Journey part 3

Last week we ended with this verse Psalm 16:5 ‘The LORD is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup: you maintain my lot.’  No matter where the Lord leads us or takes us, who he makes us to be and the plan he has for us. We know the Lord will always be faithful to do what his word says he will do. 2 Corinthians 1:20 ‘For all of God's promises have been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding "Yes!" And through Christ, our "Amen" (which means "Yes") ascends to God for his glory.’ What ever happens in this life if we accept Jesus we know he will be with us and lead us to be with him in eternal life. ‘Psalm 16:11 You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of your presence and the pleasures of living with you forever.’ He desires to teach and show each of us the blessings, promises and joy of knowing and walking with him in this life and we will live with him forever. I want to share a paragraph from a devotional I read, it is written as the Lord speaking. Though I have brought many pleasures into your life, not one of them is essential. Receive my blessings with open hands. Enjoy my good gifts, but do not cling to them. Turn your attention to the giver of all good things, and rest in the knowledge that you are complete in me. The one thing you absolutely need is the one thing you can never lose: My presence with you. Psalm 116:12-14 ‘What shall I render unto the LORD for all his benefits toward me? I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the LORD. I will pay my vows unto the LORD now in the presence of all his people.’ Because of the Lords Love and grace salvation is a gift to all of us who accept him and he wants us to love him, have an intimate relationship with him, walk with him and learn his ways, and be faithful to him. Being faithful to the Lord means accepting not only all the blessings and promises from the Lord to each of us but also whatever cup or lot or plan he has for each of us. This is where the journey can get very hard and complicated. We have the Lord and eternal life but as fleshly humans we don’t want to suffer or go through hard things. Jesus always says in his word the flesh is weak. We will find our strength in the Lord to accept the cup, lot or portion he wants to give each of us in this life and do this journey. Romans 8:15-17 ‘So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children.  Now we call him, “Abba, Father.” For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children. And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering.’ If your relationship with the Lord is just based on well if I do good I will get good from the Lord and if I make a bad choice I may be disciplined  from the Lord. That doesn’t sound like a relationship to me it sounds like a contract of works and maybe could lead to control and manipulation. Good luck trying to manipulate the all knowing and all powerful Lord to control the journey with good works. He wants us to abide in him and be obedient and walk with him and learn his ways. But it’s our relationship with him and who we become and doing his will. There are plenty of people in the bible who went through hard times that didn’t seam to deserve it. In Matthew 20:20-23 The disciples John and James and their mother came to Jesus and asked for the top positions of sitting at Jesus’ right and left in his kingdom.  ‘Then the mother of James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Jesus with her sons. She knelt respectfully to ask a favor. “What is your request?” he asked. She replied, “In your Kingdom, please let my two sons sit in places of honor next to you, one on your right and the other on your left.” But Jesus answered by saying to them, “You don’t know what you are asking! Are you able to drink from the bitter cup of suffering I am about to drink? “Oh yes,” they replied, “we are able!” Jesus told them, “You will indeed drink from my bitter cup. But I have no right to say who will sit on my right or my left. My Father has prepared those places for the ones he has chosen.” James and John were very close to Jesus and went on to do great things for the kingdom. But they also had to humbly accept the portion, cup, lot, blessings, and suffering that came with following Jesus and wanting to serve their friend, master, and Lord and accept his will. Jesus was completely faithful accepting and asking for God’s will for his life. Mark 14:36 "Abba, Father," he cried out, "everything is possible for you. Please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine." John 18:11 ‘But Jesus said to Peter, "Put your sword back into its sheath. Shall I not drink from the cup of suffering the Father has given me?" Even though we may fail many times we must want to be faithful like Jesus and ask for God’s will for our life. Though in his will there may be some suffering he promises to help and his faithful to his word. 2 Corinthians 1:5 For the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ. 2 Timothy 2:11-13 ‘It is a trustworthy statement: For if we died with Him, we will also live with Him; If we endure, we will also reign with Him; If we deny Him, He also will deny us; If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.’ I will end on a quote from Francis Chan In the book Forgotten God. The truth is that the Spirit of the living God is guaranteed to ask you to go somewhere or do something you wouldn’t normally want or choose to do. The Spirit will lead you to the way of the cross, as he lead Jesus to the cross, and that is definitely not a safe or pretty or comfortable place to be. The Holy Spirit of God will mold you into the person you were made to be. This often incredibly painful process strips you of selfishness, pride, and fear.