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Poured Out
March 27, 2020
So I started out on this journey with you, so we could all stay connected. And also to fulfill God’s call on my life - similar to Peter – Feeding sheep. And yet, I believe that I’m getting fed, just as much as the reports I get from you about being fed. So this morning – or whenever you watch (or read this devotional), leave me a comment. Let me know what’s happening in your life. Mention what God is doing in this time.
Now, I know that often we can look at times of suffering, and for the majority of us – right now is not suffering. It really is an inconvenience we are working from home, and we have to home school our kids. It’s an inconvenience that we can’t have the brand of toilet paper we normally buy. Folks, I got news for you, this isn’t suffering – not for the majority of us. But it brings up a good subject. Because I believe that God can squeeze some good out of what we are all experiencing – even if it truly becomes suffering.
I had preached on the idea of suffering and that in this life it’s not if we suffer but when we suffer. Simply stated, Jesus told us that it would happen at some point in time. This friend repeated something she had learned from someone who said, “I never want to waste suffering.” Whoa…I never want to waste suffering. That is a huge statement. But it made me remember a Scripture, I read part of it the other day.
Romans 5:1-11 (NIV) Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
That word reconciliation truly means a wrong relationship that has been put back to right. We now have right relationship with God I always like to tell people it’s good to take an internal inventory. You know when we survey our lives, and we should be doing that not just now, but we should be looking over our lives on a regular basis.
There are times when are not satisfied where we are physically, so we probably go to the doctor or change our eating/exercise habits. When we are not satisfied where we are emotionally, we see a counselor who can help us and sometimes a medical doctor. When we are not satisfied with where we are intellectually we take a class, we read a book, we educate ourselves.
So why is it so easy to take care of everything else – except our spirituality? We were created as spiritual beings. When God created us in His image we became spiritual being. When one part of us is out of order the other parts suffer.
Go back to the beginning where God created humanity in His own image. Not two arms, legs, a head…, but in that God is spiritual, intellectual, and In Jesus we do see a physical body.
In fact – Jesus was resurrected in that body. And when Thomas doubted, Jesus invited Thomas to feel the wounds in His hands and stick his hand in His side where He had been pierced. Jesus had a physical body – that died, was resurrected and then ascended.
So, we are physical, intellectual, and spiritual. And we need to take care of our spirituality. Are you satisfied with where your relationship with God is at? I hope I am never satisfied or content in where I am in relationship with God, I WANT MORE. And that is why I will not ever waste a moment – even if I am suffering – I don’t want to waste suffering.
When this person explained her comment, it was that she would pray and ask God, “What can you teach me?” Another way to say this, “What can I learn even through suffering?” If you look at this Scripture we read, you can see that ultimately suffering is going to produce right relationship with God, peace with God.
And this idea of peace, is so not calm or the absence of problems. It is an ancient concept of being made complete. And that only happens when we allow the Holy Spirit to work in us and through us to change us from the inside out. This is what forms and shapes us into the people of God, that He needs us to be. And the reason we can have this peace, the reason we can be made complete, the reason we can be made whole, is simply this; the death and resurrection of Christ.
Think about this for a moment, this ancient idea and thought of being complete. And this completeness being the heart or center of peace, is all encompassing. You see this word used for peace, which means complete was used in other contexts as well. When debts paid in full, they are complete. When vows are fulfilled, they are complete. When conflict resolves it is complete.
And when Jesus breathed His last breath, said it is paid in full, it is finished, He made our salvation our peace with God complete.
When Jesus walked the face of this earth, He repeatedly spoke this peace into the lives of people everywhere. When He healed He said go in peace ( Mark 5:34 & Luke 8:48). When He forgave people’s sin, He said go in peace (Luke 7:50). His parting gift to His Disciples, was giving them His peace (John 14:27, 20:19, 21, 26)
Jesus wants us to live complete, and He completes us. OK – so I stole that line from a movie, but it’s real and I bet it was in the Bible first! Jesus truly completes us. And through all of the tough stuff, through all of the hardship, Jesus will complete you if you let Him.
And this peace – is not a feeling, though it can manifest in that way, it is a state of being. It is where we live when we move into that right relationship with God. It comes to us through the forgiveness we receive from the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We are no longer enemies of God, rather we are at peace with the One who created us. Restored relationship with God means to have peace with God. Restored relationship with God also begins to restore our relationship with others, to live at peace with others. And today’s bottom line: we live at peace when we pour out our lives like Jesus did for us, that’s what humanity was designed to do.