Scripture

“Dedicate Barnabas and Saul for the special work to which I have called them.” Acts 13:2

Observation

It was not enough that two pastors walk out on a new adventure. They needed to wear the hand prints prayer left on them from their home church.The request for the prayers of the church do not come from two trembling missionaries. It is God who asks the church leaders to pray for them. The prayers of the church were significant to the Lord because somehow it gave him elbow room to bless these two new traveling pastors.

To many a missionary is just a faded fridge magnet. For about six weeks sent ones are remembered but within six months the memory of their work is run over by the freeway of daily busyness.

But God never lets the memories of missionaries fade. The finger prints of prayer left by praying leaders are like a tattoo residue on a Christian worker’s life to remind the Lord to keep blessing them.

Application

I’ve had many hands laid on me over many years. They were prayers prayed in the front of a service and then life rushed on. If I were to visit those churches now few would remember who I am. Yet from God’s perspective the residue of their prayers still lingers on my life. I am a sent one representing many churches that have sent me. I trust this day that the prayers prayed will be answered through my life in blessing many, many people.

Prayer

Father, remember the prayers prayed for me over many years. Remember the prayers of my ordination. Remember the prayers at my wedding. Remember the prayers at churches I have left that have blessed me. Today let me see the answer to those prayers. Amen.

From www.inkcinct.com.au

What the Bible Says
The first servant reported, ‘Master, I invested your money and made ten times the original amount!’ “‘Well done!’ the king exclaimed. ‘You are a good servant. You have been faithful with the little I entrusted to you, so you will be governor of ten cities as your reward.’

“But the third servant brought back only the original amount of money and said, ‘Master, I hid your money and kept it safe. I was afraid because you are a hard man to deal with, taking what isn’t yours and harvesting crops you didn’t plant.’ “‘Yes,’ the king replied, ‘and to those who use well what they are given, even more will be given. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away.
Luke 19:16, 17, 20, 21, 26

What My Mind Thinks
What holds us back from becoming all that God has imagined us to be? It is our desire to play it safe. It’s the tendency to live with a passbook savings account mentality in a bull market economy.

The interest rate of Jesus is frankly out of this world. His rate of return doubles investments, or a 100% dividend rate. The only thing he asks of us is calculated risks. We are not to spend his resources, we are to invest them. We need to place them strategically in the hands of others where they can become greater. That requires thought, demands, foresight, trust and accountability.

But with returns of 100% we want to play it safe. Why? Because we are afraid not so much of failure as we are of disappointing God. “I was afraid because you are a hard man to deal with….” Our ability to succeed in life depends on our perception of God’s face. If we we live with a fear of his scowl we will hide our nest egg under the mattress. But if we can capture something of the glee and merriment of God at our forward success we will look for opportunities and take them.

Years ago my aunt put a book in my hands with one quote that has changed my outlook. It comes from Annie Dillard’s Pulitzer Prize Winning Book, Pilgrim On Tinker Creek:

“There is always an enormous temptation in all of life to diddle around making itsy-bitsy friends and meals and journeys for itsy-bitsy years on end. I won’t have it. The world is wilder than that in all directions, more dangerous and bitter, more extravagant and bright. We are making hay when we should be making whoopee; we are raising tomatoes when we should be raising Cain or Lazarus.”

How My Heart Acts
It is time for me to invest…with wisdom. Instead of the self-conscious life that worries what God will think with this or that, I must think of the joy I can bring to his heart by making the most he has given to me while there is yet time.

What My Spirit Prays
Father, today I want to be an investor of what you have given to me. Liberate me from the paralysis of bewilderment of options. Help me to discern the appropriate opportunities. And then hover over my investments with the Miracle Grow of the kingdom of God. The best is yet to come. Amen.

When Levi was 14 (just three years ago) I gave to him a ring to as a seal of his commitment to sexual purity. It came after three months of weekly dinners and discipling and the last feat of scaling a volcanic cone of basalt.

Here is the ring I gave Levi in his hand. That hand is twice the size today!

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. James 3:17

If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! Matthew 7:11

And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39

There are many goods in life. Some of them are good, some of them are not so good for us. Only God knows the difference. The goal of life is to enjoy the presence of God not things. When possessions come our goal is to enjoy God’s presence through the gifts he gives to us. True prosperity is not having stuff but enjoying the presence of the Lord in the things he gives. Those gifts cover everything from our pay check, to houses, health, household goods and things on wheels.

God is a Father who loves to give appropriate gifts to his children. Just as any human father anticipates Christmas morning after a night time of assembly, so too our heavenly Father loves us and loves to see our reaction when he gives us the gifts that we need. Like any dad his aim is not just to give us stuff, but to leave us with tangible expressions of his love. A gift in its purest form is a condensation of love.

There are many things in life that we can gain without God’s love. There are possessions in life that we can grasp for, grab after and even gain them. But God isn’t in them. When the cellophane is off somehow they leave us feeling more alone. To get them we have to step out of the love of God, out of his provision, timing and will. We have to overspend, overwork, manipulate, borrow, break relationships, covet, envy, worry or whatever else it takes to reach that little bit more to get them.

Possessions and possessing not only can be but should become a way that we come to love God more and relate better with him. This is not just a good idea, it is a necessity. Otherwise we will seek gifts and not the Giver or worse yet end up with goods that do us no good at all. The result is greed, worry, envy and covetousness.

How can we have hopes for some of the things of life while deepening our relationship with the Lord? Here’s the secret: seek only what comes out of the love of God.

Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:4

Imagine a river that flows from under the throne of God from the crystal sea. It courses down the main avenue of heaven and tumbles over the precipice into our lives. This river is pure, distilled love. This water is all that we need in life and it floods our hearts with joy. There are many things that look good that are away from this river. Some things are a far journey away. But to have them you must leave the river and the love of God flowing into your life. So you make the choice not to chase after them but to remain in the midst of the flow of love that comes from God’s throne straight into your heart. Now imagine that the Lord deposits into that river some of the necessities of life. A car floats past, then comes a sofa, next a pencil, over there a house, then a pair of socks and so on. Sure the image is crude but hang with it for a moment. What matters most, those goods or the love that conveyed them to you? The answer is obvious. Nothing is greater than the love of God.

So here is how we keep our souls clean from the corrosion of greed. Come to love the river of God’s love that transports good things into your life and not the goods themselves. When those things come take them as reminders of his presence and enjoy them in his presence. But keep focused on the love and not the goods themselves. And above all don’t seek anything unless it has come into your life as a gift from the Lord.

It is true that nothing can separate us from the love of God, but it is equally true that we can step out of God’s love when we prowl after possessions without God’s presence. When I find myself manipulating, overstretching financially, overtaxing my body, stepping, on, over and pushing through people to get my way then I can be certain I have stepped out of God’s love in search of things.

Stay in the Lord’s love and enjoy the good gifts as reminders of the Father above. God wants to bless us, but not to pull our hearts from him but to draw us close to his heart.

Father in a season of life when I need to ask you for many practical helps, please keep my focus clear so that I seek you and not what you have to give to me. Your presence is the best present I could ever have. Amen.