WHAT GOD REQUIRES Exodus 7-8 | Matthew 15:1-20 “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship.” —Romans 12:1 When it comes to Christian service, it is always God working in us and through us who will accomplish the task He has called us to do. But we don’t sit back passively. God requires our commitment, both spiritually and physically. The first thing God requires is our willingness and availability to Him, and the first part of our anatomy He requires is our feet. Our feet take us where God wants us to be. In Ephesians 6:15, Paul refers to them as ‘feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace’. When we’re in the right place, God requires our eyes. Jesus said to His disciples, “I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields. They are ripe for harvest” (John 4:35). This was after the disciples had shrugged off the woman of Samaria; married five times, living in sin and shunned by her community, but thirsting for what only God could give her. There are many people who are ripe for the Word of God, but our eyes have to be opened to see them. God also requires our ears. In Jeremiah 23:22, God says “If they had stood in my council they would have proclaimed my words to my people.” Of vital importance is taking time alone with God, and listening for what He places in our hearts. Isaiah writes, “He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught” (Isaiah 50:4). Once we hear God, He requires our tongues. In the same verse Isaiah says, “The Sovereign LORD has given me an instructed tongue to know the word that sustains the weary.” There is little more satisfying than listening to an instructed tongue in the things of God, and little more frustrating than listening to an uninstructed tongue. The Holy Spirit reveals the truths of God, and we need to present them with conviction, accuracy and kindness. We are workers together with God, and He will use our feet to put us in the right place at the right time, our eyes to see what is to be done, our ears to know what He tells us, and our tongues to say what He’s placed in our hearts. It will be a divinely directed work that will almost certainly see setbacks and hurdles, but in the end, results in dynamic work. God is the empowerment, and He says, “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news” (Isaiah 52:7). There isn’t a higher calling we’ll ever have than to climb that mountain with God.
Posted on: Thu, 23 Jan 2014 13:51:00 +0000
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