Living For A Cause Greater Than Yourself

More on Bible Study 2 - Living For A Cause Greater Than Yourself

In week 1, we covered the key point about how everything is about God. That's the cosmic, unifying starting point of all things and what holds our universe together.

1 Col 1:15-16
¹⁵He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. ¹⁶For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.

So if indeed everything starts with God and it's all about God, we should find out what's important to God. It's just like any relationship - if you love someone, wouldn't you want to find out what is important to that special someone? :)

In the 2nd session, the 1st questions covers several versions that give us a clue to what's and who's important to God:

• (The lack of) Justice
• The oppressed
• The fatherless
• The widow
• The poor
• The burdened
  
• The hungry
• The naked
• The lost
• The injured (physical, spiritual, emotional, psychological....)
• Jerusalem/Israel

What's the common thread - PEOPLE! God cares about people! Many are experiencing life below what God intended for the world. Read in Genesis 1:

Gen 1:28 God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.

God's original plan was that Man would rule over the earth and have dominion - so powerful! God invited Man to be co-creators on earth - amazing! Literally, to be "like God".

The suffering state of humanity was not God's original intention! So part of uncovering our purpose is to realize that God intends for us to right the wrongs that humanity is suffering - to defend the oppress, protect the widow and fatherless, bring justice to those who are wronged......

Key takeaway #1 - God calls us to restore what was lost to humanity in the Garden of Eden and to be a blessing to the people of this world.

Hence the next question - whom shall God send to do His work? Here we see Moses & Gideon - both who felt utterly inadequate to the great task of freeing God's people from oppression. But isn't it like God to use the weak to shame the strong?

1Co 1:27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.

2Co 12:9 But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.

Key takeaway #2 - God works through people, just like you and me, to bless others. But God can't use us till we're ready to fully rely on Him. Are you ready to rely fully on Him?

Yet here comes the struggle, between what God wants and what we want. So often we ask this question - WHAT ABOUT MY NEEDS? WHAT ABOUT WHAT I WANT? Is there then a conflict between what God's plans are and what we want?

Here we need to realize that God made us - our good passions are God-given. So...there are good passions and bad passions? Because of the Fall and because God loves us so much that He gave us free will - we are free to choose right and wrong. Look at our own lives, sometimes we do enjoy the wrong things - smoking? wrongful relationships? impure behavior? sexual immorality?

Sometimes and more often that not...what God intended for good, we turn for evil. Think of the many famous musicians whose lives end in suicide, whose music often influences negatively, rather than positively. The same gift can go either way.....

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

One Bible commentator puts it rather nicely:

He(God) grant thee the desire of thy heart; for he who...........finds his highest delight in God, cannot desire anything that is at enmity with God, but he also can desire nothing that God, with whose will his own is thoroughly blended in love, would refuse him.

Once fully surrendered, we find that we will no longer desire what is wrong and against God and we find that we can only desire what pleases God! Much like being in love - you will want want is best for your loved ones, and you will want what they want! The challenge comes then - can we surrender the parts and passions of our lives that are not in line with God's plan?

Key takeaway #3 - God loves us and He gave us passions allows us to enjoy life. And once we are fully surrendered to God's love, we find that line and struggle between what we want and what God wants vanishing, bridged by the Cross of His Love.

In closing:
It's an amazing journey that God calls us to. There is no greater cause that living everyday for God Himself. It's hard to imagine life even a few days down the road, but God calls us to journey with Him daily, one day at a time. What God loves is people and He calls us to love these people and bless them through the passions He has given us.

We find that "sweet spot", that full joy that comes from living in the centre of God's will, loving those He died for and living out our (& His) dreams!