In Mark 8:35 it says, “If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it.” (NLT)
How do I know if I’m living for my dream or God’s dream?
We may only think we were created to get up, go to work, come home, watch TV, and go to bed, to make a little money, retire, and die. But really? Is that why God put us here?
If a dream is truly from God, it will somehow be connected to his church and his plan for the world. Why would God give me a self-centered dream, unconnected to what he wants to do in the world? He wants to use us for his dream. He wants to use us for his plan.
God is building a family, and he’s collecting family members from every nation, tribe, language, and people group. When everybody’s in the family that he knows will be in the family, it’s over. We’re going into phase two, which is eternity. That’s God’s big plan.
Right before Jesus went back to heaven after the resurrection, he gave the disciples a great dream. It’s called the Great Commission: “Go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20 NLT).
The Great Commission is our commission. We’ve had 2,000 years of God building his family so that now there are 2.5 billion people in it. The church is almost as big as China and India combined. It’s bigger than anything else on this planet—because God created it. It’s the whole purpose of history.
And when God gives us a dream for our lives, it is somehow going to be connected to his overarching plan. It’s connected to the growth of his kingdom and his family until the day it’s completed and we all go to heaven.
Mark 8:35 says, “If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it” (NLT).
We weren’t put here on earth to live for ourselves. We need to ask God to give us his dream for our lives so that we can be part of the biggest, best, and most important story.
In summary, any insistence on saving my life for my own purpose will only cause me to lose it. Those who give their lives for his name sake and for the sake of the Good News will know what it means to really live. Jesus wants me to stop trying to control my destiny and to let him direct me. He asks me only to lose my self-centered determination to be in charge. Happiness comes from service. God designed me to be happiest when I am giving my life away. God wants me to become like him. It's all about love. To have a happy heart, I should practice service and generosity every day. Jesus came to serve and give. Those two actions will bring more happiness into my life more than anything else. They define what it means to follow Jesus. If I'm not serving and giving, then I'm not following. The more I give myself away, the more God will give and the more blessed and happier I'll be. Sacrifice and serving are two of the keys to lifelong happiness.
0 comments:
Post a Comment