God desires faithfulness and surrender, not worldly success, which is what so many Christians and even churches seem to be hung up on. An illustration has been coming to mind a lot lately: The story goes that a man heard from the Lord and the Lord told him to push a large stone. In faithfulness, day after day, he pushed the stone as hard as he could. From the early morning to the sunset, he pushed and pushed. He gave his all to push. But as the years passed he began to grow frustrated. He had pushed for years but the stone had not moved one inch. In agony he apologized to God, to which the Lord responded: “My faithful son, I told you to push the rock, not to move it.”
What an honor it is to be called to a completely impossible task–to know day by day that what we desire more than anything is not something that we can accomplish, but that we must give our all and then rest and rely on what only God can do. Like Jesus feeding the 5,000, the boy gave what he had but Jesus did the miracle. Imagine going to church every week with this kind of anticipation. Picture going to work each day with this kind of exciting possibility–not a struggling and striving to attain success but with a calm rest and surrender, knowing that your life belongs to another. After all, the world judges first place by who crosses the finish line first; God judges by how the race was run.
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