Are You Completing Your Work?

Then Elijah said to Ahab, “Go up, eat and drink; for there is the sound of abundance of rain.” 1 Kings 18:41 

Success can distract you as you seek to follow God's will. Elijah's primary assignment was to announce when a drought would begin and end (1 Kings 17:1). God had told him to proclaim to King Ahab that the drought was an act of judgment upon a people who worshiped idols rather than God. In the middle of Elijah's assignment, a spectacular thing happened. Elijah confronted the prophets of Baal and called fire down from heaven, putting hundreds of priests of Baal to death. This was one of the most awesome displays of God's power recorded in Scripture. Elijah could easily have focused strictly on that event. Fire falling from heaven is much more spectacular than a rainstorm! When something spectacular happens, we can easily be sidetracked. If Elijah lived today, he might have begun a “Calling Down Fire from Heaven” ministry! The dramatic is far more appealing to us than obedience to the mundane. Destroying hundreds of Baal's prophets would appear to be a climactic victory for any prophet of God. Yet Elijah persisted in his assignment. He announced the coming rain. This had been his primary message, and he delivered it. If you aren’t careful, you may become so distracted by the successes you experience that you never complete what God originally assigned you to do. Will your success today cause you to disobey tomorrow? - Blackaby Experiencing God Day by Day 

It's interesting each morning how everything falls into place when I get up, make my coffee, and sit down to spend time with Jesus in reading and writing. 

There's indeed work to be done by all who come to Christ.  You have a job to do.  It isn't about you punching a ticket to get out of Hell free.  

When we come to Christ we are born again...with a purpose.  Not just to keep us from the fiery torment of Hell.  It shouldn't be that we go on living as if now we have a means to do what we want and be forgiven later.  We grow in Christ if indeed we are born again into His likeness.  We learn to walk and talk as He.  We must do all the same as we did in the physical.  Learn the elementary truths. Learn to crawl.  Learn to walk. How to clothe yourself. How to handle life around you. What will harm you and what is beneficial. 

God also has a special plan just for you. 

You may not think He does but He does. 

In my life it took many years to realize what I was to be doing.  In my point of view I was indeed distracted along the way.  As Blackaby was talking about.  I wasn't thinking of the layers of thinking that Jesus employs. Scripture says that His ways are higher than ours. His thoughts are not our thoughts.  He orchestrates the thoughts of multiple billions of people every second of every single day.  We can't even orchestrate a single thought in our own lives and get it 100% right.  Not without His help. 

Are you living for Jesus or yourself? 

Paul mentions running a race as one who has their eyes set on the prize at the end. 

Are you running a race or casual walking through it?  A mind focused on winning removes distractions.  It's aware of its surroundings but keeps moving on in the right direction. 

Charley Pride is one of my favorite artists.  He loves Gospel music and has many Gospel songs.  One is called "This Highway Leads to Glory"

I remember when I was a little boy
Down on an ole country farm
We'd go to church on Sunday and I'd hear the preacher say
If you want to see my Jesus you gotta stay on the King's highway

This highway leads to glory but it's no easy ride
You'll find all kind of exits can throw you off your stride
Some will lead to fortune and others lead to fame
Some will lead you so far wrong you won't return again

Oh you just stay between the white lines
Obey all the right signs
Keep your eyes open all the time
Oh you just stay between the white lines
Never pass o're the yellow line
And you'll get to heaven right on time

Satan's on this highway he walks on every side
Tryin' to flag you down don't give him a ride
He will try to stop you at just any cost
You may stop too long and your soul maybe lost

Oh you just stay between the white lines
Obey all the right signs
Keep your eyes open all the time
Oh you just stay between the white lines
Never pass o're the yellow line
And you'll get to heaven right on time
Oh yes now you'll get to heaven right on time

Some may wonder how a soul may be lost?  There's such a thing as living but not living.  Jesus mentions in the parable of the seeds of different places the seeds went and what happened to them.  It's how a soul reacts to the word of God for Salvation.  

We choose to be engaged in the mission God has for us or we choose to lay out and try to coast into Heaven.  Scripture says there will be some who do enter into Heaven pretty much by the skin of their teeth.  As in the flames of Hell singeing them on the way in. 

Retirement is perhaps the worst word to be applied to Christians.  Some retire from their God given mission in life when they retire from the job they used to do.  Look at what the Bible really says on it.  Our retirement program begins when God calls us home.  

Many years ago I did some work with Dr. John C. Whitcomb.  The man was the most Godly that I have ever met.  Even when relaxing his mind was on what God would have him do.  Not long ago God called him home. The very night of that calling he was still working on a paper for the ministry.  Still doing what God called him to do until his final breath. 

I have work to do, as do you my dear reader.  We are the easiest to convince that we deserve this or that.  That we earned this vacation or that journey here or there.  But what are you doing about your mission for YOUR Savior?  

Jesus went through His life here on Earth with His eyes on the mission God the Father gave Him to do.  He could just as easily ruined the Father's time frame by doing things that indeed were right, true, and good in the world's eyes but it would have ruined the plan of God for man.  Scripture says that at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.  The right time. 

Not too early, not too late, the right time. 

I too have hobbies, but I do not let them get in the way of doing what God puts before me.  I may struggle through life at times because of the unexpected, but, my friend, I am expected to live in obedience. 

So what's God's plan for you?  Do you even know it or do you know it but have been avoiding it?  In my early years I will confess there were times it scared me. I would have dreams of being on a road that I could never see the horizon.  Never see where I was going.  Until I began to just trust Jesus those dreams didn't go away. 

Be careful also of twisted Scripture.  We can just as easily do what Satan tried to do with Jesus in the wilderness.  Convincing ourselves of something in Scripture that's not entirely accurate. 

That's why being a part of a Bible preaching Bible believing Church is important.  You can find those more mature in the faith to talk to to make sure you understand the Scriptures accurately. 

Be in prayer.  Can't emphasize that enough.   Talk to the Author!  

Be about the work God has for you. Eternity depends upon it for the unsaved around you.  You are to be the light in the world.  Not kept under a basket.  But set out for all the world to see.