Embracing Your Destiny {For Such a Time as This}
You know them well......those things which we chase after to satisfy this craving deep within our soul but leave us empty still. A restless and anxious FUTILE pursuit of things that will NEVER satisfy that place in us.
We have bought into the lie if we think we NEED that person.
NEED the applause of men.
The NEED to be beautiful.
The NEED to be noticed.
The NEED for friendship.
Those addictions we have embraced.
Those things which appeal to the flesh. Jealousy. Unforgiveness. Pride. Lust. Materialism. Anger.
We think we NEED those things and some of those things aren't necessarily BAD in and of themselves.
It is our NEED for them and the hold they have over us which has made them destructive.
....or like EVE....driven with a deep-seeded need to ----- TASTE THAT APPLE.
Could there BE something else more satisfying those things which I've already been FREELY given by my creator?
We make light of it. We joke. We call some by name, "retail therapy". in hopes to mask the reality of it all. Let's just call it what it is ----an attempt to soothe over something we really don't want to deal with.....or using any other means to solve a need within ourselves other than the One who created us to begin with.
I never realized how much time I spent---how much time I WASTED--- looking for a sense of security outside of myself.
In people. In things.
That moment my world was upended and those things which I clung to were wrenched from my tightly clenched fists (with little say from me, I might add).....when all that was left was ME standing with MY GOD.....THAT was when I saw it.
I had been clinging to the WRONG THINGS.
That seemed foreign to me---because since I was a young girl I'd known the Lord and had an intimate relationship with Jesus.
Oh, I kicked and screamed.
I cried out at the unfairness of it all.
I FELT the emptiness. I'd been stripped of everything I thought knew.....everything I held on to.....and was forced to confront everything I believed.
But was I now, in this moment, going to believe it? Or run from it----looking for something NEW. Something OLD. Everything BUT what I KNEW I needed.
I had spend so many years finding my sense of security in what was comfortable and calling it HOME. Had I ever really found my home in HIM?
So that when all that was left standing was me and my GOD.....would it SHAKE me? Or could I remain---UNMOVED. ROOTED. GROUNDED. ESTABLISHED.
Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that is theirs.
I've thought of that verse often.....as I've had to let GO of one thing after another.
What am I clinging to?
What am I refusing to let go of?
What I didn't realize was----I have to let go of ONE thing in order to embrace another.........
And in my wreckless pursuit of things to satisfy those empty places I let go of GRACE.
I let go of the ONLY One I can REALLY count on and those things which He laid up for me long ago.
Those things have the potential to DESTROY my destiny. To destroy ME.
They ultimately distract me from what it is I'm SUPPOSED to be doing. What I'm CALLED to do.
I've learned that those things which I do hold on to....don't belong to ME......so I hold them loosely. While others I have NO RIGHT to be clinging to at ALL. If I am holding on to any one of those things in search for something significant ..... I've missed out on a greater purpose. A greater worth. A greater calling.
I've spent too much energy and too much time on distractions and empty pursuits and have missed the bigger picture. I have realized through the years that those things matter very little in light of WHY I AM HERE ON THIS EARTH ---- FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS.
We need to make a decision DAILY to refuse to be moved by---to refuse to take notice of----to refuse to embrace those things which seduce our attention away from what it is we are truly here for.
Whatever it is you are called to do in THIS MOMENT----you are set apart for SUCH A TIME AS THIS. He has set you on a COURSE especially tailored for YOU. If we aren't careful there are things which would entice us along the way that will move us away from what it is we are here for.
In the end it is NOT WORTH THE SACRIFICE.
To lose out on such an opportunity to BE WHAT IT IS WE WERE CALLED TO DO LONG AGO.
Whatever it is you're called to do. Whether you're a mother, a daughter, a friend, a business woman......there are things He has for you to do. And it is up to you to refuse to be distracted by the things of this world. You have to ACTIVELY participate in that Divine Destiny if you're ever going to see the things He purposed for you come to pass. A deliberate decision every day to stay on course and take each opportunity as it comes with responsibility and all sobriety. It's not the time to shrink back, or foolishly waste away our days on meaningless pursuits.
EMBRACE your God-given destiny for such a time as this and dare to be One set apart for Kingdom Purposes.
THE REASON YOU WERE CREATED.
It would be a sad thing to come to the end of your life only to find you'd spent it on meaningless pursuits {worse yet been destroyed by them} having missed out on an opportunity to be a part of His Grand PLAN.
But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God. Acts 20:24
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