| Good morning everyone, Our theme for this month: “Personal Responsibility” Our Bible verse for today: “For I know the plans I have for you – this is the Lord’s declaration – plans for your well-being, not disaster, to give you a future and a hope. You will call to me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. I will be found by you …” Jeremiah 29:11-14 (CSB) Our thought for today: “You are responsible for your own life” Considering the Bible verses I quoted above, does our “thought for today” surprise you? “You are responsible for your own life”? Doesn’t Jeremiah 29:11 make it sound as if God is responsible for my life? Doesn’t it read is if He already has a great plan all worked out for me and I’m really just along for the ride? Well, I suppose it could … if you stopped reading at verse 11. But if you continue on to verses 12-14 then you enter into the realm of personal responsibility. Yes, God has a plan for your life. But the fulfilling of that plan is contingent on you calling to Him, praying to Him, seeking Him with all of your heart, finding Him, and following Him. Make no mistake, you are responsible for your own life. God does have a plan for you, that’s true, but you have some responsibilities too. You do your part and you can be sure He will do His. In Proverbs 3:5-6 Solomon told us, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.” There it is – in all your ways acknowledge Him, and then He will make your paths straight. I recently came across an insightful statement written by author Elizabeth O’Conner in her book “Journey Inward, Journey Outward”. She wrote: “Each of us is the artist of his own life. The materials we are given to work with, the conditions we work under and what happens to us, are part of the drama of what we shall do with our lives. But materials and conditions and events are not, in themselves, the determining factors. Whether a man arrives or does not arrive at his own destiny – the place that is peculiarly his – depends on whether or not he finds the Kingdom within and hears the call to wholeness – or holiness. The man who hears that call does not have to scramble for a place in the scheme of things. He knows that there is a place which is his and that he can live close to the One who will show it to him. Life becomes his vocation.” “Life becomes his vocation.” In other words, living well is the true purpose of your life. Everything else – conditions, circumstances, events, are all incidental. Your purpose is to seek God and follow Him. Do that, and all the rest of life will fall into place. God bless, Pastor Jim |
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