Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,
I focus at times on what Paul went through in his calling. We all know the story, the hardships, the house arrest, the prison time, even his death. It seems like he accepted that with a grace that took an enormous amount of faith.
We are not by any means another Paul. To quote a line from Game of Thrones, “We will never see his like again.” The opening verse uses the term straining forward because we will find that when we are doing Kingdom work the enemy will provide the resistance. Satan opposes every good thing in God’s plan for us and if we do not feel at least some resistance in doing God’s will, then we might want to do a self-check.
Some time ago I observed what could be considered pew potatoes. It is a term I heard about some people who come to hear the message and do nothing more within the church to serve in any capacity. That is judgmental because we have not made them a sufficient part of our lives to see what they do for God outside the building.
We come with a check engine light. It is called a conscience. We had one before we came to Christ and we have one after coming to Christ. It may have been what caused us to surrender to Christ in the first place.
Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace.
Please note that it is the end of man is peace but this does not denote the struggle it took to get there. I cannot speak to every situation. Each of us has their own struggle and my only advice in this arena of conscience is to seek peace rather than comfort.
A dear friend had written some time ago about being a tool for God. Some of us are like rasp files needed to knock of sharp edges off a stone. Then later another that is fine sandpaper will come along to polish that stone into a jewel.
I always related to the iron sharpens iron verse where sometimes I am the hammer and sometimes I am the anvil. I never see myself as the sword.
How do we see others? How do we see ourselves?