Thursday, November 17, 2011

Bringing God Joy




Do you ever find yourself thinking about what's next? Wondering about what the next thing is that God might have in store for you?

I have been thinking about those things lately. My husband and I spend alot of time investing in the lives of young people in our community, helping them to encounter and journey with Jesus. I've been wondering and asking "is this all there is"? I find myself thinking that there's more I could do for God - bigger and better things. Does God see my life the same way?

Reading Matthew recently I was struck anew by God speaking about Jesus as Jesus was being baptised by John: "This is my Son who brings me joy." (Matt 3.17) God the Father, pleased with God the Son – retrospectively.

Here's what I mean: It seems as though it wasn’t that God was just pleased with Jesus at that moment, for being baptised that day, but that his life up to that point, had been pleasing to God.

Jesus pleased God. Not much is said about the 22 years between Jesus in the temple (Luke 2.41-50) and then Jesus starting his ministry, apart from a few verses that talk about the fact that Jesus “grew in stature” (Luke 2.52), he honoured his parents and became a carpenter. And yet, God was pleased with him.

The ‘before’, equipped Jesus for the future. Jesus pleased his Father in the ‘small’ things - honouring his earthly parents, walking with God daily, the way he faithfully did his work as a carpenter - before he was entrusted with the ‘big’ – before being pointed to as 'the One'...

I find this challenging as I look for the next thing or the 'big thing' that God wants for me and yet he asks me to be faithful with the small things - the everyday stuff. God asks me to be faithful with how I look after what and who he has entrusted to me today - my gorgeous daughter, my time, my money, the youth in our community... I need his help to see that really, the things I consider to be small or perhaps mundane or what others may overlook, may just be the big things God is needing me to be faithful with today and may also be the things that equip me for the next thing he's bringing my way.

We must please God in the ‘every day’ before the ‘big’ or the specific ministry task. We must be faithful with the small before being entrusted with more... (Matthew 25.21)

I want to bring God joy. I want to be faithful like Jesus was in those years when no one pointed to him as 'the One', when he was busy being about his fathers' business - his earthly and heavenly fathers. If others don't see, what does it matter? God sees and asks us to be faithful. I want to hear "this is my daughter, she brings me joy"...

What are the 'small' things God might be asking you to be faithful in today?

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