Day 23: Fulfillment & Direction: Life Beyond God's Kingdom Door.
Read: Jeremiah 29:11 - 14, Psalm 119:121 - 128, Mark 8:34-40, James 1:17 - 25
Fulfillment: (noun)
1. the act or state of fulfilling: to witness the fulfillment of a dream; to achieve fulfillment of one's hopes.
2. the state or quality of being fulfilled; completion; realization: a vague plan that had no hope of fulfillment.
Fulfill: (verb used with an object)
1. to carry out, or bring to realization, as a prophecy or promise.
2. to perform or do, as duty; obey or follow, as commands.
3. to satisfy (requirements, obligations, etc.): a book that fulfills a long-felt need.
4. to bring to an end; finish or complete, as a period of time: He felt
that life was over when one had fulfilled his threescore years and ten.
5. to develop the full potential of (usually used reflexively): She realized that she could never fulfill herself in such work.
All of our lives, for as long as we can seem to remember, we have had
dreams of what we would like our lives to become. We have had this grand
plan in our minds of what would make our lives complete. We had in our
hearts a vision of living a life of hard work and pleasure, of going to
school and getting an education and a job in a field we long convinced
ourselves we would love doing for the rest of our lives. We live for the
day when our lives achieve a sense of fulfillment and direction through
getting married, raising children, buying a home, working and being
able to retire. Yes, we long to have the kind of fulfilling life we can
look back on with a big smile.
Yes, we all have this marvelous
dream at one time or another. Then the alarm clock goes off and we are
confronted by the reality of our day as it currently is. Those grand
dreams of fulfillment did not materialize as we had planned. The purpose
of our life which we set aside for ourselves still remains on the shelf
collecting dust. The reality is our lives just did not turn out quite
as well as we meticulously planned. We worked our 'fingers to the bone'
and all those other cliche's, we tried them too. Somewhere along the way
we lost our sense of fulfillment, our sense of direction. It just does not make sense that we work ourselves so hard that we gain not enough.
And perhaps that is where we need to begin looking for 'what happened'.
We tried to do too much of it ourselves. We sought and relied too much
our own means and understanding of 'self fulfillment'. We relied to much
on our own GPS to plan exactly the right course, the right direction
for our lives. Somewhere the GPS that we relied so heavily on did not
get updated with new maps and our lives got all turned around. I guess that it is safe to say that we overlooked one of life's most treasured secrets: That if try find 'self fulfillment' by ourselves, do it all ourselves,
in all our own ways we are inevitably going to fall flat on our faces or else fall
backwards, square on our butts.
Our lives are at an impasse
and we now realize that even with the most vigorous of efforts, we
cannot save ourselves. All our best plans are like nothing. We are
stymied and unsure where to find the fulfillment we so longed for so long ago. We have tried so many doors that we just simply do not know any longer just which one's to trust. There is yet the door leading to God's kingdom. Something about it
melts away any sense of distrust. You are drawn to it for some unknown
reason, you open it and look inside and see ..... What? Do you see that
God has been waiting for you to come in? Can you sense that He has been
planning for this special moment for a long time?
Being as
human as we all are, it often takes us a long time to walk through God's
door. We only seek self fulfillment through loving our good days and
and trying to survive the very baddest of days. We fail to remember that
GPS's need updating. I encourage you now to start planning your
lives around fulfilling this sacred truth: God already has a plan for
fulfilling your life and a already has a great purpose for you. The
Gospel is that your personal fulfillment, your priorities, your
direction in life are on God's heart even before they are on ours, and
He has the very best plan to bring them about for us. We lose nothing to
give everything to God but gain everything. What ever we give up to God
we get back many times over in this life and beyond.
Yes, we
may give up allot, more that we ever dreamed of for the sake of what
faith says is a better plan. But it is nothing compared to the
indescribable glory and eternal joy to be found as we walk through the
door into God's eternal Kingdom.
Pray: Do you feel that in your
life you have lost more than you have gained? Pray to God for the
assurance that in the life of faith there is complete fulfillment
through His Son Jesus Christ. Pray that He opens your eyes, your
ears, your hearts to the joy that awaits you as you update your GPS and
choose to direct your steps toward eternal fulfillment found only in His Presence.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJm2Y-brnCM
Aaron Shust My Savior My God
www.youtube.com
My Savior My God I am not skilled to understand What God has willed,
what God has planned I only know at his right hand Stands one who is my
savior
Aaron Shust My Savior My God
www.youtube.com
My
Savior My God I am not skilled to understand What God has willed, what
God has planned I only know at his right hand Stands one who is my
savior
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