I knew a man who achieved everything he had ever dreamed of achieving—but for one thing—God took it all off him. Like Moses he had looked back on a life given to God, and like Moses he watched as his work was handed over to another.
Christians do well to hold on to all things with an open hand. With Job we must say,
“The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away.
Blessed be the name of the LORD” (Job 1:21).
We must let God give and take from our hands; lest we believe that our blessings are of our making. Be it physical or spiritual: “What do you have that God hasn’t given you? And if everything you have is from God, why boast as though it were not a gift?” (1 Corinthians 4:7).
Have you ever wondered what those rock-solid brothers and sisters all have in common? You won’t have to look hard to see this attitude within them all: “We are unworthy slaves; we have done only that which we ought to have done” (Luke 17:10).
Many churches crumble under the weight of individualism. When everyone’s hands, heads and hearts are full of their own possessions, ideas, and dreams they inevitably amass unsustainable burdens. Though we are individual parts of the Body of Christ (the church), our individualism is sacrificed in the service of the whole. There is not a more powerful and effective force than the Body of Christ at work. The church, The Temple of the Holy Spirit, is God at work in the world.
Thus, we offer ourselves to God to be used for His glory and the building up of the church:
“But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired” (1 Corinthians 12:18).
John Staiger
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