The Author And Finisher

Ephesians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,

Have you ever stop to consider, what do we have to offer Him, except that which we have already received from Him. The Word says He has freely given us all things.

1 Corinthians 2:12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.

Sometimes we are dragging around a trunk full of stuff and will not give it up. In other words we take the attitude I can do what I want with my stuff, not fully realizing our stuff was given to us for a reason and for a very specific purpose. A good example of this is talented musicians and singers, you see how gifted they are, and yet they may not be using these gifts for the glory of God. Their out in the world getting rich and not even thinking about where the gift came from or why they have it. The gifts and callings of God are without repentance.

The Living Bible say it like this...

Romans 11:29 For God’s gifts and his call can never be withdrawn; he will never go back on his promises.

God is not going to take these gifts away just because they are not being used for His glory. I’m not trying to point my finger at a specific group of people, they are just an obvious example. You can see the same thing in all areas of life to one degree or another. I have been guilty of this myself. My purpose is to help not criticize. I am no singer but God has gifted me in certain areas. I want to glorify Him with what He has gifted me with. I hope you see my point in this.

We often take the attitude it’s my stuff so I will do what I want with it. We loose focus and the very things that are the doorways to blessings and becomes the cares of this world. The cares of this world are anything in our day to day existence that requires our attention, from getting up in the morning and doing all the things we do in course of the day. Are these things in and of themselves bad? No, not in and of themselves, but can they detract from eternal things if we let them, but we don’t have to let the daily grind blindside us to what is more important do we?

These things can build up to choke the very life flow that is the channel to us being sustained. There is a better way, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith. Anything we care for more than Him and His word, by default we allow something else to overtake us.

Paul said in 1 Corinthians 6:12. All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.

They are not in and of themselves wrong, unless we allow them to be. Things that are in and of themselves O.K., can become a hindrance to God’s will being manifest in our lives. Lets put first things first. I can’t tell you what that thing is in your life, but I bet that you could name it without too much thought. These lawful things are many times not expedient. In other words something that is legal could also be harmful when our priorities are in the wrong order. For instance, going to the lake with the family is a good thing, but if you are skipping church to do other things even if they are good things, the good things become contrary to the will and purpose of God. The word of God clearly tells us not to forsake the assembling of the saints. In this case our priorities are wrong and will also as Paul said, all things are not expedient. I don’t want to belabor this point, but when our priorities are wrong every thing else is going to be out of balance. This is not a good place to be in.