It's a God Thing!

I love it when my devotional readings and scripture reading match up-it's a God thing! Last night I had my two youngest sharing the stomach flu. Before the second one had come down with it I escaped to my readings as I couldn't find sleep. I am reading an older book I bought years ago but am just now getting to (it's a God thing!). The book is "Becoming a Vessel God Can Use" by Donna Partow (published 1996). Boy did I need this readings last night! In my own church while setting up for our youth night I was again confronted with "my label" that others impose on me from my past mistakes. I laid in bed for a while holding my sleeping sick child pondering how I could carry two labels-one of sin and one of a women after God's own heart?
In my reading last night I was humbly reminded that I should not desire for others to see me and say "What a remarkable Christian women" but instead be able to reflect "What a remarkable God she must serve. If God can work through her past, maybe He can work through mine also". I was reminded I am not defined by other 's standards but by God's standards and His view of what He has brought me to! I am the clay. He is the potter. It is my job to yield to His work in my life. It's a God thing!
In this book, Donna describes the 'God-thing' as "the distance between where you started and where you are today". I describe it as redemptive grace! Then my readings this morning had me in Philippians chapter two. So though my mind is tired from a lack of sleep, my heart is open and listening to God's word. "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit but in humility consider others better then yourself" (vs 3). I empty myself of me so that my "attitude would be the same as that of Christ Jesus" (vs 5), so that I made be filled with God's grace and be conformed more and more to Christ character. And that I, God's servant, would be "obedient" (vs 7&8) and glorify my Lord . In humble adoration I place my dependence on my God to "work in me to will and to act according to His good purpose" (vs 14). I borrow from the author's writing and leave you with this very vital thought: "No matter who you are or what mistakes you've made, the most important thing you can know about yourself is whether or not you have encounter Christ."

What did it take to make Jesus real to you?

In His Graces~Pamela