:5). We can do this.
We are equipped for resilience. We are set apart for victory. We are purposed for interaction, not only with the rest of the community of believers, but also with the unsaved who need to come into the Body of Christ through faith in Him. We are God’s co-workers (1 Cor 3:9), so we’re never really alone (Heb 13:5-6).
Yes, co-workers; workers together with Christ. He is, remember, seated at the right hand of glory on the throne of God (Ro 8:34). He is making intercession for the saints of God, the believers, the Christians who remain in the earth to do His will. In the earth, and yet positionally seated in heavenly places with Him (Eph 1:24-26). You can’t get any higher, or more appreciated, or more valuable in His sight than to be counted worthy of being seated in heavenly places with Him.
We are set apart by God to make His will come to pass in the earth at this time. We are separated onto Him for His purposes. We can’t get any higher that this at this time. We are accepted in the Beloved. We are sealed with His approval through the Holy Spirit in or lives. We have His name and His permission. He is our status.
All things
To this end, we are not, in ourselves, separate from Him, enabled to do His will, but with Him and in Him we are equipped and empowered for His purposes. Remember that Jesus said that without Him we can do nothing (John 15:5). Yes, but with Him we can do all things (Phi 4:13). And with Him all things are possible (Mar 10:27). That is the point here. It is not about our ability, but His within us.
Jesus likens Himself to a Vine being attended to by the Father, and we as branches of that Vine producing fruit for God’s kingdom (John 15:1-2). Fruit producers, then. But a branch cannot produce anything without the Vine. God the Father is the Vinedresser, tending the branches. We need the Vine and we need the Vinedresser. Our life is dependent on this.
You can’t do anything in and of yourself. I can’t do anything in and of myself. We can do nothing effective without Christ. Nothing that counts for the kingdom of heaven that is. We need Him everyday every step of the way.
We don’t need human status. Those things are futile. Paul counted his own achievement as dung. Yes, he literally used that word (Phil 3:7-8). His earthly qualifications, though they were great in worldly terms, and even in religious terms, yet he counted them as rubbish compared to the great prize of the ministry that God affords us when we are fully yielded to Him and His ways.
God is our status. When we put off our old person and put on Christ we come across as His people to the spirit world (Eph 4:22-23), and that presence is revealed in the natural world we inhabit. Any dynamism as a result is entirely due to Him, and dependent on Him.
This dynamism is called the anointing (1Jo 2:27). It is an appointing by God accompanied by grace, that is, His gifting in our lives that creates the ability to demonstrate His praise and His greatness.
It is nothing of ourselves. We are merely the vessels fit for His glory (2Cor.4:7), but this ‘mereness’ is elevated into the extraordinary when we are fully complicit with His plans and purpose for our lives.
We are the savour, the flavour of life or death to those we encounter.
Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life.
2 Corinthians 2:14-16
Yes, and we are the salt of the earth (Mat 5:13). We add His healing savour to the places we go with His presence. It’s nothing of ourselves, all of Him, but it leads us to present an offer to all that we meet to ‘taste and see that the Lord is good (Ps 34:8),’ and it’s the ‘goodness of God that leads to repentance (Ro 2:4),’ that complete turnaround that brings us home to Him and sets us up for the ride of a lifetime, where can all give glory to God for being in our lives.
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