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Bought At A Price
by Cate Russell-Cole I have never seen a car say to it's owner, "Can I have $60, so I can drive down to the service station and get some fuel?" I take the car down and refuel it so I can continue to use the car without it breaking down. Didn't Jesus say, "Don't worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?" (Matthew 6:25-26) I've never heard a car say, "I'm sick of waiting for you! I'm going to get my own tune-up and tyre change!" either. Just as well, we'd probably have a lot of cars, without drivers, creating havoc on the roads. But do we stop to think what kind of havoc we cause in ours and others' lives when we don't let our "driver" get "behind the wheel?" Even though we carry the responsibilities of living we do, in truth, belong to God, not ourselves. Our lives are so controlled: by us. Our banking, where we live, how we live, the job we don't walk out on. We choose our partners, how much time we spend with our kids. We have favourite colours, favourite foods, favourite movies and television programmes. We like certain music, love or hate the footy. We drive the car we pay for, eat the food we select at the supermarket, plan our own weekends and the groups we belong to. We work for our money, make an effort to read the Word and pray, drive ourselves to church and keep our homes and lives in order. Then someone tells us to sit down, be quiet, cease striving. Listen to God and let Him do it. That too is so alien. Our minds struggle to get around this concept. We just don't know how to let go of the controls, not when we have to manipulate them from the moment we get out of bed in the morning. The Father is far more motivated to ensure it runs according His plan and His people's needs than we are. He has made a far greater investment: the life, death and resurrection of His Son. Certainly, it's necessary to behave as adults, and our actions can send God's perfect plans askew, but we must be able to trust God in the functioning and development of both ourselves and the church. It has never been our role to "stress out," striving and worrying ourselves. It is a simple matter to fail to hand things over to God, become more involved with our own plans and efforts, be too busy to pray, and plan without asking the "Master planner" what He desires first. We need to remember though, we are not the originators of our salvation, rather we have been "bought at a price." "Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price..." 1 Corinthians 6:19, 20 Think of it this way, when you go and buy something, for example, a new car, do you leave it in the showroom and then go home without it? That doesn't make sense. When God "buys" us (we are saved by Jesus' sacrifice on the cross) He takes us into His home. We become His. My car is mine. I paid the price required and drove it home. Now that car is in submission to me. I don't abuse it, I take care of it. Legally, it is mine, and my responsibility. We see with our eyes, hear with our ears, and then interpret it all, becoming perturbed. In Isaiah 11, Jesus was described as not relying on what He seen and heard, rather, He referred back to what He knew of the Father's heart and prayed. Look what He achieved... Jesus also stated in Matthew 6:27 "Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?" We have to trust the One who loves us enough to buy us, that He will care for us as individuals and the church, and will supply every need... if we ask and trust. We, in all things, need to learn to trust the Father's faithfulness. When He promises to do something He will. This article by Cate Russell-Cole is under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) Written in Australian English. Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |