Getting the Job Done

I bet many of you reading this post are “get’er done” types. You know, you have a vision, hear a suggestion, get an idea, or see a need and right away, you start strategizing how to get a desired job done. As a believer, our goal is to hear from the Lord daily to get our marching orders rather than just put together our own agenda to accomplish for the day.

Being BIG on to do lists and crossing things off, I find myself sometimes doing just that. It’s my idea, worked out in my power. And you know what, it often just feels like a job, not a way of accomplishing the purpose for which God has created me.

In an earlier post (read it here), I mentioned I was doing the Bible study by Tara-Leigh Cobble, He’s Where the Joy Is and I’m LOVING it, by the way.

I’ve been learning more about the Trinity and how each person of the Trinity relates to each other and to us. Today, I was hit between the eyes with this truth: “If we don’t know the details of who the triune God is and how He works in our lives, we’re in danger of trying to do His work for Him” seeking to imitate the Spirit rather than yield to the Spirit’s power. Guilty!!! How about you?

Maybe we see God’s power and want to use it for ourselves? We want to show how much of His spirit we are accessing? Tara-Leigh calls this idolatry. I am not sure we always do this consciously, but when we ask His Spirit to lead us, then we take over and try to accomplish it in our power, that’s what happens.

Paul wrote about justification through faith alone in Galatians:

Are you so foolish? After beginning by the Spirit, are you now finishing by the flesh?

Galatians 3:3

We are saved by the Spirit, not by a single work, no matter how great it is, and we are to live by the Spirit, in His power and for His glory alone. Why do I forget that? When I do, and when I work in my power, I NEVER feel good about what I did.

I also recently read about this in New Morning Mercies by Paul David Tripp.

If you fail to remember who God is in his power, glory, and grace, and you forget who you are as a child in his family, you will always mismeasure your potential to do what God has called you to do. You will measure your capability based on your natural gifts and the size of whatever it is that God has chosen you to face. Thankfully, since God is with you, you have been blessed with wisdom and power beyond your own that give you potential you would not have on your own.

Paul David Tripp

These are great reminders as I’m preparing for a couple of speaking engagements, especially after most all my opportunities were cancelled in 2020 and very few were scheduling events in light of the unpredictability of 2021. No matter what the Lord calls me to do to serve Him, to teach, speak, testify of my faith in a fully faithful Lord, or just live a simple life, walking and waiting in faith daily for His direction, may I do it in His power and for His glory only!

Banner photo by David Iskander on Unsplash